Instrumental music without drums often employs more subdued beats, creating a style of electronic music ideal for listening or playing along. This genre often contains lovely harmonies, melodies and riffs.
Originating from Dubstep and UK Bass music, Jump-up DnB is distinguished by heavy robotic bass leads in talking/responding patterns coupled with overdriven, hard and compressed drumming patterns that usually fall within 160-180 BPM range.
Ambient
As our list of beatless electronic music genres begins, ambient is our starting point – an electronic style which emphasizes atmosphere and texture over melody and rhythm. But this does not mean drums are absent entirely from ambient tracks – many use acoustic sounds such as short synth notes to create rhythm or more subtly patterns of noises emerging naturally from location or field recordings to establish an atmosphere.
Early 2000s saw the return of ambient music as it gained new life thanks to several innovative artists such as NYC musician Laraaji. Composer Pierre Schaeffer played an instrumental role in this revival by inventing musique concrete compositional style which sought to blend diverse musical, technical, and cultural elements together into ambient projects.
The Orb was one of the pioneers of ambient-space sound, using innovative production techniques on albums like Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld to depict long journeys with no endpoint in sight. Recently there has been an upsurge in ambient-space sounds with artists such as 36 and Tycho achieving massive popularity thanks to their melancholic melodies.
Breakbeat
Breakbeats are short sections in a song where all other instruments except drums stop playing, leaving only drums to play, often sampled heavily to produce various electronic genres. Popularised during the 1980s when affordable samplers became widely available; early breakbeats came from funk and R&B records but can now come from any genre record.
Hip hop producers of the 90s realized their value as essential parts of hip hop production because they could be looped and slowed down for rappers to rap over. Furthermore, whole new patterns could be created by cutting up different hits into distinct beats to form unique rhythms – thus giving rise to drum and bass as a genre in its own right.
Electronic music genre known as ambient and synth infused with hard-hitting drum beat and bassline became increasingly popular during the 2020s, leading to artists such as Sewerslvt becoming known for creating intricate layers of sounds using breakbeats with acoustic drums and pop culture art elements blending breakbeats with pop culture art elements.
Disco
Disco was a genre which emerged during the 1970s with a focus on danceable four-on-the-floor beats and syncopated rhythm guitars, as well as complex arrangements performed by large ensembles of studio session musicians – including horn sections and string orchestras. Disco differed significantly from soul music and funk in that its ensemble required chordal instruments like guitar or piano along with Latin drumming or Latin percussion along with other acoustic and electronic percussion instruments for effective production.
Disco music was heavily influenced by African American musical traditions, but its appeal did not rest solely with African Americans; its success transcended ethnic barriers. Disco’s appeal extended even to gay audiences and many female performers like Grace Jones, Gloria Gaynor and Donna Summer became hugely successful through addressing social justice issues through disco music. Disco also utilized various Latin polyrhythms like layering rhumba rhythm over merengue beat.
Keiran Hebden’s song is an outstanding example of kick-less rhythmic structure that still feels dynamic and exciting in electronic music. The sequenced bassline is enhanced by the rhythmic interplay of acoustic percussion instruments and busy top-end harp plucks which create an engaging sonic space where drums would typically dominate.
Boogie
Boogie is an electronic music genre characterized by minimal percussion that avoids heavy kick drums found in traditional hip hop production, opting for subtle yet minimal beats instead. Boogie production style has become popular with experimental hip hop artists and has also become part of many drum and bass tracks.
Trap music evolved from House, Techno and Funk music and is distinguished by a gradual move away from Chicago House’s soulful sound towards more industrial influences. Typically associated with Roland TR-808 drum machines as its foundational instrument. Rock, Punk or New Wave influences may also come through. BPM can range anywhere between 120-135 BPM.
Oval made his mark as a pioneer of glitch hop by intentionally damaging CD surfaces and recording unpredictable skips and jumps to sample them later. His track, “Power of Persuasion,” features rhythmic shifts that build momentum without the presence of drum beats.
Electronica
Electronica music combines elements from various electronic styles, such as Drum and Bass, Funk, Techstep, House, Techno and Ambient music into one genre that tends to be more experimental, varied and artistic than its counterparts – typically focused on listening rather than dancing – hence its title “ambient electronica or progressive electronica”.
This genre is distinguished by a deep and booming bassline with high hats, featuring between 120 to 140 beats per minute (BPM). You may recognize this style from songs by artists like Snap, 2 Unlimited and Ace of Bass that combine elements from Rap/RnB with heavy dance beats.
Rave music is a genre commonly played at raves. It typically has a high BPM and features many vocal samples. There’s lots of percussion that resembles Club music. Rave was first popularised by Oliver Heldens; its composition combines Deep House, Electro and Club genres for an immersive listening experience with heavy base beats, multiple layers of layered percussion instruments and European accented voices reminiscent of classic rave tunes.
Electronic Dance Music (EDM)
EDM refers to all genres of music created using electronic instruments and processed with digital audio software, from popular dance genres such as house, techno and 4 on the floor to experimental styles like ambient, drone and experimental sampling.
Drum and bass is a high-tempo EDM subgenre characterized by electronic percussion and syncopated beats combined to produce an engaging sonic environment. Drawing inspiration from jungle, techno, hip-hop and house music genres; its signature sound lends itself perfectly to dancefloors. Subgenres within Drum and Bass include liquid funk, neurofunk and jump-up.
Minimal techno is a stripped-back form of electronic music characterized by short sounds and stabs, beeps and blips, looping effects, and short looped sections to build rhythmic structures. Usually played between 120 to 150 BPM for dance floors or festivals – artists like Jean-Michel Jarre and LTJ Bukem have contributed greatly to its development.
Glitch Hop
Glitch hop is an experimental electronic music genre that utilizes sounds of malfunctioning technology to craft unique compositions. It incorporates elements from both hip hop and funk music while employing sophisticated synthesis techniques for its production. Glitch hop producers typically rely on software such as digital audio workstations to compose their songs.
Digital music emerged as a celebration of digital technology’s capabilities, turning potential limitations into creative strengths. The genre’s name refers to its signature glitchy beats created through cutting samples into unusual configurations or manipulating samples until an unexpected effect emerges; creating “glitches” involves manipulating them further until an unpredictable sound emerges characterized by clicks, pops, and skips that become an integral part of its rhythmic form.
glitch hop draws its influence from hip-hop music, creating mid-tempo beats between 80 and 115 BPM for an upbeat and groovey experience. This genre’s bass-heavy foundation often utilizes heavy or distorted synths as part of its beat, and includes sampled or chopped vocals with a signature swing.
House
Minimal House, an offshoot of House and Glitch music genres, blends backroom House elements with 8-Bit’s drive for deep bass sounds. Its signature is its Afrocentric palette of sounds and a focus on deep basses; also known as Micro House or Bitpop it typically has between 115-130.1 BPM.
Lofi Hip-Hop first proliferated in the early 2010s as an offshoot of hip-hop music that featured drumless beats with vinyl crackle and pitch wow, sampled vocals with distorted basslines, dusty drums, dusty beats and sampled vocals with pitch wow; this genre emerged as a response to big room House which had become too formulaic at that time.
UK Funky music blends drum machine beats with African and Latin percussion to produce a syncopated rhythm that ranges from four-to-the-floor patterns to the popular Dembow rhythm found in Dancehall. It often includes synth bass lines that incorporate chord extensions borrowed from Jazz, while female vocalists often make an appearance. House, Techno and Hip-Hop genres all lend influence; one prominent producer of UK Funky is The Alchemist.