By: NATHANIEL ROBINSON
Staff Writer
Porter Robinson has always been a musician that I’ve brung up in conversations about music. His influence on the EDM genre is huge, probably one of the biggest too. The way he incorporates other sounds and genres into his music also draws a lot more people to the EDM genre. His two studio albums “Worlds” (2014) and “Nurture” (2021) while greatly different in sound, are still upheld as some of the best music the genre has to offer.
Robinson dropped Worlds in 2014, and it was very important for the time. This is because the EDM genre as a whole was quickly becoming repetitive and boring, songs began to blend too much and sound way too much like each other. When Worlds came out, it shook the EDM fandom as a whole with its dreamy and warm vibes. Robinson showed that EDM can be so much more than what was typically associated with the genre, blending different genres to mix with casual EDM sounds. Worlds is widely regarded as the album that began the resurgence of EDM music and inspired many popular artists of today to create music of their own. I was in 4th grade when the album was released, and I remember falling in love with it the moment I heard the first song. To say that Worlds didn’t help define that part of my childhood would be a lie.
However, aside from a couple small projects, Robinson went AWOL after releasing Worlds. The community was left wondering what happened to him, and if he was doing okay (Porter has always been open about his struggles with mental health). It wouldn’t be until the beginning of 2020 that Robinson dropped the first single of his new project. The song, “Get Your Wish,” carried a completely different sound while managing to keep that magical feeling that came with Porter Robinson. If I described Worlds as dreamy, I’d describe Get Your Wish and eventually the album as “cozy.” Every track off of Nurture (which was finally released in April of 2021) has this floaty and wholesome feeling. Nurture puts you in this world of nature and cleanness. It’s refreshing and uplifting sounds were a confirmation from Porter himself saying that after years of an awful artist block, he was able to capture a new experience.
Nurture’s influence, while maybe not as large as Worlds, is still huge. New projects and artists are sprouting, all of them sporting a sound or style similar to that found in Nurture. Porter Robinson continues to be an inspiration and an icon in the EDM genre. Can’t wait to see what he releases next.