Nov 15, 2025
seeing reels about that "legendary drop" at solomun's boiler room tulum set poked my interest in learning about minimal edm. i kept seeing it everywhere on my feed — people losing their minds, comments like "if you know you know," the whole vibe of it. and i was like, okay, what am i missing here? so i went down the rabbit hole.
i started listening to more minimal stuff and at first, i was confused. like, where's the drop? where's the big moment? everything felt so... restrained. but the more i listened, the more i started understanding what people saw in it. it's not about that one big release. it's about the build, the groove, the way tiny changes over time create this hypnotic thing that pulls you in without you even realizing it. which led me to learn more about the genre itself. and honestly? still not my cup of tea. i'm someone who loves layers, bold drops, music that's complex and full. give me the buildups, the payoffs, the moments where everything hits at once. that's what gets me. but from an objective perspective? i realized minimal music is tough to ace. like, brutally tough.
because here's the thing i noticed: there's nowhere to hide. when you strip everything down to the essentials — just a few elements, repetitive patterns, subtle variations — every choice you make is exposed. a slightly off kick? everyone hears it. timing that's even a millisecond weird? it ruins the whole groove. with more layered genres, you can bury mistakes under synths or vocals or whatever. but minimal? nah. it's you, your choices, and the void.
which is probably why i felt it was so niche. because not everyone wants to sit with that kind of music. it demands patience. it demands attention. you can't just throw it on in the background while you're doing something else (i mean, you can, but you're missing the point). you have to listen. you have to notice the tiny shifts, the way a hi-hat pattern changes after 32 bars, the way the bassline evolves so subtly you almost don't catch it until it clicks.
and that's the thing i found interesting — the format itself is limiting. when you commit to "minimal," you're committing to restraint. you're saying no to a lot of tools that other producers get to use freely. no big buildups, no dramatic drops (well, not in the traditional sense), no catchy hooks that grab people in the first 10 seconds. just groove, space, and repetition. which is beautiful when it works, but also means you're automatically filtering out the mainstream listener who wants something more immediate, more obvious, more there.
but here's what i realized: each genre has its own market. minimal isn't trying to compete with mainstream edm or pop-adjacent dance music. it's carved out its own space, and the people who love it are deeply into it. they'll travel to see the right dj, they'll spend hours in a club just vibing to the groove, they'll know the difference between a good minimal set and a great one. you just have to prove yourself well in your own niche. and when you do? those people become your people. they're loyal, they're knowledgeable, they respect the craft.
it's like the genre positioned itself in this corner on purpose. not everyone's gonna get it, and that's fine — that's kind of the point. but it also means you're playing a different game. you're not chasing streams or virality. you're chasing that perfect groove that makes people lose track of time on a dancefloor at 3am. you're chasing the respect of people who know. and that's a much smaller audience, but it's your audience.
the more i learned, the more i respected it. because making minimal music that actually works is hard. it takes restraint, patience, technical skill, and a kind of confidence that lets you say "less is enough." it's just not for me personally — i need more going on, more complexity, more of that rush when everything drops. but i get why people who love it are so passionate about it. when you pull off minimal right, you're doing something that requires a whole different kind of mastery.
that's where my brain's been lately. minimal music: niche, unforgiving, and lowkey one of the most challenging things you can try to make. respect to everyone doing it right, even if i'll still be over here waiting for those bold drops.
> next: when your phone becomes a graveyard of apps you swore you'd use
