I used to be pretty up to date back in the days when I was mainly into rock, but it seems like I completely missed the boat with EDM. And I’m not just talking about the subgenres only your weird neighbour and some local skank know about.
This one gig a member of the organisation asked me to play some minimal tunes. I nodded with a straight face (it’s minimal after all, who doesn’t know minimal?) and had no idea what the hell I was supposed to play. Something without too much in it, was pretty much my only thought.
Eventually I chose the Tocadisco remix of Body Language, but whether that’s minimal or not, I honestly have no clue.
And at that point I realised it’s time to get back to the basics. House, techno, progressive, minimal, breakbeat, dub, elektro, glitch, … They leave me puzzled. Leave alone the different subgenres.
How have you learnt the different genres? Just learn it as you go? Reading the entire wikipedia on different EDM genres? Found some awesome guide which you don’t mind sharing?(recommended!)
Or do you simply not give a crap?
Well, Ishkur’s Guide is a fun site to hang around at (I spent quite a few hours on that page a couple years ago), but it’s certainly outdated and always to be taken with a grain of salt (just read the texts and you’ll understand).
Well, I think EDM doesn’t really mean anything. But here’s a list of some genres of music that have been classed as EDM:
Ambient
Ambient house
Ambient techno
Dark ambient
Drone music
Illbient
Isolationism
Lowercase
Psybient
Breakbeat
Acid breaks
Baltimore Club
Big beat
Breakbeat hardcore
Broken beat
Florida breaks
Hip hop
Nu skool breaks
4-beat
Chiptune
Bitpop
Game Boy music
Nintendocore
Video game music
Disco
Cosmic disco
Euro disco
Hardcore breaks
Hi-NRG
New Beat
Space disco
Eurobeat
Europop
Hard NRG
Italo disco
Nu-disco
Downtempo
Acid jazz
Balearic Beat
Chill out
Dub music
Dubtronica
Ethnic electronica
Moombahton
New age music
Nu jazz
Trip hop
Drum and bass
Clownstep
Darkcore
Darkstep
Drumfunk
Hardstep
Intelligent drum and bass
Jump-Up
Liquid funk
Neurofunk
Oldschool jungle
Darkside jungle
Ragga-jungle
Raggacore
Sambass
Techstep
Trancestep
DrumStep
Electro
Crunk
Electro backbeat
Electro-grime
Electro hop
Electropop
Electroacoustic
Acousmatic music
Computer music
Electroacoustic improvisation
Field recording
Live electronics
Live coding
Musique concrète
Soundscape composition
Tape music
Electronica
Berlin school
Dubstyle
Electronic art music
Folktronica
Freestyle music
IDM
Glitch
J-pop
Laptronica
Skweee
Sound art
Synthpop
Synthcore
Electronic rock
Alternative dance
Dance-punk
Dance-rock
Dark Wave
Electroclash
Electropunk
Ethereal Wave
Grind
Indietronica
New rave
Nintendocore
Space rock
Synthpop
Synthpunk
Eurodance
Bubblegum dance
Eurotrance
Italo dance
Hardcore/Hard dance
Bouncy house
Bouncy techno
Breakcore
Darkcore
Digital hardcore
Doomcore
Gabber
Happy hardcore
Hardstyle
Jumpstyle
Makina
Noisecore
Speedcore
Terrorcore
UK hardcore
House
Acid house
Ambient house
Chicago house
Deep house
Diva house
Electro house
Euro house
Fidget house
French house
Freestyle house
Funky house
Ghetto house
Hardbag
Hard NRG
Hip house
Italo house
Latin house
Minimal house/Microhouse
Rave music
Scouse house
Swing house
Tech house
Tribal house
UK Hard house
US garage
Vocal house
Industrial
Aggrotech
Coldwave
Cybergrind
Dark electro
Death industrial
Electronic body music
Electro-Industrial
Futurepop
Industrial metal
Neue Deutsche Härte
Industrial rock
Noise
Japanoise
Power noise
Power electronics
Witch House/Drag
Post-disco
Dance-pop
Chillwave
Rave breaks
Progressive
Progressive breaks
Progressive drum & bass
Progressive House/Trance
Disco house
Dream house
Jumpstyle/Jumphouse
Space house
Progressive techno
Techno
Acid techno
Detroit techno
Free tekno
Ghettotech
Minimal
Nortec
Rave music
Rotterdam techno
Schranz / Hardtechno
Symphonic techno
Tecno brega
Techno-DNB
Techstep
Toytown Techno
Yorkshire Techno
Trance
Acid trance
Classic trance
Dream trance
Euro-trance
Goa trance / Psychedelic trance
Dark psytrance
Full on
Psyprog
Psybient
Psybreaks
Suomisaundi
Hard trance
Hardstyle
Neo-trance
Progressive trance
Tech trance
Uplifting trance
Orchestral Uplifting
Vocal trance
UK garage
2-step
4x4
Bassline
Breakstep
Dubstep
Funky
Grime
Speed garage
…when you’ve got an in-depth knowledge of all of these you’ll understand exactly what EDM is about I guess.
…but if you want a grounding in where all this came from, I’d say read ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life’ by Frank Broughton and Bill Brewster. It’s a good read, and has plenty of lists of records in the back.
First there was disco, then there was house. Sometimes house’s cousin techno from across the tracks would come hang out and we would all have fun dancing into the night.
I stopped giving a fuck a long time ago. If a person doesn’t want to dance to a house track because it’s electro, and not sweedish influenced electro, I no longer have the patience for them. I play one genre… the genre of good music.
this was posted by panda awhile ago, hilarious and so true: "hell that shit made my day! this is a quote from tobias rapps ‘techno, berlin und der easyjet’ explaining the difference between techno and house music.
"One is the music with the straight Bumm Bumm Bumm Bumm. And the other the music with the straight Bumm Bumm Bumm Bumm, with a diva singing "Release Me ".
