Subgenres of Electronica:

Electronica & Dance: Music comprised primarily of electronically-generated instrumentation, often created in a recording studio, sound lab, and/or using computers and computer software. Electronica encompasses music created with synthesizers, sequencers, drum machines, MIDI sequencers, filters, effects, typically mixed and edited digitally. This genre of music is:

...a broad term attached to the various types of 1990s electronic music, Electronica/Dance encompasses the hybrid noise that grew out of Chicago House, Detroit Techno and New York Garage. The fluid forms of Electronica/Dance maintain a Techno-based sound designed to create one of two moods: heady, at-home seriousness or determined dance floor frenzy. Artists emerge out of anywhere from club DJ booths to Indie Rock circles to-- given the accessibility of electronic equipment toward the latter part of the '90s -- suburban bedrooms. The near infinite possibilities of sound evolution and cross-pollination in Electronica/Dance keep the genre in a state of constant innovation. (Click for Source)

House: House music is characterized by a 4/4 time key, a steady, sometimes melodic, bassline. Vocals or melody fill in the middle region of the equalizer spectrum, providing a warm wash of semi-organic sounds that add energy and pep to the music. A simple clap is the most common treble line in house music. Occasionally, the hi-hats are used to fill the treble, or a range of other synthetically-created sounds.

House emerged from the fog of Disco-phobia in the early 1980s. While the mainstream deemed Disco soul-less, mechanistic and pass,, Chicago DJs Frankie Knuckles, Farley "Jackmaster" Funk, Jesse Saunders, Steve "Silk" Hurley and Ron Hardy pioneered a resurrection of Disco by magnifying the very qualities that some found most offensive: synthetic textures, inorganic repetitions, and disembodied vocals. Defined by four-on-the- floor beats, rasping hi-hats, artificial hand claps, bass loops and drum rolls, House drew inspiration from jazz, rap, soul, R&B, Synth Pop, and Dub Reggae, and has spread globally since its birth. As much as it draws from disparate sources, House has splintered into many different sub- styles, merging with Ambient, Tribal and other musical movements. (Click for Source)

Techno: Music with a rumbling bassline, incorporating various elements from other genres of electronica, but all are filtered through the relentless techno beats, pounding wash of bass, and hard, driving sounds of pure techno. Techno diverged into a number of different sub-genres: Detroit techno, Hardcore, Tech House, Tech Trance, and so on.

Rooted in the stiff synth and drum-machine minimalism of German innovators Kraftwerk and the Electro-Funk of DJ icon Afrika Bambaataa, Techno emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1980s. Detroit innovators Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins and Derrick May composed an electronic blueprint of repetitions, minor melodies, and mechanical textures. This electronic style has mutated -- and continues to mutate -- into new forms through fragmentation and cross-pollination with various digital styles. (Click for Source)

Jungle/Drum 'n' Bass: Jungle, with its seething polyrhythms and treacherous breakbeats, was born of Hardcore in early 1990s as the U.K.'s response to the States' Old-School hip-hop. Jungle tells a working-class urban youth's angry tales of social disintegration and instability, reflecting the fear and desperation of the times. A digitized offshoot of reggae, Jungle's language is comprised of muffled melodies and fractured loops. Reared by British B-boys like Goldie, Aphrodite and 4 Hero, who subsisted on Electro, body-popping and graffiti, Jungle spawned a number of subgenres, including the dark, anxiety-producing sounds of Tech-Step. (Click for Source)

Trance: a perpetually momentous, driving rhythm, usually in 4/4 time, that is perpetually climbing to higher and higher energy levels and falling, only to begin again. Trance has several subgenres, like Tech-Trance, Melodic Trance, Goa Trance, Epic Trance, and Dark Trance.

Layered with 303 bass pulses, Doppler effects, sequencer riffs and stacks of percussion, Trance builds tension to which there is no climax and no release. Through minimal rhythmic shifts, distant synthscapes and repetitive effects, innovative artists like Paul Van Dyk, Jam & Spoon, and Sven Vath devised predictable structures aimed to disengage the mind while the physical body exhausts itself. (Click for Source)

Beats & Breaks: Composed of layered musical cliches borrowed from the 1980s, this general grouping of breakbeat innovators took electronic music further into the mainstream than any of their pre-1997 progenitors. Popularized by the Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Bentley Rhythm Ace and the Crystal Method, its chunky rhythms vibrate dance floors with rock textures, hip-swinging House and Techno grooves -- all seasoned with a heavy dose of hip-hop. With a premium on excitement and intensity, Funky Breaks/Big Beat tracks sound sliced and diced, with steep buildups, rough crescendos, quick drops, drum rolls and heavy sample usage. (Click for Source)

Ambient: In its purest form, Ambient is a wordless bath of sound and light. Mesmerizing loop patterns, textures, stereophonic effects and drones carve out celestial synthscapes and deep sea spaces. The term was popularized by Brian Eno in the late 1970s with albums like Music for Airports. Techno acts like Aphex Twin and the Orb created numerous hybrids in the '90s by combining Ambient sounds with various electronic styles. (Click for Source)

Trip-Hop: Trip-Hop is hip-hop with the attitude levels set on low. A moody, down-tempo style that draws on influences from soul, reggae, jazz and rap, Trip-Hop rose out of England's former slave port, Bristol. Massive Attack introduced the subgenre with Blue Lines in 1991, but their Bristol contemporaries Portishead -- who had the international hit "Sour Times" -- and the gravel-voiced Tricky took the seductively eerie, interior sounds into the mainstream. With its breakbeat-based rhythms, looped samples and languid aura, Trip-Hop is soothing music for the angst-ridden. (Click for Source)

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