There is no question that the Electric Dance Music (EDM) movement has become the ‘IT’ music of our time. With DJs like David Guetta, The Chainsmokers and Tiesto slaying the Billboard Top 100 chart, EDM is exploding all around us. Although only recently gaining momentous popularity, what many do not know is that the genre has been around for quite some time. Three decades to be exact. It all started underground just as the disco movement was fading out. Some will tell you that Germany birthed EDM, others will say London, and a few will pay homage to Detroit. The face of EDM, David Guetta, believes “it was born in the United States, but the United Kingdom made it trendy and accessible to the masses”. A compromise. Guetta could not be more accurate in crediting the U.K. to getting music enthusiasts attracted to EDM. The U.K. held numerous music festivals, with upwards of 150,000 people, to basically promote EDM. In 1997, the first Electric Daisy Carnival took place and now it is held in multiple locations with over 350,000 people attending. Although, festivals and carnivals have definitely contributed to EDM’s rise, respect must also be paid to social media and its influence on the music movement. DJs were actually some of the first to adopt the free music model; allowing their fans to stream and download their music at no cost. This helped EDM become the fastest growing mainstream genre in the United States, making the music industry an estimated $6.2 billion on a global level. It is safe to say no matter where it was born, which DJ is your favorite, or where the next festival will be, EDM will be playing from your headphones for years to come.