8 years of ‘Worlds’: how Porter Robinson changed the electronic music scene forever

On 12 August 2014, Porter Robinson changed the entire electronic world with the release of his debut album ‘Worlds’. Setting himself apart from the rest, this is where he truly established himself and his sound and we’re looking back on 8 years of this masterpiece. 

Before this, you may know Porter as someone who was completely and utterly different from the producer he is today. With the likes of ‘Spitfire’ and ‘Language’, he made hyped-up music that was more ‘DJ friendly’ in a way. Growing tired of doing this though, he was frustrated with how commercial the scene was growing, stifling his creativity and pushing him into a box, limiting what he could do with his skills. Not being true to himself, he decided that enough was enough and he would focus on making music for himself. Channelling his interest in Japanese culture (especially anime, video games and vocaloid, a singing synthesizer software), he took this and got to work on curating a nostalgia-filled story, and ‘Worlds’ was born.

‘Sea of Voices’ was the first surprise release from the era, officially kicking off what people didn’t yet know would become more than just music, it would become a life changing story. Although he feared some sort of backlash or negative response to this drastic change in style, his fans were completely on board with it, garnering a whole new cult following from it. With singles ‘Sad Machine’, ‘Lionhearted’ and ‘Flicker’ following, the hype for it grew exponentially and cemented his name as one of the most in-demand producers in the game, even doing more for him than what the vast popularity of ‘Language’ did for him back in 2012. The critical reception was generally positive, and would only grow even better over time as more people got acquainted with Robinson’s new style. It left so much of an impact even years later that Billboard put it in 15th place among their list of The 40 Greatest Dance Albums of the Decade.

Image credit: Rukes.com