Guide to EDM: Explore EDM’s Subgenres and Cultural Influence

Electronic dance music, commonly known by the acronym EDM, is an umbrella term for various percussive electronic music genres. All EDM is created through a combination of digital and analog equipment, including synthesizers, drum machines, and samples of previous recordings. EDM typically features strong, rhythmic percussion, which has made it an ideal soundtrack for dancefloors. However, in recent years, EDM DJs or artists have also been staples of large-scale performances, such as music festivals.

EDM remained an underground genre of music for several decades until Madonna’s Ray of Light (1998) album and tracks by EDM artists like Steve Aoki, Martin Garrix, David Guetta, Tiesto, and Daft Punk made their way onto the American and European pop music charts. They and other EDM artists like Deadmau5 and Skrillex have transitioned the genre into the mainstream music industry. Major pop acts like Justin Bieber and Coldplay have recorded tracks with EDM artists and producers.

The history of EDM encompasses almost a half-century of music innovation:

• Beginnings. The roots of EDM can be traced to a diverse array of musical genres during the late 1960s and 1970s, including the icy electro-pop of German EDM pioneers Kraftwerk, the hypnotic grooves of Italian music producer Giorgio Moroder, the complex turntable work in hip-hop, and the psychedelic cut-and-paste of Jamaica’s dub music scene. These electronic sounds made their way into disco, the club music of its day.
• Rise of subgenres. Disco would influence New Wave music known through synthpop or techno-pop, which emphasized electronic beats and heavy melodic synthesizers. Their rise was met with a host of subgenres like techno, house, and acid house, all anchored by a 4/4 beat from the Roland TR-808 drum machine. Meanwhile, electro, Chicago house, and deep house folded funk, soul, and analog instruments into the post-disco sound.
• More beats per minute: Techno, which DJs wielded to keep dancefloors moving over marathon periods of time, splintered into different microgenres like Detroit house and trance. Countering its dreamline tempo was the UK’s hardcore rave, which added greater beats per minute (BPM) and breakbeats; it, too, produced numerous offshoots like drum and bass and UK garage, which itself launched the bass-heavy dubstep genre.
• Entering the mainstream. By the new millennium, EDM had entered the mainstream, and with it ushered in all-new sounds. House re-emerged as electro house, while trap music rose from Southern hip-hop. Electroclash and hardstyle pulled from New Wave and hardcore to forge their own musical identities.

Producers primarily make and record EDM tracks in a recording studio, using a minimal amount of equipment. In general, the basic required materials for producing EDM include a laptop or desktop computer linked to a digital audio workstation (DAW). The DAW bundles the work of many different audio devices and software, such as editing, sequencing, and sample organization, into a single electronic device.

The addition of plug-ins, or audio software components, increases the DAW’s capabilities; the producer can then connect it to a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) device, which adds input from synths and other music production devices.

EDM includes an almost countless number of subgenres, including progressive house, Detroit techno, and brostep. Here is a representative sampling of the subgenres:

1. 1. House. Emerging from Chicago’s club music scene, house music was a largely instrumental sound that featured repetitive disco rhythm with percussion crafted on a drum machine and various percussive instruments for a Latin or soul feel. One of its many subgenres, acid house, featured altered drums with a distinct “squelching” sound. Frankie Knuckles and other Chicago-area DJs are credited with launching house.
2. 2. Techno. Early electronica artists like Giorgio Moroder and Kraftwerk were pioneers of techno music’s continuous, otherworldly sound, driven by a repetitive, common beat under synthesizers and other electronic gear. Its sound evolved almost constantly during the 1980s and 1990s, sprouting offshoots in Chicago, Detroit, London, and Germany; early media coverage of EDM used “techno” as a catch-all term for the music scene.
3. 3. Trance. As the name suggests, trance music is intended to put the dancer into a trance-like state of consciousness. Producers typically build trance tracks around a single chord, melodic variations, and layered glimmers of sounds, including vocals and percussion. It’s one of the few EDM genres that stands up to listening when you’re off the dance floor. Its major artists include DJ Armin van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk, Tiesto, Paul Oakenfold, and John Digweed.
4. 4. Dubstep. Dubstep emerged from London in the late 2000s, spawned from both the stripped-down sound of Jamaican dub and drum and bass. The tone is generally dark—lots of minor keys—but its distinguishing feature is its heavy bassline, which rumbles and wobbles through each track. Notable dubstep artists include Skrillex, Diplo, and Major Lazer.

Since its inception, EDM has gone from being the centerpiece of the raves in the desert or abandoned warehouses to becoming a significant attraction on the music festival circuit. In many ways, it has supplanted the traditional music genres that perform at large outdoor concert venues, like rock and roll and country, both of which were forced to scale back their efforts in the 2000s.

EDM festivals have proven to be major money-makers for both artists and their host cities; a single 2015 EDM festival in Las Vegas brought more than $350 million in revenue to Clark County, Nevada. EDM festivals have attracted such high ticket sales and attendee numbers that music festivals that aren’t entirely focused on the genre, like Coachella, have added EDM artists to their roster.

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