Genres of Electronic Music

All genres of music were once revolutionary and experimental. Over time some enter the mainstream and slowly lose their experimental edge. Nearly all genres of popular music have followed this same pattern: rock, jazz, electronica, to name a few. A large amount of the experimental music being made today continues to generally fall under the umbrella term of electronica, though the experimental bands of the previous generation have become the mainstream of today. By examining the music pushing today's boundaries, we can get a glimpse into the next generation of music.

Over the last half a century, music has been transformed by the digital revolution. Not only have new instruments entered onto the scene, but the entire music-making process has been changed. Recording studios have been turned into laptops; bands become their own promotional managers over social marketing platforms.

Some of the first musicians to see the potential in all of these were in the 1960s and 1970s. As analog synthesis became available, they incorporated it into their music, leading to the synthpop revolution of the late 1970s and 1980s. For the first time in history, entire pieces of music were now able to be written and performed on electronic instruments: an event that would change popular music forever.

Synthpop musicians were innovative in their choice of instruments, but it ended there. Typical synthpop song structures were no different from their pop or rock counterparts. Over the 1980s, another generation of musicians pushed electronics to the limit in a variety of subgenres. Industrial, IDM and Noise each offered their own sonic pallet, using similar instruments to produce wildly different sounds.