EDM

 

Electronic dance music (also known as EDM, dance music, club music, or simply dance) is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres produced primarily for dance-based entertainment environments such as nightclubs, raves, and festivals. The music is largely produced for playback by disc jockeys (DJs) and is generally used in the context of a live DJ mixes where the DJ creates a seamless selection of tracks by segueing 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.

 

The term "electronic dance music" was used in the USA as early as 1985, although the term "dance music" didn't catch on as a blanket term for the genre(s) until the latter-1990s (when its acceptance by the U.S. music industry was signified by the creation of "Dance" music-charts [which continue to this day]; plus, the consistent use of the term "dance music" in reference to artists, in music-review articles). In July 1995, Nervous Records and Project X magazine held their first award ceremony, titled, "Electronic Dance Music Awards."

 

Writing for The Guardian, journalist Simon Reynolds noted that music industry adoption of the term "EDM" was part of an intentional effort to re-brand (and to sharply differentiate past eras of) "rave culture" in the U.S. -- particularly, to "draw [a] line between today's EDM, and '90s Rave". While "EDM" has become the common blanket-term in the U.S., parts of Europe, and online for dance music genres, in the UK the terms, "dance music" or "dance", are more-commonly used.

 

What is widely perceived to be or defined as, "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 a distinct, unrelated, (respective) genre, unto itself. 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

 

Just as rock, jazz and other musical genres have their own set of sub-genres, so 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, trap, UK garage, drum & bass, dubstep, progressive, electro and hardcore.