| infinity HiGH |
Ok, first off; I DID NOT WRITE THIS.
This was posted in another forum that I reg at by someone who got it from another site. Tell me what you think and whether you agree or disagree.
| quote: | Trying to list all the different sub-genres and sub-sub genres of Electronica is as hard as defining Electronica itself: people disagree even in the name of this musical genre. Some think it should be called techno, others just electronic dance music.
Some of the more known sub-genres are (taken from Jeta Taek's dictionary):
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.
Derivations/Variations: Ambient Dub, Ambient Techno, Dark Ambient, Ambient House.
Representational artists: Brian Eno, the Orb, Aphex Twin, Isan.
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.
Derivations/Variations: Ambient Breakbeat.
Representational artists: Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method, Daft Punk.
Darkside:
Far from the ecstasy-addled headz grinning wider with every 808 beat, far from the beatific glow of Glam's glitter, far from the cuddly joys of the chill room is a sound far more Gothic in atmosphere. All dance and ambient music has a dark side, but some artists choose to dwell in grim and melancholic sounds, creating the alienated atmospheres of Dark Ambient, the harsh angularity of Industrial Dance and the post-Goth synth sounds of Darkwave.
Derivations/Variations: Darkwave, Industrial Dance.
Representational artists: Art of Noise, Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy, Cabaret Voltaire.
Downtempo:
Downtempo consists of chilled-out beats on a slower, groovier tip. Under this broad genre heading, chunky rhythms based on hip hop beats rule supreme. Downtempo is usually instrumental-based music in the hip hop vein, but can also draw from jazz, film scores, dub and reggae, and world music. Its overall form depends on bass and funk. Like house and drum and bass musicians, downtempo artists create morphed soundscapes that draw from a long history of musical genres. Downtempo is constantly reinventing itself, spawning new and unique variations like the "British sound," "French trip hop," and the hip hop-heavy U.S. approach.
Derivations/Variations: Lounge, French Touch.
Representative artists: Thievery Corporation, Air, Lemonjelly, Electroslide, Herbalizer, Dimitri from Paris.
Hardcore:
Signaling more an uncompromising attitude than a specific style, Hardcore turned raves into arenas of good-natured assault when it reared its masochistic head in the early 1990s. With Prodigy's British chart- topping anthem "Charly," Orbital's urgently melodic "Chime," and the deliriously dark Nightmares on Wax classic "Aftermath," Hardcore smashed the molds of House, Techno and Jungle by intensifying basslines, escalating beats and looping effects with mind-evacuating repetition. The artificial energy and synthetic bliss of Hardcore is built on a here-and-now aesthetic: the druggy, disorientating noise isn't about nostalgia or the future, only the instant gratification that results from a temporary, explosive release.
Derivations/Variations: Digital Hardcore, Happy Hardcore, Speedbass, Gabba.
Representative Artists: Alec Empire (Atari Teenage Riot), Slipmatt, Darkraver.
House:
House emerged from the fog of Disco-phobia in the early 1980s. Specifically, the term “House” comes from the Warehouse, a club in Chicago were House was created. 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.
Derivations/Variations: Acid House, Garage, Tribal House, Deep House, Progressive House.
Representative Artists: Bam Bam, Masters at Work, Technotronic, Carl Cox.
Intelligent (IDM):
Intelligent (IDM) is a broad classification of post-Rave sounds sculpted from the inspired imaginations of such innovators as Aphex Twin, Autechre and DJ Spooky. Startling rhythms incorporating contemplative combinations of unrelated genres react against established dance floor rules, favoring individualism over conformity. Often heard in open-minded chill-out rooms, basements of hip London pubs or in the bedrooms of art students in New York, styles such as Illbient, Experimental and Blip, Bleep are the most texturally stimulating, self-absorbed styles of Electronica.
Derivations/Variations: Digital Design, Illbient, Blip-Bleep, Experimental Techno, Video Game Music.
Representative artists: Autechre, DJ Spooky, Mu-ziq, Boards of Canada, Orbital.
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.
Derivations/Variations: Artcore/Jazz n’ bass, Jump-up, Techstep (2step).
Representative artists: Goldie, Aphrodite, Fiat 600, Roni Size, DJ Krust, Photek.
Techno:
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.
Derivations/Variations: Acid Techno, Minimalist Techno, Neo-Electro, Detroit Techno.
Representative artists: Kraftwerk, Derrick May, Juan Atkins, Plastikman, etc. etc. etc....
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.
Derivations/Variations: Hard Trance, Progressive Trance, Goa Trance
Representative artists: Paul Van Dyk, Underworld, Platipus, John Digweed, Paul Oakenfold.
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.
Derivations/Variations: Acid Jazz.
Representative artists: Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky, Nearly God. |
This was my reply to the post;
| quote: | Hmmmm...great post :)
Some of those aren't accurate though.
John Digweed, for one, isn't trance. He'd be classified in the 'house' category because he spins deep/progressive house. He does produce a more "trancey" track under the Bedrock guise once in a while, but as a DJ and remixer, this man has had very little Trance since 1998-1999. The odd couple of times he will drop a progressive trance tune though.
And Daft Punk are Beats & Breaks? wtf?? They're europop :| |
I personally think that if we here tried we'd come up with better definations and examples. Some of those are on the spot, while others seem like the person who wrote it hasn't done their homework. |
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