Some musicians question EDM as an umbrella term, while for others it serves as a way of reaching a wide-ranging audience. From deep house beats to dubstep drops and beyond there are multiple subgenres to appeal to different tastes and preferences.
What is Electronic Dance Music?
EDM (Electronic Dance Music) is an expansive genre of electronic music characterized by the use of electronic instruments and devices to produce an energetic, hedonistic form of dancing. EDM’s hallmark features are fast-paced rhythms and tempos; inorganic sounds; loud and resounding tones that lull listeners into a state similar to trance-like states; however there are few vocals present within its genre.
EDM as an identifiable music genre can be traced back to the late 1970s and 1980s when artists like Donna Summer, Pete Bellotte, and Giorgio Moroder created popular disco tunes with drum machines and synthesized rhythms – leading them to pioneer what would eventually become synthpop as one of its subgenres of EDM music.
As the 1980s came to a close, techno and house music started becoming more widely recognized within dance music. DJs such as Frankie Knuckles utilized new drum machine technology to augment disco loops with unique beats that they created themselves – eventually giving birth to progressive house, which diverged from loop-based formulae by creating longer pieces that often lasted over 10 minutes in length.
By the 2000s, Daft Punk and Coachella festival culture had inspired a wave of dance music known as EDM today. By this point, EDM had evolved into many subgenres such as trance and dubstep with producers like Skrillex utilizing tracks with strobe-like synth riffs followed by an explosive drop to send crowds into an uproarious frenzy.
Electronic dance music (EDM) has seen exponential growth over the years, with large music festivals around the globe drawing millions of attendees to their multi-day and multi-stage events. EDM’s widespread adoption has generated an entirely new subculture associated with its fans – not only listening but also participating in EDM concerts (or “raves”) as well as its culture that promotes hedonistic behavior while building community among its adherents.
What are the genres of Electronic Dance Music?
Electronic Dance Music (EDM) encompasses an expansive genre spectrum, from drum and bass, dubstep, trap house electro and techno to drum and bass dubstep dubstep trap house electro and techno. EDM genres typically use synthesized beats, rhythms and vocal samples produced using synthesizers while often including elements from other genres like hip hop reggae rock jazz jazz hip hop reggae rock jazz etc. Within a decade EDM has become increasingly popular with young American adults while emerging into its own dance culture through rave events as a global industry and DJs became superstar celebrities themselves!
EDM (Electronic Dance Music) is a type of club music designed specifically for dancers. It can be traced back to disco music of the 1970s when electronic instruments such as drum machines were added into its production process, leading to synthpop – which combined synthesizers with drum machines to produce synthetic rhythms – becoming popular. As a result, EDM evolved further and gave rise to other styles like house and trance music genres.
These genres of electronic music incorporated the 4/4 drum beat from disco with synthesized sounds to create more danceable styles of music. For the first time ever, dance music had become its own genre rather than being simply considered part of pop or rock genres.
In the 1990s, Electronic Dance Music (EDM) flourished into various subgenres of EDM such as drum and bass, electro house, hardstyle, and dubstep. These styles took advantage of the 4/4 beat while adding influences from genres such as reggae, house music, punk rock and rock to produce dance music suitable for night clubs and raves alike.
EDM styles have evolved considerably over time, and today many artists produce EDM, such as Steve Aoki, Zedd, The Chainsmokers and Martin Garrix to name but a few. Additionally, its rise has inspired some major pop and mainstream musicians to use elements from EDM into their own music productions.
What are the styles of Electronic Dance Music?
EDM stands apart from traditional forms of music production in that its production styles are determined by computer programs rather than instruments; therefore, its sound palette ranges from beatless ambient music to 200 BPM hardcore hardcore; popular subgenres include house, dubstep, techno and trance.
These genres were initially made popular during the 1970s and ’80s when DJs started mixing diverse forms of music together using advanced equipment in nightclubs. One key development occurred in Detroit where three musicians (Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May) developed techno, an amalgam of disco grooves with synthesizer sounds.
EDM (Electronic Dance Music) has become more commercial and mainstream as dance music has gained greater commercial success and mainstream acceptance. A combination of technological development and social changes have allowed a new generation to experience electronic music’s power and embrace it fully; thanks to the internet’s accessibility this genre can now spread worldwide allowing artists to establish followings in faraway locations.
As the genre has matured, so too have its subgenres. One such subgenre is big room house – an uptempo style of dance music which has become the soundtrack of major festivals worldwide. Artists such as Hardwell and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike are widely-renowned touring performers who bring this distinctive sound to crowds worldwide.
Dubstep is another major subgenre, distinguished by heavy syncopation that often makes it seem faster than it really is. Dubstep’s beat resembles half time house rather than traditional 4/4 rhythm house; more samples such as vocal chops from hip hop and electro can also be heard throughout dubstep’s composition; its most recognizable trait being its signature breakbeat created from cutting and looping an original sample of its beat.
Uplifting trance has quickly become one of the most sought-after EDM subgenres. Combining progressive elements with pop music, this genre features melodic synth lines with overpowering pop choruses for its signature sound. Other EDM genres that fall under this umbrella include tech trance, melodic trance and dream trance.
What are the influences of Electronic Dance Music?
EDM refers to Electronic Dance Music (EDM). When thinking of this genre, many think of DJs playing huge dance anthems at major music festivals and clubs – yet that only represents one corner of this vast genre. From deep house and dubstep to techno, trance and drum and bass music styles; EDM encompasses an assortment of subgenres.
EDM can be traced back to disco music of the 1970s. This genre aimed to move crowds on dance floors using drum machines to produce synthesized rhythms. Notable disco tracks from this era included Donna Summer’s 1977 synthesized hit “I Feel Love,” written by Pete Bellotte and Giorgio Moroder (later collaborated with Daft Punk), and George McCrae’s 1974 song, “Rock Your Baby.”
Chicago DJ Frankie Knuckles began creating their own versions of these styles using new drum machine technology in the 1980s. Utilizing cut up loops of older disco songs and funk and rock music as source material, their new style became known as house music; today it remains one of the most prominent sub genres within EDM. House has since given birth to acid house, hard house and progressive house as subgenres; progressive house often opting for longer evolving pieces featuring atmospheric breakdowns rather than short loop based pieces like house does.
Electronic dance music began to gain prominence during the 2000s, with top producers like Martin Garrix and The Chainsmokers becoming producers for some of the biggest pop musicians worldwide. This trend continues even today; DJs like The Chainsmokers and Martin Garrix continue producing mainstream hits for Selena Goulding and Drake among many other artists.
Major influences of EDM come from other genres of music, like soul and jazz. Deep house’s jazzy sound with its soulful piano chords and slow rhythms is an excellent example of this influence, while you may also detect influences from trip hop and dubstep genres of electronic music.