rave reviews<\/a> from party-goers. <\/p>\nThe Trojan connection with house music is far from new. In 2013, professor Sean Nye pioneered the class \u201cElectronic Dance Music Culture,\u201d the first of its kind at USC, which is still in session today. <\/p>\n
When Nye became a postdoctoral scholar in 2013, EDM was \u201cexploding\u201d in popularity. After earning his PhD in EDM and returning from researching the techno scene in Germany, Nye said the USC administration supported his idea for a class in electronic music. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was actually encouragement at the initial moment, because EDM was just so popular. Everyone was trying to figure out what was happening with this music that the community was listening to,\u201d Nye said. <\/p>\n
Perhaps Nye\u2019s most famous former student, DJ it\u2019s murph, whose off-stage name is Garrett Murphy, now boasts over 2.9 million Spotify listeners. Multiple videos of Murphy and Nye have gone viral, with Murphy posting his trips to USC on Instagram, including a presentation of an unreleased track and dancing at the Shrine Auditorium. <\/p>\n
Nye said bringing guest speakers is his favorite part of teaching the course.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeakers are usually a highlight,\u201d Nye said. \u201cJust bringing back the curriculum to what\u2019s happening in Los Angeles at the moment is such an opportunity for students.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sophomore public relations major Miles Katz took Nye\u2019s class in 2024 and called it \u201cfascinating.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cPrior to going into the course, I didn\u2019t really know much about electronic music at all,\u201d Katz said. \u201cWe learned about the eras that EDM has gone through, and the different sub-genres within electronic music, just how that\u2019s transformed over time.\u201d <\/p>\n
The highlight of the class for Katz was also the guest speakers, such as Australian DJ Hayden James, who presented on their work in the space. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just cool to be able to learn about such a broad genre of music, especially because I didn\u2019t really realize going into it how diverse it really was,\u201d said Katz.<\/p>\n
Many alumni have thrived post-grad in the EDM space. Josh Legg, who graduated from USC in 2010, found success under the name Goldroom. Performing at Coachella in 2016 and currently boasting over 200,000 Spotify listeners, Legg found a certain \u201cfraternity\u201d among other USC DJ alumni. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I go to a festival and see Dr. Fresch, Justin Jay or the Louis the Child guys, there\u2019s definitely a bit of a fraternity between all of these guys that went to \u2018SC,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s kind of looking out for each other a little bit, and there\u2019s an immediate friendship there.\u201d <\/p>\n
Alumni DJ Joseph Nguyen, who goes by the stage name Potion, founded the USC student organization House & Techno with friends from his Marshall School of Business cohort. Over his tenure, the group grew to over 300 members regularly attending events. <\/p>\n
\u201cI saw that a lot of students were interested in new electronic music, but there wasn\u2019t any structured space to explore it in a meaningful way,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I wanted to build something that connected people, not just socially, but also creatively and professionally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Potion\u2019s organization, in partnership with the Electronic Dance Music Association (EDMASC) at USC, now hosts music industry workshops, open decks and DJ competitions. <\/p>\n
This venture, Potion says, created a sense of community around electronic music at USC; students who might have otherwise just attended EDM concerts are now pursuing professional opportunities within the industry. <\/p>\n
Both Potion and Legg pointed to Zulan, Jackie Hollander, and its murph as examples of artists who \u201cleveraged\u201d USC parties to get into the professional space.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pipeline starts all the way at the social events, but then once people leave USC, they start to turn their production DJ projects into real artist projects,\u201d Legg said. \u201cThere\u2019s also a pipeline of industry professionals ready to take them in and elevate them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nye points to USC\u2019s proximity to the Shrine Auditorium as another reason why students and faculty formed a connection to the music scene. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this festival Stranger Than Fiction, which was the first massive rave in 1990 that took place in the shrine right across the street from USC,\u201d Nye said. \u201cSo I imagine people might have been taking notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
No matter where it originated from, the presence of EDM remains ingrained in USC\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n
\u201c[USC] is one of the few spaces where music, community and identity all intersect, especially in a hot spot like Los Angeles, where arts and culture thrive,\u201d Potion said. \u201cThere\u2019s a strong emphasis on shared experience, and that creates a level of connection that\u2019s much different from any other university campus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disco Lines is set to perform at Exposition Park South Lawn on May 2, plunging the USC area…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[124601,1411,114715,32318,48,52,51,47,50,49,24696,3533],"class_list":["post-292395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-disco-lines","tag-edm","tag-expo-park","tag-exposition-park","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-party","tag-usc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}