Various EDM genres have evolved over the last 40 years, for example;
house,
techno,
drum and bass,
dance-pop etc. Stylistic variation within an established EDM genre can lead to the emergence of what is called a
subgenre. Hybridization, where elements of two or more genres are combined, can lead to the emergence of an entirely new genre of EDM. Other early examples of music that influenced later electronic dance music include Jamaican
dub music during the late 1960s to 1970s, The music was pioneered by studio engineers, such as
King Tubby,
Errol Thompson,
Lee "Scratch" Perry, and
Scientist. Their productions included forms of
tape editing and
sound processing that Veal considers comparable to techniques used in
musique concrète. Dub producers made improvised deconstructions of existing
multi-track reggae mixes by using the studio
mixing board as a performance instrument. They also foregrounded spatial effects such as
reverb and
delay by using
auxiliary send routings creatively. Despite the limited electronic equipment available to dub pioneers such as King Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry, their experiments in remix culture were musically cutting-edge.
Ambient dub was pioneered by King Tubby and other Jamaican sound artists, using DJ-inspired
ambient electronics, complete with drop-outs, echo, equalization and
psychedelic electronic effects. It featured layering techniques and incorporated elements of
world music, deep
bass lines and harmonic sounds. Techniques such as a long echo delay were also used.
Hip-hop Hip-hop has had some influence in the development of electronic dance music since the 1970s. Inspired by Jamaican sound system culture
Jamaican-American DJ
Kool Herc introduced large bass heavy speaker rigs to the
Bronx. His parties are credited with having kick-started the New York City hip-hop movement in 1973.
Turntablism has origins in the invention of the
direct-drive turntable, by Shuichi Obata, an engineer at
Matsushita (now
Panasonic). In 1969, Matsushita released it as the
SP-10, and the first in their influential
Technics series of turntables. The most influential turntable was the
Technics SL-1200, which was developed in 1971 by a team led by Shuichi Obata at Matsushita, which then released it onto the market in 1972. an early
Roland rhythm machine. The use of drum machines in disco production was influenced by
Sly and the Family Stone's "
Family Affair" (1971), with its rhythm echoed in McCrae's "Rock Your Baby", and
Timmy Thomas' "
Why Can't We Live Together" (1972). "Soul Coaxing" (1977), and
Eastern Man and
Futuristic Journey (recorded from 1976 to 1977). Acts like
Donna Summer,
Chic,
Earth, Wind & Fire,
Heatwave, and the
Village People helped define the late 1970s disco sound.
Giorgio Moroder and
Pete Bellotte produced "
I Feel Love" for Donna Summer in 1977. It became the first well-known disco hit to have a completely synthesized backing track. Other disco producers, most famously American producer
Tom Moulton, grabbed ideas and techniques from
dub music (which came with the increased Jamaican migration to New York City in the 1970s) to provide alternatives to the
four-on-the-floor style that dominated. During the early 1980s, the popularity of disco music sharply declined in the United States, abandoned by major US record labels and producers. Euro disco continued evolving within the broad mainstream pop music scene.
Synth-pop Synth-pop (short for
synthesizer pop; also called
techno-pop) is a
music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the
synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in
progressive rock,
electronic,
art rock,
disco. Early synth-pop pioneers included Japanese group
Yellow Magic Orchestra, and British bands
Ultravox,
the Human League and
Berlin Blondes.
The Human League used
monophonic synthesizers to produce music with a simple and austere sound. After the breakthrough of
Gary Numan in the
UK Singles Chart in 1979, large numbers of artists began to enjoy success with a synthesizer-based sound in the early 1980s, including late-1970s debutants like
Japan and
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and newcomers such as
Depeche Mode and
Eurythmics. In Japan, Yellow Magic Orchestra's success opened the way for synth-pop bands such as
P-Model,
Plastics, and
Hikashu. The development of inexpensive
polyphonic synthesizers, the definition of
MIDI and the use of dance beats, led to a more commercial and accessible sound for synth-pop. This, its adoption by the style-conscious acts from the
New Romantic movement, together with the rise of
MTV, led to success for large numbers of British synth-pop acts (including
Duran Duran and
Spandau Ballet) in the United States. The use of digital sampling and
looping in popular music was pioneered by Japanese
electronic music band
Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). "
Computer Game/Firecracker" (1978) interpolated a
Martin Denny melody, and sampled
Space Invaders video game sounds. The LMD-649 was also used for sampling by other Japanese
synthpop artists in the early 1980s, including YMO-associated acts such as
Chiemi Manabe and
Logic System.
1980s The emergence of electronic dance music in the 1980s was shaped by the development of several new
electronic musical instruments, particularly those from the Japanese
Roland Corporation. The
Roland TR-808 (often abbreviated as the "808") notably played an important role in the evolution of dance music. In 1980,
Ryuichi Sakamoto's cult hit "Riot in Lagos" from the album
B-2 Unit introduced the 808 to clubs, demonstrating a new type of
electro music that laid the groundwork for modern dance music, making it one of the most important tracks in the history of dance music. In 1982,
Afrika Bambaataa's "
Planet Rock" (1982) made the 808 very popular on dancefloors. The track, influenced by Sakamoto's "Riot in Lagos" as well as Kraftwerk, informed the development of electronic dance music, and subgenres including
Miami bass and
Detroit techno, and popularized the 808 as a "fundamental element of futuristic sound". According to
Slate, "Planet Rock" "didn't so much put the 808 on the map so much as reorient an entire world of
post-disco dance music around it". The
Roland TR-909,
TB-303 and
Juno-60 similarly influenced electronic dance music such as
techno,
house and
acid.
Post-disco During the post-disco era that followed the backlash against "
disco" which began in the mid to late 1979, which in the United States lead to civil unrest and a riot in Chicago known as the
Disco Demolition Night,
[13] an underground movement of "stripped-down" disco inspired music featuring "radically different sounds"
[14] started to emerge on the
East Coast.
[15]
[Note 1] This new scene was seen primarily in the
New York metropolitan area and was initially led by the
urban contemporary artists that were responding to the over-commercialization and subsequent demise of disco culture. The sound that emerged originated from
P-Funk[18] the electronic side of
disco,
dub music, and other genres. Much of the music produced during this time was, like disco, catering to a
singles-driven market.
[14] At this time creative control started shifting to independent record companies, less established producers, and club DJs.
[14] Other dance styles that began to become popular during the post-disco era include
dance-pop,
[19]
[20]
boogie,
[14]
electro,
Hi-NRG,
Italo disco,
house,
[19]
[21]
[22]
[23] and
techno.
[22]
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
Electro drum machine. In the early 1980s, electro (short for "electro-funk") emerged as a fusion of
synth-pop,
funk, and
boogie. Also called electro-funk or electro-boogie, but later shortened to electro, cited pioneers include
Ryuichi Sakamoto,
Afrika Bambaataa,
Zapp,
D.Train, and
Sinnamon. As the electronic sound developed, instruments such as the bass guitar and
drums were replaced by synthesizers and most notably by iconic
drum machines, particularly the
Roland TR-808 and the
Yamaha DX7. Early uses of the TR-808 include Sakamoto's "Riot in Lagos" in 1980, In 1982, producer
Arthur Baker, with
Afrika Bambaataa, released the seminal "
Planet Rock", which was influenced by Yellow Magic Orchestra (Ryuichi Sakamoto - Riot In Lagos 1980) and had drum beats supplied by the TR-808. Planet Rock was followed later that year by another breakthrough electro record, "
Nunk" by
Warp 9. In 1983,
Hashim created an electro-funk sound with "Al-Naafyish (The Soul)" Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock serves as a "template for all interesting dance music since". tracks), Italo Disco,
electro funk tracks by artists such as
Afrika Bambaataa, newer
Italo disco,
B-Boy hip hop music by
Man Parrish,
Jellybean Benitez,
Arthur Baker, and
John Robie, and
electronic pop music by Giorgio Moroder and
Yellow Magic Orchestra. Some made and played their own edits of their favorite songs on reel-to-reel tape, and sometimes mixed in effects, drum machines, and other rhythmic electronic instrumentation. The hypnotic electronic dance song "On and On", produced in 1984 by Chicago DJ
Jesse Saunders and co-written by
Vince Lawrence, had elements that became staples of the early house sound, such as the
Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer and minimal vocals as well as a
Roland (specifically
TR-808)
drum machine and
Korg (specifically
Poly-61)
synthesizer. "On and On" is sometimes cited as the 'first house record', though other examples from around that time, such as
J.M. Silk's "
Music is the Key" (1985), have also been cited. House music quickly spread to American cities including New York City, and
Newark, and Detroit—all of which developed their own regional scenes. In the mid-to-late 1980s, house music became popular in Europe as well as major cities in South America, and Australia. Chicago House experienced some commercial success in Europe with releases such as "House Nation" by House Master Boyz and the Rude Boy of House (1987). Following this, a number of house inspired releases such as "
Pump Up The Volume" by
MARRS (1987), "
Theme from S'Express" by
S'Express (1988), and "
Doctorin' the House" by
Coldcut (1988) entered the pop charts. The electronic instrumentation and minimal arrangement of
Charanjit Singh's
Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat (1982), an album of Indian
ragas performed in a disco style, anticipated the sounds of
acid house music, but it is not known to have had any influence on the genre prior to the album's rediscovery in the 21st century.
Techno, acid house, rave : The
bass line synthesizer that was used prominently in
acid house. In the 1980s, Detroit DJs
Juan Atkins,
Derrick May, and
Kevin Saunderson laid the foundation for a new style of music which would dubbed techno. They fused Chicago house influenced electronic and Detroit (including Motown) influenced funk sounds with the mechanical vibes of the post-industrial city, creating the techno sound of four-on-the-floor beat driven by a kick drum on the quarter notes and a snare or high hat on the second, fourth, or eighth notes. In the mid-1980s house music thrived on the small
Balearic Island of
Ibiza, Spain. The Balearic sound was the spirit of the music emerging from the island at that time; the combination of old vinyl rock, pop, reggae, and disco records paired with an "anything goes" attitude made Ibiza a hub of drug-induced musical experimentation. A club called Amnesia, whose resident DJ,
Alfredo Fiorito, pioneered
Balearic house, was the center of the scene. Amnesia became known across Europe and by the mid to late 1980s it was drawing people from all over the continent. By 1988, house music had become the most popular form of club music in Europe, with
acid house developing as a notable trend in the United Kingdom and Germany in the same year. In the UK an established warehouse party
subculture, centered on the
British African-Caribbean sound system scene fueled underground after-parties that featured dance music exclusively. Also in 1988, the
Balearic party vibe associated with Ibiza's DJ Alfredo was transported to London, when
Danny Rampling and
Paul Oakenfold opened the clubs Shoom and Spectrum, respectively. Both places became synonymous with acid house, and it was during this period that
MDMA gained prominence as a party drug. Other important UK clubs included Back to Basics in
Leeds, Sheffield's Leadmill and Music Factory, and
The Haçienda in Manchester, where Mike Pickering and Graeme Park's spot, Nude, was an important proving ground for American
underground dance music. The success of house and acid house paved the way for
Detroit techno, a style that was initially supported by a handful of house music clubs in Chicago, New York, and Northern England, with Detroit clubs catching up later. The term Techno first came into use after a release of a 10 Records/Virgin Records compilation titled
Techno: The Dance Sound of Detroit in 1988. One of the first Detroit productions to receive wider attention was Derrick May's "
Strings of Life" (1987), which, together with May's previous release, "Nude Photo" (1987), helped raise techno's profile in Europe, especially the UK and Germany, during the 1987–1988
house music boom (see
Second Summer of Love). It became May's best-known track, which, according to Frankie Knuckles, "just exploded. It was like something you can't imagine, the kind of power and energy people got off that record when it was first heard. Mike Dunn says he has no idea how people can accept a record that doesn't have a bassline." According to British DJ
Mark Moore, "Strings of Life" led London club-goers to accept house: "because most people hated house music and it was all rare groove and hip hop...I'd play 'Strings of Life' at the
Mudd Club and clear the floor". By the late 1980s interest in house, acid house and techno escalated in the club scene and MDMA-fueled club-goers, who were faced with a 2 a.m. closing time in the UK, started to seek after-hours refuge at all-night warehouse parties. Within a year, in summer 1989, up to 25,000 people at a time were attending commercially organised underground parties called raves.
1990s Trance Trance emerged from the
rave scene in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s and developed further during the early 1990s in Germany before spreading throughout the rest of Europe, as a more melodic offshoot from
techno and house. At the same time trance music was developing in Europe, the genre was also gathering a following in the Indian state of
Goa. Trance is mostly
instrumental, although vocals can be mixed in: typically they are performed by mezzo-soprano to soprano female soloists, often without a traditional verse/chorus structure. Structured vocal form in trance music forms the basis of the
vocal trance subgenre, which has been described as "grand, soaring, and operatic" and "ethereal female leads floating amongst the synths". Trance music is broken into a number of subgenres including
acid trance, classic trance,
hard trance,
progressive trance, and
uplifting trance. and has been strongly influenced by classical music in the 1990s
Breakbeat hardcore, jungle, drum and bass By the early 1990s, a style of music developed within the rave scene that had an identity distinct from American house and techno. This music, much like
hip-hop before it, combined sampled
syncopated beats or breakbeats, other samples from a wide range of different musical genres, and, occasionally, samples of music, dialogue, and effects from films and television programmes. Relative to earlier styles of dance music such as house and techno, so-called 'rave music' tended to emphasise bass sounds and use faster tempos, or
beats per minute (BPM). This subgenre was known as "hardcore" rave, but from as early as 1991, some musical tracks made up of these high-tempo breakbeats, with heavy basslines and samples of older Jamaican music, were referred to as "jungle
techno", a genre influenced by Jack Smooth and Basement Records, and later just "jungle", which became recognized as a separate musical genre popular at raves and on
pirate radio in Britain. It is important to note when discussing the history of drum & bass that prior to jungle, rave music was getting faster and more experimental. By 1994, jungle had begun to gain mainstream popularity, and fans of the music (often referred to as
junglists) became a more recognisable part of youth subculture. The genre further developed, incorporating and fusing elements from a wide range of existing musical genres, including the
raggamuffin sound,
dancehall,
MC chants, dub basslines, and increasingly complex, heavily edited breakbeat percussion. Despite the affiliation with the ecstasy-fuelled rave scene, Jungle also inherited some associations with violence and criminal activity, both from the gang culture that had affected the UK's hip-hop scene and as a consequence of jungle's often aggressive or menacing sound and themes of violence (usually reflected in the choice of samples). However, this developed in tandem with the often positive reputation of the music as part of the wider rave scene and dance hall-based Jamaican music culture prevalent in London. By 1995, whether as a reaction to, or independently of this cultural schism, some jungle producers began to move away from the ragga-influenced style and create what would become collectively labelled, for convenience, as drum and bass.
21st century Dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in
South London in the late 1990s. It is generally characterized by sparse,
syncopated rhythmic
patterns with
bass lines that contain prominent
sub-bass frequencies. The style emerged as an offshoot of
UK garage, drawing on a lineage of related styles such as
2-step,
dub reggae,
jungle,
broken beat, and
grime. In the United Kingdom, the origins of the genre can be traced back to the growth of the
Jamaican sound system party scene in the early 1980s. The earliest known dubstep releases date back to 1998, and were usually featured as
B-sides of
2-step garage single releases. These tracks were darker, more experimental remixes with less emphasis on vocals, and attempted to incorporate elements of
breakbeat and
drum and bass into 2-step. In 2001, this and other strains of dark garage music began to be showcased and promoted at London's nightclub Plastic People, at the "Forward" night (sometimes stylised as FWD>>), which went on to be considered influential to the development of dubstep. The term "dubstep" in reference to a genre of music began to be used around 2002 by labels such as
Big Apple, Ammunition, and Tempa, by which time stylistic trends used in creating these remixes started to become more noticeable and distinct from 2-step and
grime.
Riddim Riddim originated in the early 2010s as a subgenre of dubstep, heavily influenced by Jamaican dancehall music's repetitive instrumental patterns. The term "riddim" was coined around 2012 by dubstep artist Jakes to describe this new, minimalist style, which focused on a single, catchy bassline that repeated throughout the track.
Electro house Electro house is a form of
house music characterized by a prominent
bassline or
kick drum and a
tempo between 125 and 135 beats per minute, usually 128. Its origins were influenced by
electro. The term has been used to describe the music of many
DJ Mag Top 100 DJs, including
Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike,
Hardwell,
Skrillex, and
Steve Aoki. Italian DJ
Benny Benassi, with his track "
Satisfaction" released in 2002, is seen as the forerunner of electro-house who brought it to the mainstream. By the mid-2000s, electro-house saw an increase in popularity, with hits such as the Tom Neville remix of
Studio B's "I See Girls" in 2005 (UK #11). In November 2006, electroGq-house tracks "
Put Your Hands Up for Detroit" by
Fedde Le Grand and the
D. Ramirez remix of "
Yeah Yeah" by
Bodyrox and
Luciana held the number one and number two spots, respectively, on the UK top 40 singles chart. Since then, electro-house producers such as
Feed Me,
Knife Party,
The M Machine,
Porter Robinson,
Yasutaka Nakata and
Dada Life have emerged.
Big room house is a sub-genre of electro and progressive house that emerged in the mid-2010s, characterized by simplistic melodies and drops, and a sound design intended to be suited towards larger venues such as arenas and outdoor festivals.
EDM trap music Trap music originated from
techno, dub, and
Dutch house, but also from the
original off-shoot of
Southern hip hop in the late 2000s and early 2010s. This form of trap music can be simplified by these three features: "1/3 hip hop (tempo and song structure are similar, most tracks are usually between 70 and 110 bpm) – with vocals sometimes being pitched down, 1/3 dance music – high-pitched Dutch synth work, hardstyle sampling, as well as a plethora of trap remixes of popular EDM songs, and 1/3 dub (low-frequency focus and strong emphasis on repetitiveness throughout a song)". Some of the artists that popularized this genre, along with several others, are producers such as
RL Grime with the tracks "Core" and "Scylla" released in 2014,
Flosstradamus with their
Hdynation Radio album released in 2015 and
Carnage with his track "Turn Up" released in 2012.
Afrobeats Pon Pon (also ADM or African Dance Music) emerged in Nigeria circa 2018 denoting EDM influences intermingled with Afrobeats, Nigerian Afropop,
dancehall and
highlife. A variant is Nigerian Afro-EDM which emerged in the 2020s encompassing afrobeats, Nigerian afro-house and afroelectro.
Gqom Gqom originated around 2009–2010 in
Durban, through the pioneering efforts of local record producers. Gqom blends elements of techno, broken beats, and house music. Unlike traditional house music, gqom diverges by eschewing the typical
four-on-the-floor rhythm. Gqom is categorized as both EDM and house music, characterized by diverse production techniques and variations. ==Terminology==