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Electronic dance music (also known as EDM, dance music, club music, or simply dance) is a set of percussive electronic music genres produced primarily for dance-based entertainment environments, such as nightclubs. The music is largely created for use by disc jockeys (DJs) and is produced for use in DJ mixes, in which the DJ uses a synchronized segue, or "mix", to progress from one recording to the next.

In 2010, the acronym "EDM" was adopted by the American music industry and music press as a buzzword to describe the increasingly commercial US electronic dance music scene.

History

Beginnings

Most dance-oriented recorded music before the mid-1970s was played almost entirely on acoustic and electric instruments—e.g., with electric bass and guitar, live drums, horns, and acoustic orchestras. Since the mid-1960s, however, electronic instruments were increasingly utilized in popular music, as demonstrated by the occasional use of organs and Mellotrons in pop, rock, gospel and soul jazz music. Also, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a Moog synthesizer fad in pop music yielded novelty hits like the rhythmic "Popcorn" and various synthesized interpretations of classical music. Similarly, in late 1974, the group Kraftwerk used only electronic instrumentation on the gentle, widely distributed Autobahn album, a stepping stone in the group's shift from krautrock to the dance-pop style of its later albums.

Electronic instruments finally became a feature of dance music in the second half of the 1970s, when recordings in the blossoming disco genre began to shift away from traditional orchestration and increasingly embraced sounds created by synthesizers and drum machines. Notable examples include the 1977 collaboration between producer Giorgio Moroder and vocalist Donna Summer on the song "I Feel Love", a groundbreaking dance/discothèque hit with no traditional instruments. In 1979, the pair collaborated again on Donna Summer's highest-selling album, Bad Girls, which incorporated similar production techniques. The trend continued into the 1980s.

Post-disco era

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, as the popularity of disco music waned and major U.S. record labels and producers abandoned the sound, post-disco styles were developed by a mixed community of DJs and producers. Relative to disco much of this music displayed an increasingly electronic character and it featured "radically different sounds" to the former. The music tended to be technology-centric, keyboard-ladden, melodic, with funk-oriented bass lines, synth riffs, dub music aesthetics, and background jazzy or blues-y piano layers. Strings and brass section synthesizer sounds were preferred to the lush orchestration heard on many disco tracks.

The use of electronic timbres, took root in the various post-disco club scenes, yielding occasional radio hits. Although not as strongly influential as later genres, these styles were mainstays in the 1980s club culture. They include the hazy, studio effects-heavy sound of dub; the strongly new wave-based, upbeat fusion genre synthpop; the syncopated hybrid electro-funk (often just "electro"); electro's Latin-pop cousin freestyle; the dark, rigid sounds of industrial dance music, and an unnamed category of commercial, danceable pop and R&B.

Partly to help satisfy the dwindling market for disco-based dance music, some 1980s disco DJs breathed new life into past hits via custom remixes and re-edits on reel-to-reel tape, and then took advantage of newly-affordable electronic instruments and became record producers themselves, combining disco with other contemporary dance music styles. Without major-label backing, their music evolved quickly to satisfy audiences in isolated regional club scenes, yielding, for example, Italo disco in Italy, electronic body music in Belgium and Germany, house music in Chicago and New York (garage), techno in Detroit, and New Beat in Belgium.

All these new genres and sounds were possible at the time because of the commercial availability of MIDI. MIDI, which stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, became commercially available in 1983. It allowed for Synthesizers, Drum Machines, Samplers, and Sequencers to communicate with each other digitally. All studios even smaller ones and independent producers could now afford to create new music/genres/sounds with out using any live (analog) instruments. MIDI is still used today by many producers and artist, even in non EDM genres.

Acid house and Rave

By 1988, house music had exploded in the UK and Germany with acid house becoming increasingly popular. There was also a long established warehouse party subculture based around the sound system scene. In 1988, the music played at warehouse parties was predominantly house. That same year, the Balearic party vibe associated with Ibiza based DJ Alfredo Fiorito was transported to London, when Danny Rampling and Paul Oakenfold opened the clubs Shoom and Spectrum, respectively. Both night spots quickly became synonymous with acid house, and it was during this period that the use of MDMA, as a party drug, started to gain prominence. Other important UK clubs at this time included Back to Basics in Leeds, Sheffield's Leadmill and Music Factory, and in Manchester The Haçienda, where Mike Pickering and Graeme Park's Friday night spot, Nude, was an important proving ground for American underground dance music. Acid house party fever escalated in London and Manchester, and it quickly became a cultural phenomenon. MDMA-fueled club goers, faced with 2 A.M. closing hours, sought refuge in the warehouse party scene that ran all night. To escape the attention of the press and the authorities, this after-hours activity quickly went underground. Within a year, however, up to 10,000 people at a time were attending the first commercially organized mass parties, called raves, and a media storm ensued.

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. According to British DJ Mark Moore it was Derrick May's "Strings of Life" that eased London club-goers into acceptance of house, with Moore stating that: "I was on a mission because most people hated house music and it was all rare groove and hip hop...I'd play Strings of Life at the Mud Club and clear the floor. Three weeks later you could see pockets of people come onto the floor, dancing to it and going crazy – and this was without ecstasy."

Popularization

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As alternatives to alcohol-fueled, "meat market" nightclubs, the warehouse party, acid house, rave and outdoor festival scenes of the late 1980s and early 1990s were havens and proving grounds for the latest trends in electronic dance music, especially house music and its ever-more hypnotic, synthetic offspring techno and trance, some of which fed back into mainstream clubs and radio. These scattered scenes, along with a bustling secondhand market for electronic instruments and turntables, had a strong democratizing effect, offering amateur, "bedroom" DJs the opportunity to become proficient and popular as both music players and producers, regardless of the whims of the professional music and club industries.

By the mid-1990s, acts like The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers began to get noticed by listeners, music critics, and mainstream music producers. This would lead mainstream performers to work more and more with EDM artists, and mainstream music producers to experiment with more electronic sounds. MTV produced and aired 2 TV shows that played EDM, Amp and The Grind. Both played and aired a large amount of EDM each episode. They also released albums with EDM on them named after those shows.

North American commercialization of EDM

Initially, electronic dance music achieved limited popular exposure in America when it was marketed as "electronica" during the mid to late 1990s. At that time, a wave of dance music acts from the UK, including the The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim and Underworld, had been prematurely associated with an "American electronica revolution." But, instead of EDM finding wider mainstream success, it was relegated to the margins of the industry. Despite the domestic music media interest in "electronica" during the latter half of the 1990s, American house and techno producers continued to travel abroad to establish their careers as DJs and producers.

By the mid-2000s, a number of factors led to an increased prominence for dance acts in North America that was larger than previously observed. Daft Punk's performance at the 2006 Coachella Festival, which featured the introduction of a unique pyramid-shaped stage design and lighting rig, influenced what Spin described as an "arms race" for visual effects in electronic music. Spin also considered the act to be a "tipping point" for EDM, as the appearance fueled nostalgia of the electronica era, and introduced the duo to a new generation of "rock kids" in attendance. In 2006 R&B artist, Missy Elliott featured material from Cybotron's 1983 electro release Clear on "Lose Control", resulting in a Grammy Award nomination for American techno producer Juan Atkins, whose writing credit appeared on the song.

In 2009, French house musician David Guetta began to gain prominence in mainstream pop music after the 2009 release of "When Love Takes Over" (featuring the vocals of Kelly Rowland), which was internationally popular on both pop and dance music charts. The success of the song led to further collaborations with other pop and hip-hop acts, such as Akon ("Sexy Bitch") and The Black Eyed Peas. His collaboration with the latter, "I Gotta Feeling", was a major success for both The Black Eyed Peas and Guetta—in the U.S., the song achieved sales of 249,000 downloads and debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number two, behind their previous single "Boom Boom Pow". The song eventually reached number 1 on July 30, 2009, and Billboard magazine reported that the song, along with "Boom Boom Pow," helped the group maintain a 17-week run at the top of the Hot 100, the longest time period achieved by a single, duo or group.

The increased prominence of EDM was also fueled by concerts and festivals, such as Electric Daisy Carnival, that placed an increased emphasis on visual experiences (such as video and lighting effects), fashion (which The Guardian characterized as an evolution from the 1990s "kandi raver" into " slick and sexified yet also kitschy-surreal image midway between Venice Beach and Cirque Du Soleil, Willy Wonka and a Gay Pride parade"), and the DJs themselves, who began to attain celebrity-like statuses. Websites such as YouTube and SoundCloud also helped fuel an increased interest in house and other types of electronic music, such as electro house and dubstep—both of which had also developed a hard rock-influenced sound popularized by producers such as Excision, Knife Party, Rusko and, most prominently, American dubstep/electro producer Skrillex.

In 2011 Spin declared the start of a "new rave generation," led by names such as Guetta, Canadian producer Deadmau5, and Skrillex, that was followed by a new wave of mainstream consumers. Elements of EDM also began to emerge in songs by mainstream artists, as collaborations occurred with artists such as Afrojack and Calvin Harris. EDM producers and DJs also began experiencing success playing club shows in U.S. cities such as Las Vegas; at the time, Diplo argued that promoters could generate higher profits from DJs over other acts, stating that "a band plays, it's 45 minutes; DJs can play for four hours. Rock bands—there's a few headliner dudes that can play 3,000-4,000-capacity venues, but DJs play the same venues, they turn the crowd over two times, people buy drinks all night long at higher prices—it's a win-win." Meanwhile, other acts gaining popularity during this period include Avicii and Swedish House Mafia, with the latter selling out New York City's Madison Square Garden in December 2011. In November 2013, Music Trades magazine called EDM the fastest growing genre on the planet.

In addition to the growth of EDM through live events and the Internet, radio and television were also credited with helping to increase mainstream attention: analysts noted that sales of Calvin Harris's "Feel So Close" and Swedish House Mafia's "Don't You Worry Child" dramatically increased after they began receiving contemporary hit radio airplay. EDM songs and artists have been featured in television commercials and programs, while some artists have produced more pop-oriented songs to make their work more accessible to a mainstream audience.

Corporate investment in EDM

In accordance with the significant growth in mainstream popularity, EDM became increasingly attractive to outside investors, with some comparing it to the dot-com boom of the late-1990s. The beginning of corporate consolidation in the EDM industry began in 2012; especially in terms of live events. In June 2012, media executive Robert F. X. Sillerman (founder of what is now Live Nation) founded SFX Entertainment and announced his plan to invest US$1 billion for the acquisition of EDM-related properties. His purchases included a number of regional promoters and festivals (including ID&T, organizers of the annual Tomorrowland festival in Belgium), along with two nightclub operators in Miami, U.S., and Beatport, an EDM-oriented online music store.

Live Nation also acquired two major EDM promoters: Cream Holdings and Hard Events; CEO Michael Rapino believed that EDM was the new "rock 'n' roll" of the generation. Advertisers have also increasingly associated themselves with the EDM industry; for example, alcoholic beverage companies such as Heineken and Anheuser-Busch have maintained marketing relationships with the Ultra Music Festival and SFX, respectively. Heineken also incorporated Dutch producers, such as Armin van Buuren and Tiesto, into their marketing campaigns. Avicii's manager Ash Pournouri compared the increasingly commercial EDM industry to the transformation and commercialization of hip hop, which occurred in the early 2000s, arguing that the "corporate world" was beginning to "catch on" to EDM. Pournouri further stated that "you have an estimated $4.5 billion generated by this music every year. That turns a lot of heads, and that’s without the potential of commercializing it even more, which will happen."

On December 20, 2012, WHBA, a Boston radio station owned by Clear Channel Communications transitioned from an Adult Hits format to a dance radio format, under the moniker "Evolution 101.7," and claimed to be "the first real EDM station in the country;" the station soon changed its call letters to WEDX. WEDX is an extension of Clear Channel's iHeartRadio "Evolution", an internet radio channel. Clear Channel also hired prominent DJ and BBC Radio 1 personality Pete Tong to produce content for the station. However, the era of the station's dance format ended 18 months later when, on June 13, 2014, WEDX was changed to a country music format. In 2014 Clear Channel partnered with the aforementioned SFX, in a deal that will see the broadcaster produce EDM-related programming (including a Beatport countdown show across its contemporary hit radio stations) and concert events in collaboration with SFX.

Criticism of commercial EDM

Despite the growing mainstream acceptance of EDM, a number of producers and DJs, including Carl Cox, Steve Lawler, and Markus Schulz, have raised concerns that the perceived over-commercialization of dance music has impacted the "art" of DJing. Cox sees the "press-play" approach of a new generation of EDM DJs as not being representative of what he calls the "DJ ethos". Writing in Mixmag DJ Tim Sheridan questioned whether or not EDM was responsible for affecting the art of traditional DJing. Sheridan contends that the emergence of "push-button DJs" who use auto-sync functions and pre-recorded sets featuring "obvious hits" rather than a diverse selection of music has lead to a situation where "the spectacle, money and the showbiz overtaken all—even notions of honesty."

Some house producers have openly admitted that "commercial" EDM required further differentiation and creativity. Avicii (whose 2013 album "True" featured songs incorporating elements of bluegrass music, such as its lead single "Wake Me Up") stated that there was "no longevity" in the majority of EDM. Deadmau5 has also criticized the homogenization of EDM, stating that the music he hears "all sounds the same"—he emphasized his diversification into other genres, such as techno and, in 2014, he released a techno song under the moniker "testpilot" for Richie Hawtin's label, Plus 8. At Ultra, where he filled in for Avicii, Deadmau5 also played an edited version of Martin Garrix's song "Animals" remixed to the melody of "Old McDonald Had a Farm". Following the performance, deadmau5 was also criticized on Twitter by fellow musician Tiësto for "sarcastically" mixing Avicii's "Levels" with his own "Ghosts 'n' Stuff", asking in response "How does one play a track sarcastically? "Am I supposed to sneer while hitting the sync button? Or is that ironic?”

In May 2014, the NBC comedy series Saturday Night Live parodied the stereotypes of EDM culture through a Digital Short entitled "When Will the Bass Drop?". The short featured a DJ named Davvincii—who is seen performing a number of unrelated tasks instead of DJing (including playing a computer game, frying eggs, and collecting money), and triggering a drop with a giant "BASS" button—causing the heads of attendees to explode.

Terminology

The term "electronic dance music" was used in America as early as 1985, although the term "dance music" didn't catch on as a blanket term for the genre(s) until the second half of the 1990s, when it was embraced by the American music industry with their "Dance" charts (which continue to this day), as well as the consistent use of the term "dance music" in reference to artists in reviews. In July 1995 Nervous Records and Project X magazine held their first award ceremony titled "Electronic Dance Music Awards."

During the mid-late 2000s, the further establishment of "dance music" began to occur in the USA and the genre entered the nation's commercial sphere—it was around this time that the term "EDM" surfaced online. Writing in The Guardian journalist Simon Reynolds noted that music industry adoption of the term EDM was part of a drive to re-brand "rave culture" in the USA; an attempt to "draw line between today's EDM and 90s rave". While "EDM" has become the common blanket term for dance music genres in the USA, in many parts of Europe, online and in the UK, the common usage of "dance music" or "dance" is more commonly used.

Synonyms

The related term club music, while broadly referring to whichever music genres are currently in vogue and associated with nightclubs, has become synonymous with all electronic dance music, or just those genres—or some subset thereof—that are typically played at mainstream discothèques. Sometimes, club music used more broadly to encompass non-electronic music played at such venues, or electronic music that is not normally played at clubs but that shares attributes with music that is.

What is widely considered to be club music changes over time, includes different genres depending on the region and who's making the reference, and may not always encompass electronic dance music. Similarly, electronic dance music sometimes means different things to different people. Both terms vaguely encompass multiple genres, and sometimes are used as if they were genres themselves. The distinction is that club music is ultimately based on what's popular, whereas electronic dance music is based on attributes of the music itself.

Genres

Just as rock, jazz and other musical genres have their own set of sub-genres, so too does electronic dance music. Continuing to evolve over the past 30 years dance music has splintered off into numerous sub-genres often defined by their varying tempo (BPM), rhythm, instrumentation used and time period. The broadest categories include house, techno, trance, hardstyle, UK garage, drum & bass, dubstep and hardcore.

Production

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In the 1980s, many genres of popular electronic music, including EDM, were constructed with the use of electronic instruments such as synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers, and these genres generally emphasized the unique sounds of those instruments, even when mimicking traditional acoustic instrumentation. Some of the most widely used synthesizers in electronic dance music include the Yamaha DX7, Korg M1, and Roland's Jupiter and SH-101. In addition, the most widely used bass synthesizer is the Roland TB-303, while the most widely used drum machines are Roland's TR-808 and TR-909.

The introduction of MIDI interfaces allowed personal computers to be used as sequencers to control the instruments, and by the mid-1990s, computers were fixtures in multitrack recording studios, augmenting or replacing dedicated recording and editing equipment. By the early 2000s, computer software for audio synthesis and sound manipulation allowed for bedroom EDM studios to become completely computer-based.

Currently the music is now mostly made using software that contains sequencing, sampling, synthesizers, effects, and multitrack recording features. The ability to produce and create has become much easier economically and physically since producers no longer need to buy large amounts of equipment. It sometimes encompasses music not primarily meant for dancing, but derived from the dance-oriented styles.

In an April 2014 interview with Tony Andrew, the owner and founder of the Funktion-One sound system—considered a foremost model of audio technology and installed in venues such as Berghain, Output and Trouw—Andrew explains the critical importance of bass to dance music:

Dance music wouldn’t be so successful without bass. If you think about it, we’ve really only had amplified bass for around 50 years. Big bass is only a couple of generations old. Before the invention of speakers that could project true bass frequencies, humans really only came across bass in hazardous situations—for example, when thunder struck, or an earthquake shook, or from explosions caused by dynamite or gunpowder. That is probably why it is by far the most adrenaline-inducing frequency that we have. Bass gets humans excited basically. Below 90 or 100 Hz, bass becomes more of a physical thing. It vibrates specific organs. It vibrates our bones. It causes minor molecular rearrangement, and that is what makes it so potent as a force in dance music. The molecular vibration caused by bass is what gives dance music its power. It is what makes dance music so pleasurable to hear through a proper soundsystem.

Andrew also warns that too much bass, as well as too much sound overall, can be harmful and a "good sound engineer will understand that there is a window between enough sound to give excitement and so much that it is damaging."

For those producing dance music in their home studios, Andrew recommended that producers place their speakers at "the perfect eye and ear level", so that the "space in between the tweeter and the woofer" is between the producer's eyes—this formation allows the "woofer and tweeter frequencies" to be heard simultaneously. Andrew also recommends the use of dampening blankets to prevent the hearing of sounds that are "reflections from walls" and warns home producers about losing bass through the misplacement of the speakers, referring to rooms as "just a big speaker cabinet".

Venues and performances

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In most modern music, the artist/producers will perform in front of the audiences, but EDM artists are heard mostly through DJs in dance clubs. From the 1970s to 1990s, clubs would occasionally hire artists/producers to perform live; but on most nights, when people went to dance venues, they would be listening to DJs. Night clubs and discos such as Paradise Garage and Studio 54 in New York City, or The Warehouse in Chicago, would employ DJs for every night they were open—so-called "resident DJs"—and have their sound system geared towards the needs of DJs rather than live acts. By the late 1980s to early 1990s, the DJs themselves were the main attraction. Nightclub patrons began to enjoy the abilities of DJs to keep the crowd dancing and the groove going.

DJs, although not strictly producers, began to produce more of their own material while trying to match the groove or beat already set by what they were playing— this led to DJs making remixes. These remixes made it possible for DJs to extend songs or make a previous non-dance song danceable. Thus, DJs began to experiment with artists and singers to create material. Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" remix by the DJ duo DNA and DJ Jellybean Benitez's work with very early Madonna demos are prime examples of this practice.

Eventually, the recording of DJ sets became highly sought after by nightclub attendees. The DJ would sell the tapes or CD and earn a few dollars from their sale; however, the sound quality of the DJ set recordings were usually fair to poor, since many of them were recorded using normal commercial tape recorders. As this practice grew, more and more nightclubs began to commercially produce DJ sets. Clubs and venues such as Ministry Of Sound, Limelight and Groove Jet would frequently release full-length CDs of the DJ sets and sell them in record stores throughout the country. All of this would create a popularity for DJs that would elevate them to the status of a performer or producer.

By the 1990s, EDM performers (disc jockeys and producers) started to perform at both indoor and outdoor dance music festivals called "raves". As the decade drew to a close, more and more DJs and performers/producers branched out and performed at traditional music festivals, either "spinning" a DJ set, or actually performing live. The EDM subculture became increasingly mainstream, with DJs attracting crowds of 20,000 or more on a daily basis.

Awards

Festivals

Europe

• Love Parade (1989 - 2010) was a popular German dance music festival that ran until 2010 when it was permanently cancelled after a crowd rush at the Love Parade caused the death of 21 people, with at least 500 others injured.
• Mayday (1991–Present) in Dortmund, Germany. Some Mayday events took place in Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne, Germany.
• Street Parade (1992–Present) in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the most attended technoparade in Europe, since the end of Love Parade 2010.
• Boom Festival (1997–Present) in Portugal started out specializing in Psy-Trance, but eventually moved to expand into House and forms of chillout.
• Creamfields (1998–Present) Based in the UK now tours all over Europe as well as hosting their main event in Daresbury, England.
• Sensation White/Black (2000–Present) started in the Netherlands, spread across Europe, and first made it to the United States in 2012. Dependent on the event (White/Black) attendees would dress solely in that colour.
• Global Gathering (2001–Present) takes place annually at Long Marston Airfield, England and has spread out across Europe.
• Bang Face (2003–Present) is well known as one of the more broader ranged dance music events that takes place annually in the UK.
• Q-Dance (2003–Present), based in the Netherlands, is a leading hardstyle event.
• Tomorrowland (2005–present) takes place in Boom, Belgium and has become a notable music festivals due to its elaborate themes and stages.
• Ultra Europe (2013–present) take place in Hvar, Crotia and is a new European edition of the Ultra Music Festival and played here top DJ´s.
• Defqon.1 Festival (2003–Present) in the Netherlands is one of the biggest hardstyle festivals in the world.
• Weekend Festival (2012–Present) aims to be the biggest EDM festival in Scandinavia. Festival is held in Helsinki, Finland
• Electric Castle Festival (2013–Present) is a medium sized electronic music festival taking place annually at the end of June on Bánffy's Castle Domain in Cluj county, Romania.
• dominator (2005–Present) is the world biggest hardcore festival. It takes place at the E3-strand in Eersel, Netherlands.
• Electrobeach Music Festival (EMF)(2009–Present) aims to be the biggest EDM festival in France. Festival takes place annually at Port-Barcarès, France.

North America

United States

• Nocturnal Wonderland (formerly Nocturnal Festival), multiple cities (1994–present)
• Electric Daisy Carnival, multiple cities (1997–present)
• Global Dance Festival, Morrison, Colorado (1999–present)
• Ultra Music Festival, Miami (1999–present)
• Movement Festival, Detroit (2000–present)
• Lightning in a Bottle, California (2000–present)
• Decibel Festival, Seattle (2004–present)
• Moogfest, Asheville (2004-2008, 2010–present)
• San Francisco LovEvolution Technoparade (2004–present)
• Sonic Bloom, Colorado (2006–present)
• HARD, multiple cities (2007–present)
• Electric Forest Festival, Rothbury, Michigan (2008–present)
• Spring Awakening, Chicago (2008–present)
• Electric Zoo Festival, New York City (2009–present)
• Wavefront Music Festival, Chicago (2012–present)
• What The Festival, Oregon (2012–present)
• Kaleidoscope Music Festival, Oregon (2013–present)
• Mountain Oasis Electronic Music Summit, Asheville (2013)
• Sunset Music Festival, Tampa (2012–present)
• TomorrowWorld, Atlanta (2013–present)
• Decadence, Denver (2013–present)
• Paradiso Festival, The Gorge Amphitheater, WA (2012–present)

Other festivals, including Lollapalooza and Coachella have increased the number of EDM acts represented. Coachella in particular took an adventurous path giving electronic acts a high profile in a time when they were seldom booked alongside rock bands, in the United States at least. Rawley Bornstein, an MTV music and talent programmer, described EDM as "the new rock and roll," as has Lollapalooza organizer Perry Ferrell. Ray Waddell, touring editor at Billboard magazine, noted that festival promoters have done an excellent job at branding.

See also

• Dance music
• Disco polo
• Timeline of electronic music genres
• List of electronic dance music record labels
• List of electronic musicians
• Electronica
• Freetekno
• Rave music
• Remix

References

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8. Nelson, George (2003). The Death of Rhythm and Blues. Penguin. ISBN 1101160675. Synthesizers of every description, drum machines, and plain old electric keyboards began making MFSB and other human rhythm sessions nonessential to the recording process. For producers, a control-oriented bunch, this was heaven. No more rehearsals. Low session fees. An artist who envisioned himself as a future Stevie Wonder—the first great one-man synthesizer band—could express his creativity in the basement or the bathroom.
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11. Fikentscher (2000:5), in discussing the definition of underground dance music as it relates to post-disco music in America, states that: "The prefix 'underground' does not merely serve to explain that the associated type of music - and its cultural context - are familiar only to a small number of informed persons. Underground also points to the sociological function of the music, framing it as one type of music that in order to have meaning and continuity is kept away, to large degree, from mainstream society, mass media, and those empowered to enforce prevalent moral and aesthetic codes and values." Fikentscher, K. (2000), You Better Work!: Underground Dance Music in New York, Wesleyan University Press, Hanover, NH.
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15. Cosgrove 1988a. Although it can now be heard in Detroit's leading clubs, the local area has shown a marked reluctance to get behind the music. It has been in clubs like the Powerplant (Chicago), The World (New York), The Hacienda (Manchester), Rock City (Nottingham) and Downbeat (Leeds) where the techno sound has found most support. Ironically, the only Detroit club which really championed the sound was a peripatetic party night called Visage, which unromantically shared its name with one of Britain's oldest new romantic groups.
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Further reading

• Hewitt, Michael. Music Theory for Computer Musicians. 1st Ed. U.S. Cengage Learning, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59863-503-4
• Electronic dance music glossary by Moby for USA Today published December 13, 2011

• Electronic dance music