From dubstep to disco, electronic music is a broad category of modern

music that includes a wide variety of styles. While most people think of
electronic music as a product of the 21 st century, the reality is that
electronic music has been around for almost 50 years.

From the famous Moog synthesizers of progressive rock to the driving

anthems of Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder, read on and learn the history
of electronic music, from the early 1970s to the dubstep, trance, and house
superstars of today.

Are you new to electronic music? Learn the fundamentals of trance,

house, techno, and more by enrolling in our Introduction to
Electronic Music course. From MIDI to loops, this in-depth course
covers the basics of how electronic music is produced.

The Origins of Electronic Music

Think of early electronic music and you’ll probably picture the disco
anthems of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although electronic music
didn’t become popular until the mid 1970s, artists were using electronic
instruments as early as the 1960s.

Progressive rock bands like Pink Floyd made the iconic Moog synthesizer
one of the most important aspects of their sound. Pop rock bands like The
Beatles also began to incorporate keyboards and synthesizers into some of
their experimental songs.

At the same time, composers were using new instruments like the
Theremin in their work, particularly in the film industry. The commercial
Moog synthesizer, released in the mid-1960s, is regarded as the first
iconic instrument of electronic music.

Synthpop and Disco: The 1970s

 Although electronic instruments
were being used in the 1960s, it wasn’t until the 1970s when electronic
music entered the mainstream. Bands like Kraftwerk – an iconic West
German band – introduced the electronic sound to a wider audience.

Formed in 1980s, Kraftwerk paired the driving rhythms of bands like Led
Zeppelin and Deep Purple with the futuristic sounds of the Moog
synthesizer and vocoder. In the 1970s, their interesting new sound
influenced a wide variety of musicians and created the foundations for the
electronic music scene.

Once Kraftwerk had introduced electronic music into the 1970s music
scene, other artists soon followed. Giorgio Moroder, now famous for his
involvement with Daft Punk, used electronic instruments to capitalize on
the growing disco music trend.

Moroder collaborated with mainstream artists to bring electronic music to

a new audience, producing tracks for Donna Summer, David Bowie, and
more. His use of synthesizers introduced the electronic sound to the
musical mainstream.

Although electronic music was growing in popularity throughout the

1970s, most electronic tracks still used the structure of pop or rock and
roll. It wasn’t until the 1980s when synthpop, dance, and other genres
would emerge on their own.

Would you like to learn the fundamentals of musical composition? Enroll

in our Basic Concepts of Music course to learn the musical theory
skills that made early electronic music innovators like Giorgio Moroder so
talented and influential.

Perhaps the most notable example of 1970s electronic music is the theme
to the movie Midnight Express, scored by Giorgio Moroder. The track,
known as Chase, became one of the first electronic tracks to reach #33 on
the Billboard Hot 100.

The Synth Era: The 1980s

Think of synthpop and you’ll

probably think of the 1980s. The era of glitz, glamor, and excess was a
great time for electronic music, with new styles such as synthpop and
house, as well as new technology like MIDI emerging.

Many of today’s most popular electronic music styles, such as house and
trance, are the product of 1980s synth music. The 1980s club scene made
new wave, post-disco, and synthpop well-known styles and brought
electronic music into the mainstream.

Bands like A-ha, Pet Shop Boys, and Depeche Mode combined the
structure of rock music with the new sounds made possible by MIDI. Even
hard rock bands like The Sisters of Mercy embraced electronic music,
using MIDI effects and drum machines to create new forms of music like
dark wave and alternative dance.

Towards the end of the 1980s, band like Orbital created the foundations
for dance music genres like trance and techno. The rising popularity of
home computers like the Atari ST introduced MIDI technology to a wide
audience of producers.

Do you want to compose classic electronic dance music using the same
techniques as iconic 1980s and 1990s artists? Mastering
Synth/Electro Pop Music has excellent tutorials on how to combine
analog sounds with digital composition to create memorable electro pop
music.
Dance Music: The 1990s

The 1970s marked the beginning of

modern dance music and the 1980s marked its commercial breakthrough,
but it wasn’t until the 1990s that electronic music grew into the massive
genre it is today.

During the 1990s, distinct genres of electronic music emerged, from hard
house and techno to ambient and experimental. The early 1990s also
marked the emergence of well-known electronic music genres like trance
and drum and bass.

Influential electronic hits from the time include Halcyon + on + on, a

famous ambient trance track from English band Orbital. At the same
time, techno developed from an underground form of music into a
mainstream style in Germany and the UK.

The 1990s was also the first decade in which electronic music composition
became something anyone could do. The massive popularity of PCs
resulted in the creation of new software like Fruity Loops (now FL Studio)
aimed at home users.

Do you want to learn how to make your own electronic music? Join over
800 other students in our course, The Practical Way: Learn
Electronic Music Production, and learn how to produce your own
electronic tracks using FL Studio.

The EDM Era: 2000 to Today

 Since 2000, electronic dance music
(EDM) has grown from a popular genre into an influential part of all
mainstream music. Today, iconic electronic artists like Tiësto and David
Guetta have worked with mainstream artists and reached the top of the
most important album and singles charts.

At the same time, genres like dubstep and trance have influenced the
structure of mainstream pop music. From Taylor Swift to Justin Bieber,
many of today’s most popular pop artists have implemented aspects of
dubstep, house, and trance into their singles.

Although electronic music is more popular than ever, it remains a genre

that exists both in and out of the mainstream. While dubstep and electro
entered the world of pop music, many of the electronic world’s most
iconic artists continue to produce music aimed not at the mainstream but
at smaller, underground audiences.

Learn more about the new genres of electronic music that have emerged
over the past 20 years with our blog post on electronic music genres.

The Internet and Electronic Music

Part of the huge growth of electronic music can be attributed to the
Internet. The popularity of social websites like YouTube and SoundCloud
has made finding new music easier than ever before, spreading electronic
music to new listeners.

It’s also made promoting music easy. New artists that would have had to
find their own distributors or sign record deals decades ago can share
their music via social networks and distribute it using outlets like
Beatport and iTunes.
Learn the fundamentals of digital music distribution by enrolling in our
Effortless Music Promotion course. From Facebook Pages to
YouTube, learn how you can get more fans, more coverage, and more
sales on stores like iTunes.

The Internet has also made producing electronic music easier than ever
before. The availability of applications like FL Studio, Ableton Live, and
Logic Pro gives anyone the ability to become an electronic music producer
if they’d like to.

Do you want to learn how to produce electronic music? Enroll in our

Introduction to Electronic Music Production with Ableton
course to learn the basics of creating your own house, trance, dubstep,
and drum and bass tracks using Ableton Live.

The Future of Electronic Music

Over the last 40 years, electronic music has grown from an underground
niche into one of the biggest genres in the world. Every day, it continues
to grow more, fueled by the popularity of websites like SoundCloud,
Beatport, and YouTube.

Do you want to get started as a DJ or producer and make your mark on

the future of electronic music? Read our blog post on beginner DJ
equipment and start remixing, spinning, and producing your way to
electronic music success.

EDM–electronic dance music–is super en vogue at the moment, with

artists like Daft Punk and Deadmau5 bringing it out of the shadows and
into the pop flow, but it’s not even remotely new. Fans of the style know
that elements of electronic music have been integrated into music genres
as far back as (shudder) disco, but the fact is, when you break electronic
music all the way down to its basic definition–music that incorporates
electronic musical instruments and electronic recording devices–you will
find that electronic music has been around as long as well, electricity has.

EDM appeals to all kind of people, and a major aspect of its draw is the
fact that you don’t need to be proficient in an instrument as much as you
do a computer. Make no mistake, however, electronic music, whether you
are looking to produce it or create it, requires a solid grasp of music
theory and fundamentals so it’s important not to skip it if you’re
interested in dabbling in any of the varied electronic music genres.

The Surprising History of Electronic

Music
Electricity was a novelty from the very beginning, with its discovery and
the subsequent harnessing of its flow providing exciting notions of nearly
endless possibilities.

In fact, the earliest two potential elements of electronic music are

the telharmonium, an early electric organ that was actually developed all
the way back in 1897. People were eager to adopt it, but the sheer size of
the massive instrument made it nearly impossible. The phonautogram, on
the other hand, had unrealized potential where the telharmonium had
recognizable possibility in spafes. It was initially developed as a means to
study acoustics in 1857, where it could be used in a laboratory to record
sound waves on charred paper or smoked glass in visual dips and valleys.
It wasn’t until twenty years later that people discovered that by replicating
the undulations onto a metal plate, you could use the phonautograph to
initiate playback.

Obviously, we think of electronic music genres as being a wholly modern

invention, but you can see from the examples above that it existed long
before most people even realize. Of course, there’s a huge jump between a
roaring twenties theramin and the modern soundboards that we see
today, and the digital synthesizer deserves a lot of the credit–it had a kind
of awakening in the 1970s and 80s, and while the days of Devo are long
gone, electronic music never looked back. A synthesizer is still a vital part
of any Digital Audio Workstation, or DAW, a major part of any digital
musician’s accoutrements. If you want to get into producing
electronic music, and can’t wait to get started, you’ll need a
DAW, which won’t be hard to set up if you know how it’s done. Still, we
know you’re not here for a history lesson, you’re here for the electronic
music genres, right? Well, get ready, because here comes the drop.

House Music
House draws its influence from the 1970’s disco scene, surprisingly
enough. As an electronic music genre all its own, however, it came into
being in the early to mid 80’s, and likely originated in a downtown
Chicago club named The Warehouse, where it was spun nightly by DJ
Frankie Knuckles, who came to eventually be referred to has the godfather
of house. Breakbeat hardcore shares a large part of the credit as a
forerunner of house music and other electronic music genres like techno.

House was mainly produced with synthesized tracks over a 4/4 beat
provided by a drum machine, but it’s distinct sound wouldn’t be what we
recognize it as today without the experimental mixing and editing
techniques employed by DJs at the time. During the past few
decades, house has spun out into multiple sub genres, like these:

 Deep House-house is typically minimalist, with most of the

emphasis going toward the four-on-the-floor beat and drum
machine. Deep house added complex melody elements into house
tracks, initially with jazz, funk, and soul bass lines. Deep house
music is meant to be ambient and does not often reach a climax.
 Acid House-the etymology of “acid house” is hotly debated, with
some saying it draws its name from the popularity of the illicit drug
that shares it. It came into being in the late 80s and exploded
throughout the 90s, with its signature sound being the use of a
“squelching” bass derivative on the Roland TB-303 synthesizer.
 Tribal House-like most forms of house music, tribal house relies
on sampled tracks laid over a 4/4 beat, but typically these tracks will
be sampled from world music, and the underlying drum line will be a
synthesized derivative of ethnically diverse percussion, like derived
bongo or tabla sounds.

Techno
Techno was coming out of Detroit at the same time that House was
gaining ground in Chicago. It’s forerunners rejected Motown R&B
formulas, instead opting to include electro, house, and synth-pop music
with sampled funk and soul tracks to push music into the technological
age.

It still used the 4/4 back beat, but marks time using an additional drum
derivative, like a snare or symbol to mark each 4th or 8th note. Like
House, it relies on a repetitive over track, but adds an element of futurism
to the mix.

Techno has some notable sub genres as well, although techno music has
made its way into mainstream pop music with tracks by Madonna, U2,
and many others. Of course, it too has branched out into many genres:

 Amigacore-this genre gets its name from the primary

“instrument” used: the Commodore Amiga Computer, which had
limited sound options and imbued the genre with a “raw” sound.
 Ghettocore-gritty and unpolished, ghettocore features explicit
lyrics and raw, grinding beats. It’s also much faster than traditional
techno tracks at 145-190 beats per minute, or bpm.
 Freetekno-freetekno has no “rules” per se and combines many
different sounds from high-energy techno tracks. Fans
of freetekno are called teknitians and often meet at sound events
known as teknivals.

Trance
Of the electronic music genres that we’ve already explored, trance music
is one of the newest. Unlike house and techno, it has its origins overseas
in Germany in the 1990s, where many people concur that it was “born” on
the European rave scene. It is primarily distinguishable by the way that it
repeatedly builds up a track and then subsequently deconstructs it
again–“breaking it down”.

Trance tracks also employ a hook, or melody that is repeated throughout

the entire song, and employs a motif just before the breakdown of rapid
arpeggios to give the listener an idea of what the break down will sound
like.

There are some notable trance genres that also include:

 Psychedelic Trance-psychedelic trance has roots in Indian music

and includes sampled ragas and derivative tabla beats, and sitar
tracks.
 Hard Trance-hard trance is categorized as “aggressive” with a
slow, pressing beat and is generally accepted to have originated in
Frankfurt, Germany in the late 1990s.
  Buchiage Trance-this style of Japanese trance music often uses
more than one syntlines, typically high pitched with a “poppy”
sound. Where a lot of trance is deep and a little bit
dark, buchiage trance is one of the more upbeat and optimistic
electronic music genres out there.

Dubstep
Dub step is growing increasingly more popular of late and has pushed
EDM into the spotlight, introducing electronic music genres to many
people who might not have been aware of them previously. Of course, just
because it has become popular recently doesn’t mean that dubstep as a
genre hasn’t been around for a good long while.

It originated in Great Britain in the late 90’s, typically as a B side of a

techno single cassette. Its distinct sound is characterized by thumping,
overwhelming bass drum lines. It’s got an average bpm of about 138-142,
and wouldn’t be complete without the “wub”, or an electronic bass note
that is extended in order to be manipulated.

Here are some additional dubstep electronic music genres:

 Brostep-usually used as a somewhat pejorative

term, brostep refers to the more mainstream iterations
of dubstep tracks by artists like Skrillex, who emphasize the middle
register of dubstep tracks, resulting in higher pitched sounding
music.
 Luvstep-while lots of electronic music genres incorporate vocals
into them, luvstep emphasizes their inclusion, especially emo-type
vocals that are full of feeling.
 Thugstep-thugstep brings the multiple electronic music genres
around full circle; where house and techno drew from soul, jazz, and
other traditional African-American influences, thugstep does the
same by incorporating hip hop, R&B, and rap elements over
a dubstep sound.

These few electronic music genres and sub genres don’t even really begin
to scratch the surface of the many, many electronic influences and sounds
out there. If you’re intrigued, but still feeling a little overwhelmed, a
broad scope electronic music introduction can break it down
even further before you get out and hit the clubs. Once you speak EDM
fluently, you can explore professional music production for fun
and profit.