W
WhiteKnightWolf
Guest
Come now, there's got to be some Electronica fans out there somewhere! No matter your style, Trance, Euro Dance, House, Happy Hardcore, Goa-Psy, Classic Techno/Dance, Chill Out, Synth-pop, Disco even, if you like Electronica, post here!
DJ Tiësto is one of my favorite Trance DJs, along with DJ Doboy, Moby, Oceanlab, BLiND, Fragma, Hapenburg, koffdam & plant, Danjo, Epos, Ava Mea, and a few others. Trance is likely the most widely liked in America now days, mainly because it's such a wide variety of musical sounds, some of my favorite songs of all time are Trance songs. However sometimes it gets repetitive.
Little bit of copypasta here for those who do not know what Trance is: "Trance is a style of electronic music that developed in the 1990s. Trance music is generally characterized by a tempo of between 130 and 160 BPM, featuring repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and down throughout a track. It often features crescendos and breakdowns. Sometimes vocals are also utilized." Wikipedia. Yes I had to copy that, because frankly, I have a hard time telling what is Trance and what is not myself.
Eurodance (some times just called "dance" in America) is a style I literally have hundreds of favorites on. So many good artists, some current ones like Cascada, Roller girl, Hott Banditos, Vengaboys and DJ Inphinity, and lots of classic style artists like Neo Cortez, Captain Jack, Culture Beat, E-rotic, 2 unlimited, Aqua, Alter Ego, Alphaville, Encore, Casandra, Gobal Deejayz, Me & My and LOTS others. Unfortunately now the Eurodance genre is split into many different variations, such as Classic-Euro, Euro-Pop, Bubblegum Dance, Euro-Trance, arguably: Hard Dance, Euro-house and Acid House.
True Techno is a lost genre. Most popular probably because of video games, Techno is basically a genre of music that is completely proud of being digital, and will rub this fact in your face as hard as can. Techno is sort of a catch-all term in America and most of the world for "synthesized" music. Classical Techno is also called Acid House, filled with bleeps, creeps and sweeps, as well as an ear full of buzz and distortion. In Techno, no sound is too sacred to play with. As stated before, this is sort of a catch all term, so naturally Techno would also have many different names. Most of the true classic stuff is called Electro House, Minimal or Classic Rave by the internet Electronica wizards at DI.FM now. A few of my favorite artists that I highly recommend looking into are: DJ Scotty, Ktraxx, Public Domain, Shiloh, Voodoo and Serano, Klubbinman, Global Deejays, Cappella, Vinyl Shakers, Angel City, Felix da housecat, and lots others.
House, ugh, where to begin? House is another genre that has very deep roots and goes back a very long time in the Electronica world. Starting in Chicago, house started in the basement of clubs as a new age version of Jazz. It became popular in places like Detroit, San Francisco, Paris, London and New York, thus it got the nickname: the Metro-Techno sound. Even though its meant to be a very hip sound, House rarely incorporates an MC and usually never incorporates hip-hop drum machines and scratching. House has a signature of a unique 4/4 beat, also known as a breakbeat, which is usually why a song can get confusing and called House instead of another form of Electronica. You are likely to hear a lot of saxophone and lots of other Jazz-y instruments in true house, put together with a kickbeat and a very clean synth-bass. Distortion is at a minimal in true house. The movement became such a large underground operation that, naturally, it got split up, into more variations than I would like to mention at this time. (Starting to notice a pattern here?) I dont have many House artists I know of that I actually like, but I do know that House is a favorite of mine, House stations are usually what I pick when I need some music to work to.
Of course no essay on this subject is complete without mentioning Chill-Out/Ambience. Ambience goes all the way back to the 70s when they first started making music with synthesizers, with the things like muzik-concreata or whatever they called it. Now its much more refined of course, due to more practice by producers. This genre is not about dancing at all. In fact you could probably leave this stuff on all night and sleep to it. Tangerine Dream is a favorite of mine, but since Im not too large a fan of this genre, I dont have many artists to recommend here.
Last but definitely not least, Hardstyle. This includes but is not limited to: Happy Hardcore, Hard Trance, Hard House, Hard dance, ect. Happy Hardcore is what most people think of when they think of true rave music. Hardcore is and Hardstyle are usually called two different things because Hardcore is so much faster than Hardstyle typically is. Happy Hardcore (which sometimes isnt very happy at all) has a very fast tempo, normally between 165-180 Beats Per Minute (BPM), while Hardstyle is usually 140-150 BPM, but sometimes slower. When it comes to sound however, they are almost identical. Pulsing basses are a signature of both, the bass is probably the most important part of this style because, well thats what you move your body to. The main point of Hardstlye is to move, and probably sounds the worst of all these genres because of that. It can get really repetitive, and extremely annoying after a while. You definitely have to have a taste for this genre; I personally recommend you try others before you listen to Hardstyle.
Never the less, some of my all time favorite singles are Happy Hardcore tracks. Sounds of Hardstyle produce the best vibe for clubbers/ravers and can sound so epic, its almost magical. If you want to get into it, look up some of the best sounding DJs like DJ Duro, Hixxy, Darren Styles, United in Dance, Dougal, Gammar, Breeze, and loads others.
Now, on a final note, I would like to mention my favorite DJ of all time, Andy Hunter. Andy Hunter is my role model and is the main reason I got into Electronica in the first place. He is an extremely unique DJ for one reason: Hes the only one I know of that makes Christian themed Electronica. His stuff is mostly Hardstyle Trance, but he has a few ambient tracks and some euro-sounding stuff. I recommend him more than anyone Ive mentioned so far.
TL;DR: Electronica is what evolved after Disco and is popular in Europe and rules 99% of what is popular in America so post your favorite styles and DJs here. Id recommend an internet EDM station if I knew one that was clean ALL of the time.
DJ Tiësto is one of my favorite Trance DJs, along with DJ Doboy, Moby, Oceanlab, BLiND, Fragma, Hapenburg, koffdam & plant, Danjo, Epos, Ava Mea, and a few others. Trance is likely the most widely liked in America now days, mainly because it's such a wide variety of musical sounds, some of my favorite songs of all time are Trance songs. However sometimes it gets repetitive.
Little bit of copypasta here for those who do not know what Trance is: "Trance is a style of electronic music that developed in the 1990s. Trance music is generally characterized by a tempo of between 130 and 160 BPM, featuring repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and down throughout a track. It often features crescendos and breakdowns. Sometimes vocals are also utilized." Wikipedia. Yes I had to copy that, because frankly, I have a hard time telling what is Trance and what is not myself.
Eurodance (some times just called "dance" in America) is a style I literally have hundreds of favorites on. So many good artists, some current ones like Cascada, Roller girl, Hott Banditos, Vengaboys and DJ Inphinity, and lots of classic style artists like Neo Cortez, Captain Jack, Culture Beat, E-rotic, 2 unlimited, Aqua, Alter Ego, Alphaville, Encore, Casandra, Gobal Deejayz, Me & My and LOTS others. Unfortunately now the Eurodance genre is split into many different variations, such as Classic-Euro, Euro-Pop, Bubblegum Dance, Euro-Trance, arguably: Hard Dance, Euro-house and Acid House.
True Techno is a lost genre. Most popular probably because of video games, Techno is basically a genre of music that is completely proud of being digital, and will rub this fact in your face as hard as can. Techno is sort of a catch-all term in America and most of the world for "synthesized" music. Classical Techno is also called Acid House, filled with bleeps, creeps and sweeps, as well as an ear full of buzz and distortion. In Techno, no sound is too sacred to play with. As stated before, this is sort of a catch all term, so naturally Techno would also have many different names. Most of the true classic stuff is called Electro House, Minimal or Classic Rave by the internet Electronica wizards at DI.FM now. A few of my favorite artists that I highly recommend looking into are: DJ Scotty, Ktraxx, Public Domain, Shiloh, Voodoo and Serano, Klubbinman, Global Deejays, Cappella, Vinyl Shakers, Angel City, Felix da housecat, and lots others.
House, ugh, where to begin? House is another genre that has very deep roots and goes back a very long time in the Electronica world. Starting in Chicago, house started in the basement of clubs as a new age version of Jazz. It became popular in places like Detroit, San Francisco, Paris, London and New York, thus it got the nickname: the Metro-Techno sound. Even though its meant to be a very hip sound, House rarely incorporates an MC and usually never incorporates hip-hop drum machines and scratching. House has a signature of a unique 4/4 beat, also known as a breakbeat, which is usually why a song can get confusing and called House instead of another form of Electronica. You are likely to hear a lot of saxophone and lots of other Jazz-y instruments in true house, put together with a kickbeat and a very clean synth-bass. Distortion is at a minimal in true house. The movement became such a large underground operation that, naturally, it got split up, into more variations than I would like to mention at this time. (Starting to notice a pattern here?) I dont have many House artists I know of that I actually like, but I do know that House is a favorite of mine, House stations are usually what I pick when I need some music to work to.
Of course no essay on this subject is complete without mentioning Chill-Out/Ambience. Ambience goes all the way back to the 70s when they first started making music with synthesizers, with the things like muzik-concreata or whatever they called it. Now its much more refined of course, due to more practice by producers. This genre is not about dancing at all. In fact you could probably leave this stuff on all night and sleep to it. Tangerine Dream is a favorite of mine, but since Im not too large a fan of this genre, I dont have many artists to recommend here.
Last but definitely not least, Hardstyle. This includes but is not limited to: Happy Hardcore, Hard Trance, Hard House, Hard dance, ect. Happy Hardcore is what most people think of when they think of true rave music. Hardcore is and Hardstyle are usually called two different things because Hardcore is so much faster than Hardstyle typically is. Happy Hardcore (which sometimes isnt very happy at all) has a very fast tempo, normally between 165-180 Beats Per Minute (BPM), while Hardstyle is usually 140-150 BPM, but sometimes slower. When it comes to sound however, they are almost identical. Pulsing basses are a signature of both, the bass is probably the most important part of this style because, well thats what you move your body to. The main point of Hardstlye is to move, and probably sounds the worst of all these genres because of that. It can get really repetitive, and extremely annoying after a while. You definitely have to have a taste for this genre; I personally recommend you try others before you listen to Hardstyle.
Never the less, some of my all time favorite singles are Happy Hardcore tracks. Sounds of Hardstyle produce the best vibe for clubbers/ravers and can sound so epic, its almost magical. If you want to get into it, look up some of the best sounding DJs like DJ Duro, Hixxy, Darren Styles, United in Dance, Dougal, Gammar, Breeze, and loads others.
Now, on a final note, I would like to mention my favorite DJ of all time, Andy Hunter. Andy Hunter is my role model and is the main reason I got into Electronica in the first place. He is an extremely unique DJ for one reason: Hes the only one I know of that makes Christian themed Electronica. His stuff is mostly Hardstyle Trance, but he has a few ambient tracks and some euro-sounding stuff. I recommend him more than anyone Ive mentioned so far.
TL;DR: Electronica is what evolved after Disco and is popular in Europe and rules 99% of what is popular in America so post your favorite styles and DJs here. Id recommend an internet EDM station if I knew one that was clean ALL of the time.
