Electronic
Electronic music is music which uses non-traditional electronic instrumentation and sound manipulation technology as the primary musical backbone of a composition.
In its original form, as pioneered by avant-garde classical composers like Edgard Varèse and Karlheinz Stockhausen, electronic music compositions were abstract noise collages created through the use of tape loops, oscillators, sirens and field recordings. Arguably the first composer to create electronic music using traditional rhythms and melodies was Raymond Scott.
Since the 1960s, starting with bands like Silver Apples and White Noise, electronic music has filtered into pop music, with its commercial breakthrough arguably occurring in the 1980s with the advent of Synthpop.
Acid Croft
(also known as Celtic Electronica, Cool Croft)
Acid croft is a form of Electronic music which incorporates elements of Celtic Folk Music and Celtic Rock. Acid croft artists draw on a number of electronic genres such as Downtempo, House and Trance. The genre initially begun with Shooglenifty's 1994 album Venus in Tweeds and was later adopted by other Scottish artists such as Afro Celt Sound System, Peatbog Faeries, Skilda, Tartan Amoebas, The Easy Club and Croft No. Five.
Ambient Dub
Ambient dub is an Electronic fusion of Ambient and Dub reggae, featuring the atmosphere of the former and the Jamaican-style basslines, percussion, and psychedelic production techniques of the latter.
The name of the genre was coined by Beyond with a series of compilation albums of the same name, starting with Ambient Dub, Volume One - The Big Chill in 1992. Many of the prominent artists within the genre also perform or mix in elements of Dub Techno or Ambient Techno, which has led to confusion over ambient dub's actual sound. While the lines are blurred between these three electronic genres, ambient dub can genuinely be discerned by its denser atmospheres, a heavier use of reverb and/or delay, and an emphasis on bass akin to traditional dub.
Berlin School
This genre receives its name from having been pioneered in Berlin in the 1970s by Progressive Electronic artists such as Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and Ashra, and pioneering was much in connection with Krautrock. Much prominence is placed on evolving, often multi-layered sequencer textures, from atmospheric to hypnotic, at the expense of percussion-based rhythms. An affinity for analog synthesizers and definite lead melodies serve to distinguish the genre from more rhythmic forms of Ambient, although the border is quite fluid.
Bit Music
Music created with electronic sound chips, often for video games, their consoles, and musicians emulating their sound.
Bitpop
Bitpop is a style that fuses Bit Music with additional synths, beats, guitars and modern production values, emphasising highly catchy melodies and relatively fast tempos.
Emerging most prominently in the early 2000s, the style developed from the late 1980s/early 1990s Demoscene, a subculture where computer programmers would create tech demos featuring both graphics and sound clips. The particular 'bleeps' and 'bloops' of the bit music in these demos results from the limitations of the hardware used. Artists typically drew sounds from 8-bit (or Chiptune) and 16-bit video game consoles (including the Commodore 64, Game Boy, Atari 2600 and Nintendo Entertainment System), as well as Sequencer & MIDI textures. Early blueprints for bitpop were set by Synthpop group Yellow Magic Orchestra who utilised chiptune in some of their early releases, as well as later work by Welle: Erdball, who also incorporated elements of EBM into their sound.
Whilst mostly an underground/internet-dominated scene, some of the more well-known bitpop acts include Anamanaguchi, Slagsmålsklubben and Thermostatic. In Japan, a frantic, often child-like variant called Picopop is seen as a spiritual successor to the Shibuya-kei movement of the 1990s.
Chillwave
(also known as Glo-Fi)
Chillwave is a style of Indietronica music, which originated predominantly from America in the summer of 2009. Chillwave artists emulate lo-fi aesthetics, such as extensive reverb, often centering on a vocalist's Pop melodies. The ways these lo-fi aesthetics and pop melodies manifest can be reminiscent of Dream Pop, Noise Pop, and/or Sunshine Pop, but chillwave artists are distinctive in their variability of recording methods and use of recent technology (e.g., laptops, samplers, etc.).
Chiptune
(also known as Chip Music, 8-Bit)
Chiptune is a style of music where all sounds are created using vintage computer or video game console sound chips. Initially the sound was popular throughout the 1980s in the form of specifically 8-bit Video Game Music, for example, Koji Kondo's soundtrack for Super Mario Bros. and the soundtrack for Mega Man 2. More recently, the term has also been used to describe music that sounds like genuine 8-bit chip music but that is created using more advanced technology, such as software emulators. This has made the creation of chiptune more widespread in an underground culture of amateur composers.
Chiptune provide a small number of channels to work with, each creating a different sound wave. For example, the chip in the Nintendo Entertainment System has 5 channels: two pulse waves, one triangle wave, one white noise channel, and one DPCM channel which was also capable of pulse-code modulation (PCM) sound. Composers developed techniques to overcome limitations of the chips, such as using fast arpeggios to mimic chords. These all come together to provide the distinctive 'bleeps' and 'bloops' of the chiptune sound.
As sound hardware in game consoles and personal computers evolved, the simplistic chiptune sound was replaced by 16-bit (FM, wavetable synthesis and sampling, ex. Sega Genesis, TurboGrafx-16 and SNES respectively) and Sequencer & MIDI (MIDI and sampling, ex. IBM-compatible PCs and Amiga).
Alongside more advanced Bit Music, Chiptune is often used in combination with other synths and beats to create Bitpop.
Darksynth
(also known as Dreadwave)
Darksynth emerged in the early 2010s as Synthwave artists incorporated atmospheric Horror Synth and fast tempos into a much heavier and darker style. Music videos and album artwork moved away from synthwave's 1980s aesthetics and embraced ultra-violent horror, action, and satanic imagery. The genre received significant attention from the critically acclaimed soundtracks for the video games Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number. Both soundtracks featured many darksynth pioneers such as Perturbator, Carpenter Brut, Mega Drive, and Scattle.
The Blood Music label primarily released extreme metal records until Perturbator was signed on and released Dangerous Days in 2014. The album's popularity has made Blood Music one of the dominant music labels in the genre as more darksynth artists were signed in its wake. These artists are marketed similarly to the metal acts on the label and exhibit similarly loud and distorted production. Both of these characteristics would become fundamental to darksynth as their underground contemporaries followed suit.
As darksynth grows in popularity, its continued development has lead to more unique styles that distinguish the genre from its synthwave origins. Perturbator and Mega Drive moved away from horror synth and introduced Electro-Industrial influences into the genre while Dance With the Dead and Carpenter Brut popularized Electro House rhythms along with the use of Heavy Metal riffs and solos. GosT and Abstract Void have also become notable for their strong Black Metal influences.
Digital Cumbia
(also known as Electro Cumbia, Electronic Cumbia)
Digital cumbia mixes an electronic sound into traditional Cumbia through influences from House, Dancehall, Hyphy and Dubstep. It originated largely in Buenos Aires at the Zizek club and from ZZK Records.
Downtempo
A type of relaxed, low intensity Electronic music which emerged from the Ibiza club scene. Often instrumental, it features slower tempos than House or Techno and tends to be more groove-driven than Ambient.
Dungeon Synth
(also known as Fantasy Music)
Dungeon synth (also known as fantasy music) is an Electronic genre which emerged in the early 1990s, stylistically related to orchestral soundtracks/scores and Ambient music. Where the purpose of a film score is to set the mood accompanying visual scenery, dungeon synth can be considered a similar concept using sound only, making it a score without a film. In this sense, the genre is a highly narrative form of music, with "scenes" that are played out in almost theatrical fashion. Synthesisers and keyboards are the primary instruments of choice, with vocals, samples and acoustic instruments also frequently used.
Pioneered by artists such as Mortiis and Pazuzu, the intention of dungeon synth is generally to evoke settings of fantasy and adventure, drawing inspiration from European mythology, fantasy writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien, fairy tales, as well as role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. Dark Ambient music, Western Classical Music, and Darkwave are often cited as influences for the mood and atmosphere of dungeon synth.
EDM
(Electronic Dance Music)
Electronic Dance Music was pioneered in the second half of the 1970s by producers such as Giorgio Moroder or Cerrone, who developed Electro- Disco, replacing influences of early Disco, like R&B or Soul, by electronic sounds, using synthesizers, drum machines, faster bpm and metronomic, monotonous rhythms. Electro-Disco quickly spawned other subgenres such as Italo-Disco or Hi-NRG.
House music was pioneered in the early 1980s and Techno in the mid-1980s. During the 1980s Electronic Dance Music became the dominant force of dance music and it evolved quickly into different genres, with the introduction and increased affordability of new instruments such as the Roland TR-808 drum machine, the Roland TB-303 synthesizer, the Akai Samplers, and technological standards like MIDI. In 1987-88 House went mainstream and DJs became stars, spawning a whole Electronic Dance Music culture that lasts to these days. In the 1990s EDM was massively popular, particularly in Europe, and genres such as Hardcore [EDM], Eurodance and Trance were developed.
Electronic Dance Music genres are commonly categorized based on beats per minute (bpm), the slowest tempos range from 60-90 bpm, whereas genres such as Speedcore surpass an average of 240 bpm. Genres are also defined by the usage of melody, for instance Happy Hardcore is upbeat and catchy in contrast to Terrorcore. Eurodance is melodic, Pop oriented and popular amongst non-clubbers, in contrast to genres like Schranz or Hard Trance, which are more underground and aimed only for clubbers.
In the 2010s, Electronic Dance Music was more successful than ever, and was one of the most popular styles of music even in the US Top 40 Charts.
See also: Genres of Dance Music
Electroacoustic
Electroacoustic music is based on manipulation of acoustically-played ("unplugged") music with Experimental Electronic ("plugged") techniques such as loops, feedback, layering, delay, static/noise, backwards sampling, etc. It also tends to include synthetic sounds and is closely related to Tape Music, Musique concrète, acousmatic music, and elektronische musik (these terms are sometimes used interchangeably). Live performances tend to feature one or more people on acoustic instruments, and another group member sitting at a laptop computer applying the sound processing techniques in real-time.
Electroacoustic pioneers such as Bernard Parmegiani and Karlheinz Stockhausen were typically academically trained Modern Classical composers: their compositions are arranged with the refined sensibility of classical compositions and tend to focus on sounds of Orchestral-based instruments like viols and woodwinds. However, electroacoustic music involves the electronic manipulation of all sorts of sounds, including voice and sounds that do not originate from musical instruments (Musique concrète). Furthermore, although having originated from the academic compositional sphere, it is not strictly a classical style. It has developed and expanded into less academic and more non-idiomatic styles such as EAI, and has seeped into underground music styles similar to or involving elements of Ambient, Drone, Noise, or Sound Collage. Virtually all of the incarnations of electroacoustic music, whether early academic or recent underground, involve a style that focuses more on employing creative abstract sounds and sonic textures than on song structure or melody.
Electroacoustic Improvisation
Electroacoustic Improvisation is a difficult to define style of Free Improvisation characterised by a very slow moving, physical, textured aesthetic, often created using unconventional instruments (like prepared guitars and turntables) processed through a laptop computer. It takes influence from a wide range of improvised music - such as Noise, Drone and experimental Jazz - although the sheer uniqueness of the genre makes it difficult to precisely pin down its development. It maintains a keen underground following worldwide, with labels such as Mego, Improvised Music From Japan and Erstwhile regularly releasing records from many of the key figures in the genre.
Electro-Industrial
(also known as Elektro)
Electro-industrial is a form of Industrial Music formed in the late 1980s and early 1990s that grew out of a combination of EBM and Industrial. It maintains some of the danceability of EBM but trades in the clean and stripped down approach of EBM for the harsher elements and more layered and complex sound of older industrial. It often has a much more modern feel to it than the typical industrial music of the 1980s, in part due to technological advances that have been made since then.
Electro latino
Electro latino is a style of popular dance music originated by DJs in Dominican Republic during the late 2000s which adds a Latin twist to the global Dance-Pop sound. According to Spanish DJ nationalized Dominican Juan Magan, electro latino is made with electronic instruments mixed with conventional instruments, as the typical Dominican guitars or Colombian accordions. Hooks are often derived from Bachata, Vallenato or Merengue and that is why it is considered as the evolution of Latin House.
It differs from Reggaeton with the absence of dembow beats and through the use of a higher BPM. The genre extended its original urban merengue sound to get a more pan-Latin (pop produced) sound which has achieved significant mainstream popularity in Latin America and Europe.
Electropop
Electropop is a subgenre of electronic pop music characterized by a distinctive low frequency synthesizer sound which might variously be described as crisp, crunchy, crackly, fuzzy, warm, distorted or dirty. Not to be confused with the cleaner sounding Dance-Pop or the sparser sounding Synthpop.
Despite first emerging as early as the 1970s via artists such as Yellow Magic Orchestra, Telex and Yello, electropop only achieved significant mass market popularity during the 2000s, thanks in part to the renewed popularity of the electro sound in a mainstream dance music style known as Electro House.
Electro Swing
Electro swing is an upbeat, energetic style that splices Swing with Electronic Dance Music, looking to recapture the atmosphere of late-1920s to mid-1940s Jazz within a more updated club-friendly medium. Producers use insistent brass samples, often one 'playful' lone repeated hook performed on trumpet, clarinet or saxophone, overlaid with steady, pulsing beats, usually 4/4 House music, as well as utilising Hip Hop samples and techniques.
Initially emerging in the wake of the 1990s Swing Revival (two of the more famous electro swing examples during this time being Doop's Doop and Mr. Scruff's Get a Move On!), the style found greater success in the late 2000s with artists such as Caravan Palace and Parov Stelar. In the 2010s, on top of the commercial success of tracks like We No Speak Americano and Why Don't You, electro swing found a decent following in southern England. Throughout London and specifically at the 'White Mink' club in Brighton, live acts are frequently showcased, as well as DJs playing remixes and Mashups (both of existing swing tracks and covers of non-jazz songs done in the style). Performances are also regularly visually-themed to fit with the retro 1920s-1940s music, such as burlesque shows, trilbies, suspenders, bow ties, T-strap shoes and other fashion tropes of the era.
Electrotango
(also known as Tango Fusion)
A further development of Tango Nuevo genre, electrotango combines Tango rhythms and melodies with Electronic music. Electrotango bands use live instruments associated with tango (such as bandoneón, violin and double bass) along with synthesizers, drum machines and samplers.
Primary examples of electrotango sound include Bajofondo, Tanghetto and Gotan Project. The latter are often considered the pioneers of the genre.
FM Synthesis
(also known as FM, FM Synth, Frequency Modulation Synthesis)
FM synthesis (short for "frequency modulation") is a type of sound synthesis that combines the simple square, triangle, sawtooth, and noise waveforms of Chiptune with modulating oscillators similar to those used in FM radio to create a new synth sound that is bouncier and less crisp. FM synthesis was patented in 1973, and the Yamaha DX7 would become the first mass-produced consumer synthesizer using FM synthesis in 1983.
FM synthesis would be first used in the context of video games through the Yamaha OPM chip in a variety of arcade cabinets in the mid-to-late 1980s, starting with Atari's Marble Madness in 1984. Sega, one prominent producer of arcade games using the chip, would use FM synthesis for game music on its Sega Mega Drive/Genesis home console in 1988 through the Yamaha OPN2 sound chip, lending its distinctive sound to game soundtracks like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 which combined a chiptune-like composition style with this more advanced type of synthesis. Similar Yamaha chips were used in the Neo Geo and on IBM-compatible DOS systems with sound cards like the AdLib and the Sound Blaster, giving many PC games of the early and mid-1990s the same sound and style.
Although FM synthesis has had influence on synthesizers used in music outside of video games, the chiptune-influenced style of FM synthesis composition has remained fairly niche outside of this context. A few artists in the 2000s underground chiptune scene would experiment with the sound but it has generally remained unused even in video games after the popularisation of Sequencer & MIDI hardware.
Folktronica
Folktronica is the direct combination of diverse forms of Folk music with various modern Electronic genres, such as IDM and Glitch, as popularised by artists like Four Tet and the Books.
Futurepop
As EBM began to decline in popularity, a more modern version of the genre began to emerge in its place in the mid/late '90s. It features a danceable sound with heavy Synthpop influences, and has become popular mainly in clubs throughout the world, particularly in Europe. Futurepop retains the apocalyptic worldview of EBM and Industrial (a more distant predecessor) but generally adds the more melodic elements of Synthpop and some club-friendly Trance influences. The progenitors of the genre are usually considered to be VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berzerk, and Covenant.
Glitch
Glitch is a style of experimental Electronic music that uses the sounds created by malfunctioning digital technology — bugs, crashes, system errors, hardware noise, CD skipping, and digital distortion — as a main technique of composition. This unusual method of musical creation arguably began in Germany in the early 90s, with artists like Oval combining the technique with Ambient music to help cement its place in modern electronic music history. At the other end of the Glitch spectrum, Japanese musician 刀根康尚 [Yasunao Tone]'s use of damaged CDs created dense, extreme walls of sound, with Solo for Wounded CD perhaps being the best example. Modern glitch tends to use software to recreate these sounds, as opposed to genuinely defecting technology, and this increased ease of creation has resulted in the genre spreading out into other areas, such as Glitch Pop and Glitch Hop.
Glitch Hop
Glitch hop, as the name implies, is a combination of Hip Hop beats with elements of Glitch music. While the genre has its early roots in the late 1990s with IDM artists such as Autechre and Funkstorung, glitch hop really started to take shape in the early 2000s with electronic producers Prefuse 73 and Dabrye (both of whom released their debut albums on June 11 2001) fusing Hip Hop instrumentals with glitchy effects and techniques including beat repeaters, sweeps cutting, skipping, repeating, chopping and bit crush reduction. Later in the mid 2000s, artists from Los Angeles such as Daedelus and edIT further expanded the genre by including influences from other music genres such as Folktronica.
In 2006, the Low End Theory night club was established in Los Angeles by producer and Alpha Pup Records label head Daddy Kev and would become the epicenter of the burgeoning Los Angeles' instrumental hip hop scene. The collective of producers that would frequent the venue (including Flying Lotus and his associated Brainfeeder label, Nosaj Thing, The Gaslamp Killer and Shlohmo) became associated with the colloquially titled L.A. beat scene. These artists employed J Dilla's unqantised and off-kilter approach to beatmaking and experimented with other different styles and techniques, melding Instrumental Hip Hop, Dubstep, Ambient and Jazz music among other genres. Many of these artists went on to define the Wonky sound.
By the 2010s, the genre was adopted by Electronic Dance Music DJs that increasingly drew influence from the maximalist, bass-focused sounds of Brostep and Neurofunk with acts like edIT's The Glitch Mob, Pretty Lights and KOAN Sound headlining festivals around the world. Meanwhile, producers on independent labels such as Matthewdavid's Leaving Records continued to push the boundaries of the genre by stripping away traditional structure, rhythm and form. The fractured, lo-fi sample constructions of artists like Ahnnu and dakim blurred the lines between sample based hip hop, Plunderphonics and experimental Sound Collage.
Glitch Pop
Glitch Pop is a genre mostly based on the roots of experimental Electronic elements and modern Pop. Productions following the style incorporate the concrete/abstract sounds from Glitch and IDM to a pop songwriting format, mostly related with Synthpop, Art Pop and Indietronica (and on more recent cases Alternative R&B). Some of the newer glitch pop productions lack the experimental techniques of the original scene to allow a more commercial sound but still follow with the simple definition of its glitchy-sounding format.
Grime
Emerging from London, England, during the early 2000s, Grime is a musical style heavily influenced by a wide range of urban genres, most noticeably UK Garage, as well as Drum and Bass, Dancehall and Hip Hop. It is typically characterised by dark, fast paced, often aggressive beats (generally around 140bpm), as well as lyrical themes that range from social commentary to insults aimed towards rival emcees.
Horror Synth
(also known as Electronic Horror)
Horror synth is a music genre that originated in horror film scores from the 1970s and 80s, such as those composed by John Carpenter and Goblin. These synthesizer-heavy scores utilized sharp, abrasive electronic sounds as well as eerie, haunting synth pads to create atmospheres that accentuated the dark, unnerving, violent or ghostly themes of their films.
Using modern computer technology as well as classic synthesizers, contemporary horror synth artists are influenced by and draw their inspiration from John Carpenter, Goblin and other composers of 70s and 80s horror synth film scores. These contemporary horror synth artists (such as GosT, Zombi, Défago, Tommy Creep, Umberto and Werewolves in Siberia) create music that retains the dark mood, atmosphere and cinematic style of the early horror synth composers but many also incorporate faster, highly danceable tempos into their compositions.
Illbient
Illbient originated from the British and New York underground urban scene during the early to mid-90s. The term was first used by DJ Olive in 1994, as a wordplay on the words "ill" (a Hip Hop slang that has a positive expression) and Ambient. The term wasn't used to describe the genre until two years later with producer DJ Spooky. Developed in parallel with Trip Hop and Ambient Dub, it is sometimes confused with the two. The genre had its peak during 1996-2002 but it still remains underground even for today.
The production of illbient is mostly oriented in combining ambient soundscapes with hip hop drum patterns, breaks, and samples through the busy effect layering of Dub. Sampling is used in order to give its atmosphere and songs are often beat and loop-based. The sound is actually diverse is nature, since various artists experimented with other genres that include Post-Industrial (Scorn, Techno Animal), Drum and Bass (We ™, The Third Eye Foundation), and Nu Jazz. Instrumentals are very common, with a few tracks having vocals from hip hop MCs in the cases of Techno Animal, DJ Spooky, and Spectre.
Indietronica
Indietronica combines the melody and directness of Indie Pop songs with the sonic experimentation of electronica. It began in the early to mid 1990s with Rock-rooted bands like Stereolab and Broadcast who were influenced by Krautrock, Synthpop, and other past or contemporary forms of Electronic music. For instrumentation, artists were typically limited to cheap, affordable equipment. After the early 2000s, the number of artists grew exponentially thanks to the convenience of home recording and software synthesizers. Further examples of the genre are múm, Lali Puna, and Schneider TM.
Latin Electronic
(also known as Latintronica)
Movement that combines Electronic music with Latin American music influences that started at the end of the 1990s. Specific scenes like Digital Cumbia and Nortec developed around Buenos Aires and Tijuana, respectively, but this also encompasses a wider array of genre mixtures.
Microsound
(also known as Micromontage)
Also known as micromontage, microsound is the usage of sounds on an incredibly small scale. These sounds usually last from 10 milliseconds to less than a tenth of a second. By arranging and manipulating these sounds digitally, complex patterns and compositions can be made in ways that aren't possible via solely acoustic means.
Microsound shares some similarities with Lowercase, as both genres use microsounds and work to magnify and structure songs around sounds that would otherwise be inaudible or not focused on. However, microsound as a genre is focused almost entirely on being produced digitally, and is more structurally focused than the often improvised nature of lowercase. The genre also shares similarities with Glitch music, to the point where the terms "microsound" and "glitch" are often conflated. While glitch can be incorporated into microsound, microsound is more deliberate in its nature and does not focus on emulating malfunctioning technology or sounds in order to be created.
Examples of artists in the genre include Ryoji Ikeda (who also incorporates elements of Minimal Techno in his music, as well as incorporating his music in sound installations), Miki Yui, Bernhard Günter, Richard Chartier, and Curtis Roads, who penned the textbook Microsound (2001) describing the genre and its origins.
Minimal Wave
(also known as Synth Wave)
Minimal wave was coined as a genre name in retrospect. It makes reference to the most electronic and minimal forms of New Wave, Coldwave, Synthpop and Post-Punk. In its most purely electronic and synth-driven form, it is called Minimal Synth. It is also referred to as synth wave and minimal electronics (instrumental minimal synth).
In comparison to mainstream synthpop, the minimal wave sound is sparse, amateurish, stripped down and lo-fi, using analog synthesizers, drum machines and pre-MIDI electronics. The singing is unconventional, with detached and cold vocals. Minimal wave was mainly developed during the years 1979-85, especially in Belgium, France and Germany. Most bands kept a low profile and a DIY ethic, sometimes releasing self-published cassettes or limited editions by private labels. Since the mid-2000s, the interest in the genre has become more widespread, with several reissues and new releases by labels such as Minimal Wave and Anna Logue Records.
Minimal Synth
In its most common form Minimal Synth is entirely based on analog synthesizers and drum machines.
Minimal Synth golden era was from late 1970s to mid 1980s, obviously it never was aimed for MTV/VH1 play and has remained underground. The genre is characterised by dark and moody tones. It has a bleak stripped down sound, with raw analog synths, a pulsating drum beat, and cold/detached vocals. This same sort of music without the vocals is also referred to as Minimal Electronics.
Minimal Synth records tend to show a DIY quality, some are pretty experimental when compared to other forms of pop music. The overarching genre of most early '80s synth pop is New Wave, the same applies for minimal synth, the umbrella genre is New Wave in its minimal form: Minimal Wave. The Minimal Synth features explained in this description are often favoured by dark wavers and the avant-garde pop and electronic music fans.
Many Minimal Synth records were released in very limited quantities at the time, so have become collectors’ items and 7"s can go for several hundred dollars at online auction sites. Even current acts, such as The Phone and Jonni Mogul, and releases by labels such as Attractive! Co-ordinates and Anna Logue Records are increasingly sought after.
Some examples of influential artists are John Foxx, Kraftwerk, Visage, Brian Eno, YMO, The Human League, David Bowie, and Soft Cell. Some noteworthy minimal synth artists include: Nini Raviolette, Jeff & Jane Hudson, ADN' Ckrystall, Guyer's Connection, The Short Wave Mystery, Oviformia-SCI and Napalm Babies.
Musique Concrète
Developed by Pierre Schaeffer, musique concrète refers to music or sound art which defies the common constraints and conventions music is associated with. Musique concrète makes the attempt to create music while relying mainly on environmental/real-world sounds and noises, though it can also use recordings of human voice and various instruments. Those sounds can be transformed (sometimes to the point the original source is unrecognizable) and are given certain musical qualities thanks to repetition, rhythmization, contrapuntal layering or other formal techniques.
The name "concrete music" contrasts with the traditional "abstract music". Whereas abstract music starts as an idea in the mind of the composer and is then turned into sound, concrete music begins with the already existing sounds, composition being the last stage of its creation.
Neurohop
Surfacing in mid-2011, neurohop combines the hard-hitting mid-tempo beats of Glitch Hop with the complex basses of Neurofunk. The product is heavily focused on sound design, frantic and mechanical with Hip Hop tempos around 80-115BPM. Some of neurohop's notable features are: foley percussion, granular synthesis, glitchy sound design, compressed drums, and heavily processed basses. Caliber Music is responsible for releasing some of the first neurohop compilations.
Nightcore
(also known as NXC)
Nightcore is a genre of Electronic music that began in the early 2000s. The genre's origins can be traced back to the works of Thomas S. Nilse and Steffen Ojala Søderholm in their titular collaborative project Nightcore. These works, as well as all works in the genre, are based around the speeding up of already existing songs, increasing the BPM to be usually near 200. The genre is characterized by high-pitched vocals and a generally cutesy tone. These songs are often produced in free, easy to use programs such as Audacity, and are often uploaded to YouTube, SoundCloud and (earlier in nightcore's history) LimeWire. Generally, these songs are used without the consent of the remixed artists. Releases typically take from Eurodance and Vocal Trance, but more recent releases have taken a broader approach to production, often remixing Alternative Rock, Contemporary R&B, and Indie Folk while using the same blanket term of "nightcore". Visuals of anime characters and fantasy landscapes are often associated with the genre.
It is not uncommon for nightcore DJs to slightly modify the tracks being remixed, such as adding in additional breaks or producing the track beyond the process of simply speeding it up. Since the start of the 2010s, the style has begun to greatly grow in popularity. This is reflected by the rise of many nightcore labels such as Manicure Records and DJs such as Jack that specialize in creating and showcasing nightcore for a wider audience. Nightcore has been a direct influence of several musicians, including Lido, Ryan Hemsworth and many producers affiliated with the PC Music label.
Nortec
The name of the genre is a portmanteau of Norteño and Techno but in itself, Nortec is electronic music created by a collection of artists mostly from the US-Mexico border town Tijuana, sampling and synthesizing sounds/beats from traditional Banda Sinaloense and Norteño into a unique translation of Latin American Music/Modern Mexican Music music into an IDM/House-type form.
Nu Jazz
(also known as Future Jazz, Electro-jazz)
Like the terms electronica and jazz, nu jazz is a loosely defined umbrella musical style. It ranges from combining live instrumentation with beats of jazz house (exemplified by the French St Germain, the German Jazzanova and Fila Brazillia from the UK) to more band-based improvised jazz with electronic elements (such as that of the The Cinematic Orchestra from the UK, the Belgian PhusionCulture, Mexican duo Kobol, nu jazz improvisation collective, the Norwegian "future jazz" style pioneered by Bugge Wesseltoft, Jaga Jazzist, Nils Petter Molvær, and others.)
Picopop
Picopop is a Japanese style of music that is primarily characterized by a heavy use of electronic instruments and effects with an often frantic, fun, and cute Pop leaning. Accordingly it often captures a child-like approach to the music and uses such imagery in the releases' artwork. Many of the artists involved were raised on Shibuya-kei in the 90s and while many see this scene as an update of that style, in truth it has its own approach that differs significantly. Its name references the prominent Chiptune sounds although it uses occasional Electropop and Rock elements as well. The genre emerged in the early and mid 00s with groups like Plus-Tech Squeeze Box, Strawberry Machine, Hazel Nuts Chocolate, EeL, and Sonic Coaster Pop.
Plunderphonics
Plunderphonics is a term invented by John Oswald in his essay, Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative, and refers to the compositional technique of utilising and manipulating one or more pre-existing audio sources to create a new composition. It is an Experimental form of sound art that uses similar techniques found in Sound Collage. Where plunderphonics differs from sound collage is usually in the execution/composition and the end result's links to more traditional music genres. A plunderphonics song could essentially be a soundscape of assorted layered samples in the same way a sound collage piece is put together; it could just as easily be a rhythmic Electronic piece made up entirely of pre-existing materials, such as is heard on The Avalanches' Since I Left You.
In his essay, Oswald describes this form of modern sample-based music as an extension of previous modes and methods of traditional composition. For example, he compares the instruments used by traditional musicians - such as the piano - as being a vehicle for composition. In the world of plunderphonics, the digital sampler is the vehicle for composition. This is compared to the Hip Hop method of scratching and sampling vinyl records within their songs as being a vehicle for composition. However, music containing samples and sample-based plunderphonics are still radically different fields. Plunderphonics itself is driven almost entirely by the sonic desires of the composer, using the samples as an instrument in their own right, as opposed to using them as an added "extra" within a song.
An overarching theme of both the essay and the music of plunderphonics on the whole - as the name implies - is the legality of sampling itself. Oswald attempts to justify the use of manipulation pre-existing sounds (legal or more commonly illegally acquired) with comparisons to traditional music tactics, such as indie bands attempting to sonically "copy" the sounds of more popular artists. A quote by Igor Stravinsky is included, "A good composer does not imitate; he steals." This extends to examples such as James Tenney's Collage #1 [Blue Suede], which is a Tape Music manipulation of Elvis Presley's song "Blue Suede Shoes" (the essay also refers to this song as being "borrowed" from Carl Perkins, who composed it originally).
One of the biggest arguments for sample-based music being justifiable is the plethora of popular music utilising pre-existing musical elements in new compositions, such as the example given of Herbie Hancock sampling Led Zeppelin on his track "Rockit". Lastly, in his essay Oswald argues that all Pop (and Folk) music essentially exists in the public domain due to how persistently one is bombarded with it, attempting to justify the manipulative usage of these recordings.
As a result, many musicians within the world of plunderphonics employ almost anarchistic mindsets in creating their sample-based compositions. Many releases focus entirely around the usage and legality of sampling, such as prominent sound collaging band Negativland's No Business. Band member Don Joyce also coined the term "culture jamming" in 1984, around the same time as the concepts of plunderphonics were being developed. The act itself is a form of guerilla anti-consumerism, which extends to music in the form of satirical jabs at culture and industry (such as the band's Dispepsi album, focusing entirely around soda giant Pepsi).
Expanding on the concept of turntable-based hip hop sampling, artists from the 90s onwards explored the idea of creating a mashup of stems/layers of other songs into a new piece of music. Danger Mouse's The Grey Album helped to popularise the concept, leading to a number of underground mashup mixes, even breaking into the mainstream with authorised and legal mashups such as Collision Course. Mashups are generally a less radical or experimental form of plunderphonics, usually danceable and often humorous in their approach. However, the concept of pop recycling is still apparent, such as is heard in the Radio Soulwax DJ mixes of 2 Many DJ's, which are solely made out of mashups of different pop songs (usually to a House beat).
With the increase in home computer use, the higher speeds and abilities of the internet, as well as both the underground and more public access to content piracy, sample-based music has become much easier to produce. While early composers used Musique concrète and other avant-garde and usually tape-based sampling to create their plunderphonics music, modern compositions often utilise manipulations of digital audio files. The counter-cultural mentality is still apparent in many recordings, but many artists use plunderphonics as a mode of creating their own sonic concepts, ignoring potential copyright violations in the process.
Progressive Electronic
Progressive Electronic is a genre that began at the end of the 1960s. Its sound is marked by use of synthesizers and it draws influence from Progressive Rock, Classical Music and Ambient.
This genre should not be applied to progressive Electronic Dance Music, such as Progressive House and Progressive Trance.
Psybient
(also known as Psychedelic Ambient, Psychill)
Psybient is a type of Electronic music also widely known as psychill. While not a direct descendant of Psytrance or Goa Trance, psybient draws heavy influence from both and emphasizes atmosphere and timbre in a similar manner as Ambient music.
The style has its roots in the trend of artists in psytrance and goa trance scenes composing slower and calmer chillout tracks that were often put at the end of a release. Although several full psybient albums had been released already, the 1998 Shpongle album Are You Shpongled? is considered to be the most notable in popularizing the genre.
Sequencer & MIDI
(also known as MIDI & MOD, Tracker & MIDI, Sequenced Game Music)
Sequencer & MIDI refers to the music composed for (and in the style of) various home computer and console games pre-early 2000s. The genre dates back to the late 1980s with music electronically-created using 'tracker' software (and associated with the Module 'MOD' file format) written for the Amiga, for example, Shadow of the Beast. While this original brand of tracker music is sometimes referred to as 'chiptunes', they should not be confused with the style Chiptune, which strictly uses 8-bit chip-based audio (or similar emulators).
The style and technology, particularly MIDI, is commonly associated with MS-DOS and Windows PC games in the 1990s, such as the Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, The Secret of Monkey Island, Doom, Jazz Jackrabbit and System Shock soundtracks. Consoles such as the Nintendo 64 used cartridge technology, and as a result typically utilized MIDI music (examples being 近藤浩治 [Koji Kondo]'s work on Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time) instead of the emerging CD-quality audio capabilities of their closest rivals, Sony’s PlayStation. However, a lot of music created for the PlayStation was still heavily sequenced (植松伸夫 [Nobuo Uematsu]'s Final Fantasy VII Original Sound Track soundtrack even opting to stick with the limitations of MIDI). Alongside the familiar-sounding rough-hewn synth tones and sequenced brass sounds, some PlayStation games with sequenced music often featured higher quality, non-sequencer & MIDI pieces, using live instrumentation and pre-recording (for example, "To the End of the Wilderness" from Wild Arms, "The Best is Yet to Come" from Metal Gear Solid, "Liberi Fatali" from Final Fantasy VIII Original Soundtrack and "Time's Scar" from Chrono Cross). Many higher quality original soundtracks on the PlayStation (and other contemporary and later consoles) were influenced by the compositional style (along with 16-bit), utilizing a similar synth-heavy, artificial, often energetic sound (examples being Spyro the Dragon, 悪魔城ドラキュラX～月下の夜想曲～ オリジナル・ゲーム・サントラ (Akumajo Dracula X ~Gekka no Nocturne~ Original Game Soundtrack) and more recent Final Fantasy games).
Sequencer & MIDI music began to decline in interest with the advent of heavily-produced, pre-recorded and CD-quality audio in games, with some of the last high profile soundtrack releases to use either MIDI or heavily sequenced music being Alexander Brandon & Straylight Productions' tracker-based work on Deus Ex and Unreal Tournament on the PC; Perfect Dark and Banjo-Tooie on the N64; and some later games on the GameCube, for example, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. With technological advances, the difference between sampled and live music has become more and more subtle over the years. As a result, whilst some more recent console games on the PlayStation 2 and the Wii used sequenced music, the quality of the internal synths are significantly higher. With the odd exception, this meant sequencer & MIDI faded out during the early 2000s as a detectable mainstream electronic style in game music.
Alongside other Bit Music styles, 8-bit chiptune and 16-bit (which sequencer & MIDI music developed alongside), the audio limitations and music sequencer programs used lend MIDI and MOD music a certain overarching compositional style and soundframe that is familiar and distinctly "game music". This is heard both in its intention to provide accompanying atmosphere and ambience to a game’s visual (and SFX) elements and its influences and incorporation of various Electronic Dance Music styles such as Trance, Techno, Electro and Breakbeat, as well as more downbeat Ambient, Industrial Music and Western Classical Music elements (and later on the 1990s, various Regional Music influences were common) within the sequencer and MIDI framework. Some of the style (alongside 16-bit) incorporates and overlaps with Dungeon Synth, which, when used in soundtracks, is associated with RPG games and specifically dungeon levels. Sequencer & MIDI's raw, now rudimentary-sounding synthetic textures and tones help define an era in video game music, one that is conceivably the last true cohesive electronic game music style before dynamic, higher quality game soundtracks of any and every genre and timbre replaced sequencer & MIDI for good.
Artists have also created music in the style that isn't specifically written for video games. Various internet circles dedicated to MIDI and MOD composers/recordings still exist today, while one specific example is the 'demoscene' collection Decade by Dr. Awesome (aka Bjørn Lynne).
Synthpop
(also known as Technopop)
Synthpop is a style of hook-laden popular music led by a prominent, melodic synthesizer sound. It gained huge commercial success in the 1980s, dominating the UK charts throughout most of the decade, whilst its origins can be traced back to the early to mid-1970s. It developed alongside New Wave and Minimal Synth, drawing influences from Moog-heavy Space Age Pop and various keyboard-orientated styles associated with the Progressive Rock movement, particularly Progressive Electronic. The genre was initially spearheaded by Krautrock band Kraftwerk, as well as other such early examples as Hot Butter.
Historically, the categorization of the terms synthpop and 'electropop' in relation to each other have led to some confusion. The two genres have sometimes been used interchangeably, but they are not synonyms: Electropop has similar roots, but gained its most widespread exposure in the 21st century, typically consisting of a heavily-produced, stereophonic 'wall of sound' mix; dense layers of arrangement and electronic textures; and crisp, warm low-frequency synthesizer sounds, drawing more from various Electronic Dance Music styles, such as Electro House.
Synthpop, meanwhile, sounds sparser in relation, mechanical-yet-atmospheric, often with a colder, minimal, more detached feel. Due to when the bulk of the music was made, the synthesizer sound and overall production and arrangement is recognizable as sounding "quintessentially 1980s" (or late 1970s): in general terms, the sound of synthpop can be considered more primal and less 'up-to-date'. This applies to both the original huge wave of the style and more modern artists, the latter often due to a degree of nostalgia and/or emulation and imitation (though sometimes elements of electropop are inherently present due to modern production techniques and recording technology).
Other common tropes include complementary electric guitar licks; funky basslines (often played on a synthesizer); pulsating drum machine patterns, regularly provided by the Simmons kit; use of sequencers; and quasi-robotic, off-key vocals. The introduction of new computer technology, digital synths (e.g. the Fairlight CMI) and MIDI greatly influenced the development and future of synthpop's sound during 1983 and 1984.
Representative artists include Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, The Human League, Yazoo, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, Gary Numan (and Tubeway Army), Thomas Dolby, John Foxx, Soft Cell and Tears for Fears, whilst more modern examples of the sound are Ladytron, Cut Copy, CHVRCHES, Grimes, Crystal Castles and La Roux.
The style was predominantly exemplified by British acts, but various other notable synthpop scenes appeared on a global scale, such as Sandii & the Sunsetz, early Yellow Magic Orchestra and Plastics from Japan, and European bands a-ha, Alphaville, Propaganda and Camouflage.
Synthpop lays the foundation for various sub-styles, such as Bitpop, which utilizes Chiptune and 16-bit sounds, and Futurepop, a modern EBM genre.
Synth Punk
(also known as Electropunk)
Synth punk appropriates the harsh elements of Punk Rock but replaces the predominance of guitars with synthesizers and drum machines. The genre can be traced back to bands such as Suicide and The Screamers and borrows elements from Krautrock, No Wave and the experimental tradition. Synth punk differs from music that may be termed Dance-Punk in that it is often dissonant and lo-fi, rather than the more upbeat, dance-floor ready feel of dance-punk.
Synthwave
(also known as Outrun Electro, Retro Electro, Neo 80s)
Synthwave is a form of Electronic music that takes most of its inspiration from synth music and pop culture from the 1980s. Musically, synthwave is often instrumental and has a "futuristic" theme, with large, throbbing, retro synths. House influenced heavy drums (often side-chained) are also very popular. It draws inspiration from a variety of genres that originated and/or was most popular during the 1980s, including, but not limited to, Synthpop, Progressive Electronic, Italo-Disco, Electro-Disco and other derivative styles. Synthwave albums are generally arranged in a style that is similar to a Film Soundtrack, Film Score, Television Music or Video Game Music album. The visual element of synthwave is important as well. Album covers are heavily influenced by 1980s films (especially Science Fiction and Action movies, such as Blade Runner or The Terminator), TV shows (specifically Miami Vice and Knight Rider), video games (notably OutRun and similar titles), and other elements important in 1980s culture.
The origins of synthwave can be traced back to French Electro House scene in the mid-2000s. Artists such as Kavinsky combined House music with elements of 1980s Electronic music, complete with 1980s inspired artwork. Soon after, several French producers, such as College, Anoraak and Minitel Rose began producing similar styled music. There have also been some synthwave soundtracks, such as Drive and Hotline Miami.
Since then, many record labels have been set up dedicated to this sound (the most important being the French label Valerie, American label Italians Do It Better, and the Canadian label Rosso Corsa Records), and a slew of producers have emerged from around the world, as the scene continues to flourish.
Note: Not to be confused with Minimal Wave which is sometimes called "Synth Wave."
Techno Kayō
Techno kayō is an evolution of Kayōkyoku as a fusion with technopop which was made for Japanese "idol" singers in the 1980s. Many techno kayō songs were produced or written by members of Yellow Magic Orchestra and 鈴木慶一 [Keiichi Suzuki].
Tribal Guarachero
(also known as Tribal, 3Ball)
Like Nortec and Digital Cumbia, tribal attempts to mix traditional Latin American Music and Native American Music music with House and Techno influences. The genre uses pre-Hispanic music and Cumbia backed up by a House beat and Dutch House-like synths. Created in Mexico City in the mid-2000s, the genre developed in Monterrey with 3Ball MTY (the first tribal act to get a major label contract) and the support of Toy Selectah.
Trip Hop
Trip Hop is a style of Downtempo music that grew out of the Bristol underground in the early 90s. The term was originally coined by Mixmag in a review of DJ Shadow but it wasn't until the mid 90s that the term's definition was solidified to define the emerging Bristolian scene of downtempo from groups such as Massive Attack and Portishead, both of which went on to have large commercial success in the UK.
While it shares the constant and repetitive beats of downtempo, trip hop is texturally a little more busy often using a wide array of samples of both live and electronic instrumentals, with offbeat turntable scratches and vocal melodies whilst almost always maintaining a mellow tempo in 4/4. The beats often invoke a surreal, trippy, dreamy and yet slightly dark atmosphere.
While some (particularly earlier) trip hop was instrumental or used rapped vocals that shared traits with Hip Hop, most trip hop uses female vocals taking influence from Contemporary R&B and Soul that normally sound light and ethereal with lyrical themes being abstract and metaphorical.
The trip hop movement has had a considerably broad influence on the mainstream and has become a popular style both in and outside the UK. No longer considered regionally-centric, trip hop has been a term used to describe a plethora of acts that have melded the trip hop sound with different genres and music scenes, but all are still derivative of the early Bristolian sound.
Vaportrap
Vaportrap incorporates a blend of Trap percussion set to the re-utilisation of old samples, such as 1990s pop culture or old computer library sounds. Vaportrap often uses samples from old computer software, as evident in Blank Banshee's Blank Banshee 0. These samples have helped guide the direction of the genre, whilst the influence of vaporwave's aesthetic is kept strong through theming, art and presentation. As the 2010s progressed, vaportrap became distinct from the Vaporwave genre, as artists like Vaperror incorporated new influences into the genre, like Juke or Footwork.
The influence of 1990s cyber-culture and technology remains an important aspect of the genre, as evident with old computer screens being featured in the artwork of vaportrap releases like Computer Dreams, or the old Windows logo gracing the album art of ２４０ｐ.
Vaporwave
(also known as Eccojams)
Vaporwave is a sample-based genre characterised by heavily synthesised and processed manipulation of corporate mood and background (elevator) music; though the source material can also include genres such as Pop, Contemporary R&B, Synth Funk, Smooth Jazz, and Exotica. Technically it generally consists of brief sketches or motifs altered by utilising Chopped and Screwed editing techniques (slowing down and cutting). Looping, glitching, pitch-bending, panning, and echoing are commonplace editing practices, and many use medium to heavy reverberation to create Ambient pieces out of the source material.
Initially referred to as "Eccojams", as noted on one of the earliest and most notable releases Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1, the name was changed to vaporwave once more producers took to the editing style. The name itself is a spin on the 1980s term "vaporware" (a software or hardware project that fails to be released to the public); as such, vaporwave alludes to a disconnection or separation from reality presented through its original form (heard by a song's manipulation vs. its original source). The sound results in a sacred, mystical, sultry, dreamy, hyper-real, and/or crystal-clear caricature of mass media from the late 1980s, to the popularity of the home computer of the mid-to-late 1990s, and onward. The genre took about 2 years to breach the underground, from 2012 onwards hundreds (even thousands) of releases began springing up, as many new (and old) producers took to the style to showcase their own spin on the genre. The release of James Ferraro's Far Side Virtual and Macintosh Plus' フローラルの専門店 (Floral Shoppe) were some main reasons for the new exposure, and both are still regarded as prominent examples of the genre's varied sound.
Even as early as the 2012 rise of the genre, many producers began to use vaporwave as a catalyst to create hybridised and experimental new genres (many giving them their own names to discern them from the "traditional"). A common example is the use of Trap production, where the sampling is used to create the backing atmosphere behind the rhythmic section. Blank Banshee and Vaperror were notable in developing such a style, and many other producers have followed suit in what is now called Vaportrap. Another common spin on the original sound was the use of French House and/or Nu-Disco style editing and rhythms, pioneered by Saint Pepsi and マクロスMACROSS 82-99. This style was eventually dubbed Future Funk, and became its own separate scene (though both are often found together due to their similar aesthetics).
As the genre grew and more people took to creating music in its style, the original sound of the genre became lost in a sea of thousands of releases posted to places such as Bandcamp. Many producers created music that was in no way related to the original sound, but instead simply used the aesthetic found within the scene's visual arts sector as a means of driving their music out. Some simply produced various forms of fuzzy, Electronic or ambient music and used a vaporwave-style album cover; others did the same but went outside the electronic sub-genres (even simply posting non-musical content, noise, etc.). As a result, many of these releases are often lumped into the same scene because of the art, titles, fonts, and/or way they are released. The self-satirising and counter-cultural overtones of the scene have lead to many micro-genres (and relevant scenes/cliques) being formed, often causing dissent within the overall scene.
Weightless
Weightless is a style of instrumental grime which developed over the 2010s, characterized by sparse percussion and a spectral quality. Tracks are more soundscape-oriented than traditional grime instrumentals and can at times border on ambient music. In 2014, key figures Mumdance and Logos established the label Different Circles for releases of this kind, and released Weightless Volume One, which is where the genre name originates from. There have also been several notable vocal weightless tracks, such as Novelist x Mumdance's '1 Sec', though in terms of vocal delivery the genre is not distinct from grime as a broader category.
Definitions courtesy of rateyourmusic.com