EDM, Barely Legal Edition: 8 Blazing Electronic Producers Under 21
The Best Producers Who Happen To Be Not Legally Allowed to Drink a Beer
Pop culture and youth have always gone together like ice cream and sprinkles. We’re not surprised by now to see 17-year-olds topping the charts in the realms of pop or hip-hop, but the electronic music world has generally been more for the grown-ups. After all, becoming a skilled producer takes years of practice and training – you can’t exactly do it overnight.
Recently, however, there’s been a surge of teenage geniuses in the EDM field, children who have never known a world without the internet or Bill Clinton, who grew up playing with drum machines in the crib, and who began climbing the Beatport charts before they hit puberty. We’ve put together a list of top producers from across the electronic landscape that are so young, they can’t even get into the clubs they play in.
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Porter Robinson, 20
Porter Robinson was born in 1992 – the year “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was on the radio – which makes the young prince of American EDM a grand total of 20 years old. Robinson has been making music since he was a tween, but he didn’t blow up with his dubsteppy brand of electro-house until he was in his senior year of high school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. While you were worrying about what to wear at the prom, Porter Robinson was on tour with Tiesto and Skrillex. While you were putting on your “freshman 15”, he was spinning at Coachella. Don’t think about it too much, or you’ll get depressed.
Erick Rincon, 18
The three members of Mexico’s 3ball MTY tribal guarachero DJ crew – DJ Otto, Sheeqo Beat and Erick Rincon – are all in the under-21 club. But it’s Rincon, the youngest of them, who is widely regarded as the trio’s principal genius. On top of being a rising star in the Latin scene on the heels of 3ball’s major-label debut Inténtalo, he borderline invented the the entire tribal genre, at least the hyped-up variant pioneered in Monterey.
Alesso, 21
Swedish young gun Alesso (in real life, Alessandro Lindblad), has been producing mainstream dance tracks for a few years now – scoring a Billboard Dance #1 track with “Calling (Lose My Mind)” and several Beatport #1 tracks before his 21st birthday. His sudden rise at such a young age in the EDM world is thanks to Swedish House Mafia member Sebastian Ingrosso, who got a hold of one of Alesso’s tracks and decided to take the kid under his wing. Alesso also has the distinction of producing the worst Usher track in history.
An21, 21
Antoine Josefsson – or An21 (pronounced: an-two-one, get it?) – is the little bother of Swedish House Mafia member Steve Angello and a rising house DJ/producer in his own right. When he was younger, he thought his older brother’s music “sucked,” until he went clubbing in Ibiza and had his dance music conversion. Since then he’s been named one of the “5 DJs to Watch in 2011” by DJ Mag.
XXYYXX, 17
On the experimental side of things, XXYYXX is a 17-year old kid from Orlando, Florida who is fast gaining recognition for his muted, ethereal soundscapes. Listening to him will make you realize that, 20 years from now, you will not understand music at all.
Madeon, 18
In the age where any snot-nosed kid can upload their life’s work to YouTube, it’s probably best to save the word “prodigy” for when you really mean it, and eighteen year-old French wonderboy Madeon, nee Hugo Pierre Leclercq, definitely deserves it. Need proof? Check out his 39-song mashup “Pop Culture,” executed live on a Novation Launchpad (below). The Nantes native had his career launched by the YouTube video below at age 17, and is fast on his way to becoming a triple A-lister in the EDM world, despite being a tiny, hairless child. At least, unlike Porter Robinson, he can drink a beer in his home country.
Thomas Mellor, 19
Representing for the raw, electronic hip-hop UK sound known as grime is Thomas Mellor. At just 19, the West Midlands-based producer has worked with some of the finest names in grime, including top dog Wiley, who participated with Mellor on this dirrrty remix of M.I.A.’s “Bad Girls.”
Young Smoke, 18
Chicago’s footwork scene – which in case you aren’t aware, is one of the most experimental electronic music communities on the planet right now – is mostly a teenage, South Side phenomenon, so it’s no surprise that a number of the genre’s top producers are under the drinking age. Young Smoke, who has an extremely dope album titled Space Zone out on Planet Mu Records, is barely old enough to buy blunt wraps, but that hasn’t stopped him from producing some of the waviest music this side of the space-time continuum.
Who are some other young talents in the electronic music world to watch? Leave us a comment below.