Reaching back to grab the grooves of '70s disco/funk and the gadgets of electronic composition, Electronica soon became a whole new entity in and of itself, spinning off new sounds and subgenres with no end in sight two decades down the pike. Its beginnings came in the post-disco environment of Chicago/New York and Detroit, the cities who spawned house and techno (respectively) during the 1980s. Later that decade, club-goers in Britain latched onto the fusion of mechanical and sensual, and returned the favor to hungry Americans with new styles like jungle/drum'n'bass and trip-hop. Though most all early electronica was danceable, by the beginning of the '90s, producers were also making music for the headphones and chill-out areas as well, resulting in dozens of stylistic fusions like ambient-house, experimental techno, tech-house, electro-techno, etc. Typical for the many styles gathered under the umbrella was a focus on danceable grooves, very loose song structure (if any), and, in many producers, a relentless desire to find a new sound no matter how tepid the results.
Electronic Styles
Ambient Techno
Dance
- Acid Jazz
- Alternative Dance
- Club/Dance
- Dance-Pop
- Disco
- Euro-Dance
- Freestyle
- Garage
- Hi-NRG
- House
- Latin Dance
- Latin Freestyle
- Rave
- Teen Pop
Electronica
- Ambient Breakbeat
- Ambient Dub
- Ambient Pop
- Ambient Techno
- Drill'n'bass
- Experimental Electro
- Experimental Techno
- Illbient
- Jungle/Drum'n'bass
- Neo-Electro
Electronica
- 2-Step/British Garage
- Acid House
- Acid Techno
- Ambient
- Ambient Breakbeat
- Ambient Dub
- Ambient House
- Ambient Techno
- Big Beat
- Broken Beat
- Dark Ambient
- Detroit Techno
- Downbeat
- Downtempo
- Drill'n'bass
- Electro
- Electro-Jazz
- Electro-Techno
- Electronica
- Experimental Ambient
- Experimental Dub
- Experimental Electro
- Experimental Jungle
- Experimental Techno
- Funky Breaks
- Gabba
- Garage Rap/Grime
- Glitch
- Goa Trance
- Happy Hardcore
- Hardcore Techno
- IDM
- Illbient
- Industrial Drum'n'Bass
- Jazz-House
- Jungle/Drum'n'bass
- Left-Field House
- Microhouse
- Microsound
- Minimal Techno
- Neo-Electro
- Newbeat
- Nu Breaks
- Progressive House
- Progressive Trance
- Tech-House
- Techno
- Techno Bass
- Techno-Dub
- Trance
- Tribal House
- Trip-Hop
Experimental Techno
Hardcore Techno
House
- Acid House
- Ambient House
- Jazz-House
- Left-Field House
- Newbeat
- Progressive House
- Tech-House
- Tribal House
IDM
Jungle/Drum'n'bass
Techno
- Acid Techno
- Ambient Dub
- Ambient Techno
- Detroit Techno
- Electro-Techno
- Experimental Techno
- Goa Trance
- Hardcore Techno
- IDM
- Minimal Techno
- Tech-House
- Techno Bass
- Techno-Dub
- Trance
Trance
Top Artists
Click here for full list
Top Albums
Click here for full listRelated Essays
- Ambient by Sean Cooper
- British Dance Culture by John Bush
- Electronica by Sean Cooper
- Garage by John Bush
- Hardcore Techno by John Bush
- House by John Bush
- Jungle/Drum'n'bass by Sean Cooper
- Techno by Sean Cooper
- Trance by John Bush
- Trip-Hop by Sean Cooper
