“I kind of got into it the summer before my freshman year,” Ribble said. “I got into a lot of electronic dance music and started listening to a lot of DJs, and so that got me interested and into the whole music scene. So I decided to get into it myself and self-taught it.”

Once the group was together, Ribble said, it became about finding their way.

“We play electronic and dubstep music,” he said. “Pretty much across the board. We just play tracks, we remix, we do mash-ups. We’re bringing in hip-hop and a lot of mainstream and mashing it up with a lot of electronic music that’s out there.”

Matynowski said the idea was brand new to him, so he embraced it.
“I had never really heard that type of music,” he said. “Once I got into it, I kind of fell in love.”
Professor of composition and music theory Charles Ruggiero said it is not uncommon for people in college to experiment with music because it plays such a major role in society.

“I think that music … is a way to communicate ideas and sensibilities that are maybe discouraged by the official culture or the authority,” Ruggiero said. “It’s just a cultural thing that people of any generation often tend to like to hear; things that they feel define their generation.”

In the generation where electronic and dubstep music have become increasingly popular, deejaying is an ever-growing field, Ruggiero said.

“Music is a way that people form relationships with other people, if they like some of the same music that (others) like,” Ruggiero said. “It’s (a) way of communicating emotionally and sharing culture.”

Although they admit to enjoying deejaying, the members of 6ix East all said they see it as more of a hobby than a career.

“We do it for the love of the music,” Hutchinson said. “We’re all going to go into our own separate fields once we get out of college.”

The group currently is working on a booking and practicing for events where they will perform this fall.