It certainly would come as no surprise to people who read this site often that I am not a big EDM fan. Quite the opposite, actually. I’ve spent the better half of my adulthood discrediting the form and talking down to its fans. I realized at some point last year that my inert hatred of EDM was unfair to the people who work hard to create the sounds that make up the soundtrack for many people’s lives. So this year I decided to be more open-minded and open myself up to more electronic, industrial, house, and anything else that might fit into those categories.

My biggest thing is that I hate constant repetition. I’ve heard way too many songs from DJs and electronic musicians where it’s just the same thing on a loop for a minute or ten, and I just get bored. There are some artists that I never thought I’d like but ended up really getting into: Paper Diamond, Calvin Harris, Break Science, Rat A Tat, Flying Lotus…to name a few. So, heading out to Soldier Field for Spring Awakening Festival is going to be a big change for me. I put together this playlist of 30 songs to get me prepared for what I’ll be hearing. Some of the people playing I know already, but there are a lot of names in the schedule that were new to me. If you’re going for the first time and find yourself unfamiliar with what you see on the website, maybe this will help you, too.