Electronic MusicUpdated 4 months ago

Electronic Music: A Brief, Condescending History

Electronic music didn’t just “appear” with laptops and DJs — its roots go back to musique concrète experiments in the ’40s, the synthesizer revolution of the ’60s, and the disco clubs of the ’70s. By the time Roland started selling drum machines to teenagers in the ’80s, house and techno were already bubbling in Chicago and Detroit, rave culture was spreading across Europe, and the “electronic underground” became the dominant youth culture of the ’90s.

Today, electronic music is an infinite branching tree — ambient soundscapes, four-on-the-floor anthems, industrial pummeling, breakbeat science, glitchy IDM, trance epics, and bass music designed to rearrange your skeleton. What binds it together is a devotion to sound as architecture, texture as narrative, and rhythm as hypnosis.

Electronic Music Subgenre Essentials

House

Era: Early ’80s–present
 Vibe: Four-on-the-floor, soulful, warm, endlessly danceable.
 Why It Matters: Born in Chicago warehouses from disco’s ashes, house became the heartbeat of club culture.

Essentials:

• Frankie Knuckles – Beyond the Mix (1991) – The godfather’s gospel.
  
  

• Mr. Fingers – Amnesia (1988) – Deep house blueprint.
  
  

• Daft Punk – Homework (1997) – Filtered French perfection.
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 Masters at Work Our Time is Coming for house that’s equal parts groove and sophistication.

Techno

Era: Mid ’80s–present
 Vibe: Mechanical, hypnotic, futuristic; Detroit grit meets European precision.
 Why It Matters: Techno stripped dance music to pure rhythm and repetition, turning the dance floor into a time machine.

Essentials:

• Juan Atkins – 20 Years of Metroplex (2005 compilation) – Foundational Detroit techno.
  
  

• Jeff Mills – Waveform Transmission Vol. 1 (1992) – Industrial minimalism.
  
  

• Carl Craig – More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art (1997) – Techno with a painter’s touch.
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 Surgeon’s Balance for hard, surgical precision techno.

Ambient

Era: ’70s–present
 Vibe: Weightless, textural, infinite. Music to think, sleep, or drift into.
 Why It Matters: Ambient dissolves the idea of “song” into pure atmosphere — Brian Eno’s dictum: “as ignorable as it is interesting.”

Essentials:

• Brian Eno – Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978) – The defining statement.
  
  

• Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85–92 (1992) – Dreamlike and alien.
  
  

• William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops (2002) – Decay as beauty.
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement of the Decline for orchestral, almost static bliss.

Drum & Bass / Jungle

Era: Early ’90s–present
 Vibe: Breakbeats at 160–180 BPM, basslines that shake your ribcage.
 Why It Matters: Born in the UK from rave culture, reggae soundsystem tradition, and chopped funk breaks.

Essentials:

• Goldie – Timeless (1995) – A genre-defining epic.
  
  

• LTJ Bukem – Logical Progression (1996) – Jazzy, liquid perfection.
  
  

• Roni Size / Reprazent – New Forms (1997) – Mercury Prize-winning sophistication.
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 Source Direct’s Exorcise the Demons for darker, cinematic jungle.

Breakbeat / Big Beat

Era: Mid ’90s–early ’00s
 Vibe: Fat drums, rock swagger, festival-sized hooks.
 Why It Matters: UK producers slowed jungle, mixed it with rock and funk samples, and made it a crossover juggernaut.

Essentials:

• The Chemical Brothers – Dig Your Own Hole (1997) – Peak big beat energy.
  
  

• The Prodigy – The Fat of the Land (1997) – Punk aggression in rave form.
  
  

• Fatboy Slim – You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby (1998) – Cheeky, funky, massive.
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 Plump DJs A Plump Night Out for pure breakbeat craft.

Trance

Era: Early ’90s–present
 Vibe: Euphoric build-ups, soaring melodies, hands in the air.
 Why It Matters: The most emotional branch of rave music — hypnotic repetition as emotional release.

Essentials:

• Paul van Dyk – Seven Ways (1996) – Melodic trance classic.
  
  

• Tiësto – In Search of Sunrise 3: Panama (2002) – Balearic bliss.
  
  

• Armin van Buuren – A State of Trance 2004 (2004) – Peak uplifting trance era.
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 Above & Beyond Group Therapy for modern, festival-grade trance.

Industrial & EBM (Electronic Body Music)

Era: Late ’70s–present
 Vibe: Cold, mechanical, abrasive; music for cyborg nightclubs.
 Why It Matters: Merged punk’s aggression with electronic tools — from Throbbing Gristle’s art terrorism to Front 242’s militant dance beats.

Essentials:

• Throbbing Gristle – 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979) – The anti-music manifesto.
  
  

• Front 242 – Front by Front (1988) – EBM perfected.
  
  

• Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral (1994) – Industrial’s mainstream moment.
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 Ministry The Land of Rape and Honey for metal-infused industrial chaos.

IDM (Intelligent Dance Music)

Era: Early ’90s–present
 Vibe: Complex, glitchy, cerebral; dance music for people who sit down.
 Why It Matters: Warp Records’ golden era gave us the idea that electronic music could be both rhythmically challenging and emotionally resonant.

Essentials:

• Aphex Twin – Richard D. James Album (1996) – Chaotic genius.
  
  

• Autechre – Tri Repetae (1995) – Machine language poetry.
  
  

• Boards of Canada – Music Has the Right to Children (1998) – Haunting nostalgia in digital form.
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 Squarepusher Hard Normal Daddy for virtuosic breakbeat insanity.

Modern Bass / Future Garage / Dubstep (pre-bro)

Era: Mid-2000s–present
 Vibe: Sub-bass sculpting, shuffling rhythms, atmospheric dread.
 Why It Matters: Before “brostep” took over, dubstep was sparse, deep, and built for sound systems that could rearrange your organs.

Essentials:

• Burial – Untrue (2007) – Ghostly and essential.
  
  

• Skream – Skream! (2006) – Early dubstep pioneer.
  
  

• Mount Kimbie – Crooks & Lovers (2010) – The future garage shift.