Show: With Dillon Francis, What So Not and Alex Metric on Saturday at the D.C. Armory, 2001 East Capitol St. SE. Show starts at 7 p.m. www.zedd.net. $37.
EDM burns through tropes so fast it’s hard to say how much longer it will continue to bend popular music to its pulse. But if anyone’s career has a shot at hopping off the dance music trendmill and landing squarely enough to keep running, it’s Zedd’s.
The Russian-German DJ and producer has a classical piano background and went through a teen phase drumming in a deathcore band, but his rise to the upper echelon of dance pop stardom started with a chance exposure to French dance duo Justice. Zedd vowed to master Justice’s production techniques, which paid off with a string of hits launched from his 2012 debut album.
Recent singles with Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez gave Zedd’s fans more of that soaring female vocal magic that he brewed with Foxes on his breakthrough 2013 single “Clarity.” But the young producer is wary of repeating his winning formulas: In recent interviews he’s cited everyone from the Beatles to Queens of the Stone Age as influences, and takes pride in the tracks on 2015’s “True Colors” that defy expectation.
His songwriting starts from the piano, even as he looks to such peers as Skrillex for tips on how to build up the spectacle of a memorable EDM show. When you strip away the bombast of Zedd’s blaring synths and beats, what’s left is pop songcraft. That’s how that earworm stays with you, long after the sensory assault of a big EDM show is over.
— Rhome AndersonncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLSwtc2gpq6sl6q2pbGOpqysoZNkx6aww2ainp2gqHq1tMinnqxllqeytLSOa2dqbV9mfXB8kGhtnWhkbbB6goxvaZybXWZ%2BpoGMcm5ub12agXp%2BlmydaW2Wa4Kgv9OoqbJmmKm6rQ%3D%3D