Style Guide-Genre-Electronic

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Style Descriptions

Abstract

Description for this style.

Acid

The Acid tag is usually used in conjunction with other styles like Techno or Trance or Breaks, to indicate those styles of music combined with an "acid" aesthetic. Acid House, however, has its own tag (see below). Pretty much anything that uses a Roland TB-303-type sound in the same way it was used in Acid House music is fair game for getting the Acid tag.

Acid House

A form of Chicago house music that emerged in the later 1980's that is mainly made using a monophonic synthesizer called the Roland TB-303 Bass Line, together with the Roland TR-606 Rhythm Composer drum machine. Differs from classic "Chicago" house in that it's very hypnotic and repetitive, and usually contains sampled or dub vocals instead of a unique, full vocal song.

Example Artists:

Acid Jazz

Unlike other "acid" genres, the naming of Acid Jazz had nothing to do with drugs, and was just a joke by the founders of the Acid Jazz record label, who sought to distance themselves from house music and the Acid House craze in particular. The popularity of the label and a series of This Is Acid Jazz compilations led to the term being used to describe anything in styles similar to the label's acts. Acid Jazz music tends to be generally upbeat, "jazzy" pop-funk dance music played by traditional bands, and sometimes by artists who make heavy use of sampling. Often, acid jazz songs consist largely of funky basslines and upbeat hip-hop breaks, with the only improvised element being a melodic solo performance by a single instrument or vocalist.

Example artists: The Brand New Heavies, The James Taylor Quartet, Jamiroquai, Us3.

Ambient

Ambient music refers to a kind of music that envelops the listener without drawing attention to itself.

The Term is created 1974 by Brian Eno's AMBIENT 1 "Music for Airports".

Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.Brian Eno (Music for Airports liner notes [1], September 1978)

Example Artists: Brian Eno, The Orb, Harold Budd, Geir Jenssen (Biosphere), Tetsu Inoue, Pete Namlook, Bill Laswell, Steve Roach and Ott.

Big Beat

Breakbeat that is influenced by acid house. The name refers to the loud, bassy drum beats that make up the songs' beats and bass lines.

Example Artists: Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx, The Wiseguys

Breakbeat

Characterized by a prominent, syncopated 4/4 rhythm. Usually mid-tempo, as songs with a higher BPM that use a breakbeat are classified as Drum N' Bass.

Example Artists: The Prodigy

Breakcore

Typically fast (180BPM+), loud and distorted breakbeats. Songs structure is often non-linear: the breakbeats don't stay the same throughout the song like in drum n bass for example, but rather different breaks are chopped, changed and mashed together. Samples from any spectrum of pop culture (Hollywood movies, Anime, video games, pop music) are also common, and Ragga-Breakcore with the reggae samples is a popular sub-genre.

Example Artists: Venetian Snares, Toecutter

Breaks

A generic term commonly used to describe different sub genres of breakbeat, which include: Funky Breaks, Florida Breaks, Progressive Breaks, and Nu Skool Breaks.

Example Artists for Funky Breaks: DJ Icey Simply Jeff Example Artists for Florida Breaks: DJ FixxTony FalineHuda Hudia Example Artists for Progressive Breaks: BurufunkWrecked Angle

Broken Beat

Description for this style.

Chiptune

Music typically made from 8-bit video game equipment, like Commodore-64 or Nintendo. Sometimes also known as video game music or 8-bit.

Example Artists: Bubblyfish, Glomag, Bit Shifter, Horrible Plans Of Flex Busterman, The

Dark Ambient

Description for this style.

Darkwave

Description for this style.

Deep House

Description for this style.

Disco

Disco was one of the first prominent forms of commercial music to go against the typical Rock & Roll beat (bass-snare-bass-snare) and use the "four-to-the-floor" rhythm -- four beats of bass instead (bass-bass-bass-bass). It also often used simple closed hi-hats on all the eighths, or open hi-hats on the off beat (the 4 eighths in between the kicks), providing a monotonous but easily danced-to backbeat for dancing. In all disco there's usually a prominent bass guitar track. In early disco, arrangements were played by funk bands, so the melodies were played on horns or sung by vocalists. Later disco featured increased use of symphonic instruments (mostly string orchestras) or synthesizers for melodic components. Disco is often, but not always, devoid of electric guitar, and has little or no blues elements, further alienating it from rock'n'roll.

Disco grew out of the funk explosion of the late sixties. When funk was combined with the extended club mixes being sought and edited by US DJs and the lush Philly soul of Gamble and Huff, Disco was born. MFSB's "Love is The Message" is often regarded as the first disco record. By the mid 70s labels like Salsoul and TK, amongst many, were dominating the dancefloors of the world with Disco and with the movie "Saturday Night Fever" it crossed into the pop mainstream. By 1979 urban disco was mutating into what was known as Boogie and the more raw Funk and NY Garage of the 1980s. See also Italo Disco.

In Europe, it's common for any style of music that is played in dance clubs to be referred to as "Disco," but for Discogs purposes the "Disco" style refers only to the style of music defined above. This may include more modern "Nu Disco" productions that aren't really house or techno. The tag may also be combined with others to indicate an old-school disco aesthetic in modern productions that do fall under other styles.

Example Artists: KC & The Sunshine Band, ABBA, Chic, Bee Gees, MFSB, Double Exposure

Downtempo

Description for this style.

Drone

Music style caracterized by the use of sustained sounds and notes. Originally, a drone is a low-pitched sound supporting the main patterns of the musical piece, most typically in bagpipes.

In its purest form, a drone music piece will consist of a few notes continued for several tens of minutes with only very slow distortions (for instance, The Hafler Trio's Trilogy, Cleave, No Man Put Asunder and No More Twain, Of One Flesh).

Drones are also used in Doom Metal, where the bass line remains unchanged for several minutes while sometimes lacking any tempo (for instance, Earth and Sunn O)))).

Drones also feature in Noise and other experimental recordings, where the hypnotic and sometimes jarring effects of sustained notes are applied to the listener for an extended period of time (for instance, Nackt Insecten's Sick Animal Eyes, Time Machines' self-titled album, and Keiji Haino and Sitaar Tah!'s collaborative album, Animamima.)

Drum N Bass

Example Artists: LTJ Bukem, Roni Size, Photek

Dub

Description for this style.

Dub Techno

Incorporates main elements of Minimal Techno and Dub. Usually characterized by a deep, repetitive bass line with minimal percussion and deep synth stabs.

Example Artists: Basic Channel, DeepChord

Dubstep

Description for this style.

EBM

Electronic Body Music is a style born from the influence of Industrial music and New Wave. Initially coined in the early 80's by Belgian act Front 242, the term is now used for music characterized by loud beats, heavily distorted synth sounds and low-pitched, sometimes guttural voice. Starting from the early 90's, integrating the dark romantic influence of new wave, EBM started integrating more melodic, trance-like tunes, while retaining a gloomy, hard-beat aspect (one branch meeting with the more pop-influenced Synth-Pop to create the so-called Future Pop).

Example Artists: Frontline Assembly, Covenant, Assemblage 23, Haujobb or Pride and Fall.

Electro

A style that began as an early form of hip-hop, Electro has grown to encompass anything that uses the classic "electro" beat found on tracks like "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa or "White Lines" by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five. Characterized by the use of 8-bit synthesizer sounds, vocoders and dry, funky drum sounds (as opposed to the binary, low-pitch bass drum of techno). Can describe this classic hip-hop sound or later, more electronic incarnations that used this beat.

In recent years, a more modern and rock-influenced sound has dominated the clubs and mainstream, now known as "Electro-House" and sometimes just referred to as Electro. This sound usually features a loud, four to the floor kickdrum with melodies and basslines remeniscent of 80's synth pop. Many times it uses distortion as a characteristic effect. Justice, Kavinsky, and most of the Ed Banger record label artists produce this sound.

Example Artists: Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Anthony Rother, Simian Mobile Disco

Euro House

Extremely popular in the 1990's, it's a style of House music that incorporates prominent synthesizer melodies and basslines. Pulls influence from Funk, Techno and Hi NRG. Verses are usually rapped and choruses are usually sung, but it varied from song to song. Almost always mid- to up-tempo.

Example Artists: Haddaway, La Bouche, Fun Factory

Experimental

Description for this style.

Freestyle

Heavily Latin-influenced club music created in Miami and New York clubs in the mid-1980's. A later progression of electro, it was characterized by a syncopated beat (as opposed to a typical 4/4 beat found in rock & disco music). Also featured heavy use of Latino instruments in the rhythm track (e.g., clave, maracas).

Example Artists: Sweet Sensation, Company B, Stevie B, Giggles

Future Jazz

Description for this style.

Gabber

Description for this style.

Garage House

While classic (Chicago) house music has a very strong funk influence, Garage House music is heavily influenced by soul music. It's more vocally and melody driven (as opposed to beat driven), and may be noted as having a disco influence as well.

Example Artists: Mel & Kim, Kym Sims, Colonel Abrams

Ghetto

Description for this style.

Glitch

Description for this style.

Goa Trance

Example Artists: Sesto Sento

Grime

Description for this style.

Happy Hardcore

Example Artists: Paul Elstak, Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo, Bodylotion

Hard House

Description for this style.

Hard Trance

Example Artists: DJ Scot Project, DJ Wag, Hennes & Cold

Hardcore

Example Artists: DJ Dano, DJ Gizmo, Prophet, The, Buzz Fuzz, DJ Weirdo, Patrick van Kerckhoven, 3 Steps Ahead

Hardstyle

Example Artists: Showtek, Abject, 4 Navigators

Hi NRG

As the name implies, it's a higher-BPM style of dance music that was very popular in the 1980's. It evolved from disco, but where disco had four beats of bass (whump-whump-whump-whump), Hi NRG had a more rock-music style drum line (whump-snare-whump-snare). In addition to the main beat, there was usually an accompanying second, syncopated "shuffle" rhythm, often made with a tambourine or similar high-pitched snare sound (or, more often, an electronic variant thereof).

Example Artists: Dead Or Alive, Bardeux, Stacey Q, Jolo

Hip Hop

Description for this style.

Hip House

House music with a hip-hop influence. Vocals are usually rapped over a house beat. Mostly early 90's.

Example Artists: Technotronic, Fast Eddie

House

Description for this style.

IDM

Intelligent Dance Music is a style in electronic music emerging in the early 90's and characterized by unusual, weird, distorted sounds, and drum lines consisting of very short bleeps and glitches. Originally applied to musicians like Future Sound Of London, Orbital, Aphex Twin, Black Dog, and B12, the term is now extended to a multitude of artists who produce downtempo, experimental electronic music while keeping the influence of their dance-floor origins, often produced on simple laptops using only sequencer software. The term IDM is now used almost exclusively in its acronym form, as the actual meaning came to be interpreted as implying that other styles of dance music are not intelligent.

Example Artists: Proem, SubtractiveLAD, Bola, Autechre, Arovane, Telefon Tel Aviv and Lusine.

Illbient

Description for this style.

Example Artists: Scorn, Spectre

Industrial

Description for this style.

Example Artists: Throbbing Gristle, SPK, Monte Cazazza, Cabaret Voltaire

Italo-Disco

Generally, Italo-Disco consists of English pop vocals (often sung a little weirdly by non-native English speakers) over mid-tempo, heavily synthetic disco or hybrid disco-electro rhythms, with emphasized lead synths. It was mostly produced by Italians in the 1980s. This style/scene was named by ZYX Records boss Bernhard Mikulski to market licensed releases and numerous compilations. In some regions, the term was used more broadly to cover globally produced and 1970s synth disco and other synth-heavy dance productions. On Discogs, fans of the style generally prefer to limit the term's use to 1980s Italian productions and newer material that is clearly a tribute to the original sound.

Example Artists: Valerie Dore, Fun Fun, Den Harrow, Kano, Klein & M.B.O., Sabrina

Italodance

Italodance is a general term to describe that massive italian dance production of the 90s. It was a development of late 80s italo-house, and was a crossover of all electronic genres of the current era. Nowadays an old italodance record is easily recognizable. All is built on a 4/4 drum layer within 120-130 bpm. The 'mood' is happy and simple, with an easy track structure (intro - build-up - main theme - final - outro). The sound range is wide, due to the fact that Italodance use samples of other styles or is strongly inspired to famous records of the era. There are always a lot of vocal samples from pop or hip-pop records, classic techno sounds as hoover or 303 lines, late 80s piano-house riff , and the usual italian synth attitude from the 80s italo-disco. Usually an italodance record is a 3 or 4 track ep, with each track directed towards a main genre (for example a 'vocal mix', a 'techno mix' a 'house mix' and sometimes a 'trance mix'). Another things to keep in mind is that Italodance has always followed the market, so as the music market changes, italodance changes. 90 and 91 records were strongly inspired to house sounds, 91-93 to techno sounds, 94-96 to trance sounds. In other words italodance is a dance-commercial-easy-going take on the most played styles of the period.


Example Artists: Mato Grosso, The End, DJ Molella, Datura, Usura, Gigi D'Agostino, Da Blitz, DJ Fargetta

Jazzdance

Description for this style.

Jumpstyle

Hardcore spin-off with diminished speed (140-150 BPM). Loud claps are layered over the kicks, thus creating a stomping beat that encourages to jump to it. Bass and melody are usually arranged in a shuffle beat, which supports the stomping character.

Jumpstyle has become the most popular Hard Electronic music during the last few years. Many Hardstyle & Hard Dance producers switched to Jumpstyle.

Example Artists: Deepack, Showtek, Tatanka

Jungle

Description for this style.

Krautrock

Description for this style.

Example Artists: Can, Faust, Neu!, Popol Vuh, Ash Ra Tempel, Cluster

Latin

Description for this style.

Leftfield

Left field being the loneliest position in baseball, things that "come from" or are "out of" left field are generally unusual and weird. On Discogs, this term tends to be applied to anything with a "quirky" component, or anything that's atypical of its genre, or to which no style really seems to apply. Sometimes it is used as a less-alienating alternative for the term Experimental.

Makina

Example Artists: Pont Aeri, Pastis & Buenri, Xque?

Minimal

Minimal is an adjective, and as such must be used to sharpen the style descritpion (minimal techno for instance). While minimalism is hard to define precisely, its aesthetic can be summarized by the saying "less is more". When used by itself, it generally denotes electronic music that uses only one synthesizer and one drum machine, without complex, layered melodies and instruments. Usually no vocals.

Example Artists: Jean-Michel Jarre

Modern Classical

On Discogs, this is used for music that emphasizes traditional orchestral instruments, but that has an electronic component, such as tape loops, samples, noticable effects, drum machines, and so on. It is sometimes also used for things like string quartet or brass band covers of electronic music, even though the music itself isn't electronic.

Better not to be used for academic composers for whom you should use Musique concrète if it's an electronic composition or Contemporary (genre: Classical) for instrumental music or both genres and styles if this is a composition mixing electronic sounds / effects and instruments.

Musique Concrète

Very early electronic music that used tapes, tubes, transistors and other electronic equipment to make music.

Nowadays, Musique concrète uses natural sounds (from field recordings for instance), often heavily treated, and/or pure electronic sounds (analog / digital synthesis) in abstract compositions, mostly without melody and rhythm.

Used on Discogs for different kinds of music, not only the actual musique concrète: early electronic music as pioneered by Stockhausen, electroacoustic / acousmatic music, tape music and other kinds of electronic academic music. Can also be used for field recordings and other soundscapes.

Example Artists: Pierre Schaeffer, Edgard Varèse François Bayle Pierre Henry Bernard Parmegiani Henri Pousseur Karlheinz Stockhausen Francisco López Denis Dufour Vladimir Ussachevsky Pauline Oliveros

Neo Folk

Description for this style.

New Age

New Age is a marketing term used for various forms of soft, melodic, instrumental music, often intended for relaxation or "easy" listening. It tends to be made with synthesizers or digital keyboards, played in traditional styles (as a piano ordinarily would be), although it can lean toward the experimental as well. On the experimental side, it includes a broad range of ambient music, space music, field recordings of nature sounds (rainfall, lightning, trees rustling, animals, etc.), and may feature chanting or drone noises. However, it almost always emphasizes tonal sounds and a lead melody. Strong modal harmonies may be present. It does not resemble dance music and is usually made by people with no connection to underground or even mainstream dance scenes.

Example Artists: Enya, Yanni, Kitaro and Mike Oldfield

Example Labels: Windham Hill Records and its sublabels, Narada and its sublabels

New Beat

Example Artists: Confetti's

New Wave

Example Artists: Rheingold, Cure, The

Noise

Description for this style.

Power Electronics

Description for this style.

Progressive House

Description for this style.

Progressive Trance

Description for this style.

Psy-Trance

Example Artists: Vibe Tribe, Infected Mushroom, Talamasca, Phanatic, Sesto Sento, Brain Damage, Ananda Shake, Perplex, Spade, Beat Hackers, Bizzare Contact, Space Cat, UltraVoice, Atomic Pulse and Xerox & Illumination

Rhythmic Noise

Description for this style.

Speed Garage

Description for this style.

Speedcore

Description for this style.

Synth-pop

Example Artists: Yazoo, Howard Jones, The Human League, Freezepop, The Echoing Green

Tech House

Description for this style.

Techno

Example Artists: Jeff Mills, Carl Cox, Laurent Garnier, Sven Väth

Trance

Trance emerged as a form of electronic dance music around 1990, with the advent of music that was essentially techno or house, but had simplified percussion, extreme repetition, and other hypnotic effects such as sustained chords and long echoes. Trance generally has no "bump" in its percussion or "groove" in its basslines -- that is, the hi-hats and the bass in the kick drum are generally de-emphasized as compared to house or techno, and the basslines tend to consist of flat tones, with no modulation, confined to a small range of notes. Trance tempos are generally a little faster than techno, but can vary considerably. Additional info: Trance Production section of the Trance article on Wikipedia.

In trance's early years (1990-1992), it wasn't always clear whether a track was just "trancey" techno (or even beat-laden "ambient" or "deep" house), or was actually an example of what would later be called simply "trance". Consequently, on Discogs, such music might be tagged as (for example) both Trance and Techno. Example artists in this category and time period include The Shamen, Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia, The Irresistible Force, and Speedy J. Age of Love's 1990 self-titled hit single is sometimes pointed to as the earliest "pure" trance track. Similarly, some tracks from the Acid House era, such as original versions of The KLF's "What Time Is Love?" (issued in sleeves that say "Pure Trance") were called house or acid house at the time, but are retroactively considered by some to be trance or proto-trance.

The first wave of what many now consider to be "classic" trance peaked in 1992 and waned in 1994, and was dominated by producers and labels from Germany and the UK. Key labels include Eye Q/Harthouse, Rising High, FAX, ESP, and MFS. Hits include Jam & Spoon "Stella", Jaydee "Plastic Dreams", Sequential "Prophet", Transform "Transformation", Cygnus X "Superstring". Other artists of note from this wave include Sven Väth, Cosmic Baby, The Drum Club, The Sabres of Paradise, Horizon 222, Biosphere, Lumukanda, James Bernard, and Oliver Lieb. On Discogs, this music is generally tagged as just Trance.

In the mid-1990s, although it wasn't new, harder-edged, faster, more aggressive sounding trance (Hard Trance, Acid Trance) became more popular than the mellower, more tonal classic sound. Similarly, it was in the mid-1990s that busier, more psychedelic/ear-candy-laden forms of trance became the norm rather than the exception. On Discogs, this music is generally tagged according to which style it is Goa Trance, Progressive Trance, and Psy-Trance), but plain old Trance can be used if the specific variety isn't known. When these styles became more popular, the more basic, classic sound became marginalized, and it did not really re-emerge until the early 2000s, when classic trance-infused techno/tech-house (sometimes called Neo-Trance) became popular. This newer sound is generally tagged with Trance, along with whatever other style applies, indicating it has elements of both.

Meanwhile, the mid and late 1990s also saw commercial, "clubby" forms of trance or trance/house hybrids become very popular, especially in Europe. These tracks often include vocals, overt melodies, and traditional A-A-B-A song structures, and may include remixes of 1980s pop hits. This category of commercial trance music encompasses a range of styles, and boundaries are a bit blurred. Tags on such items tend to include, in various combinations, Progressive Trance, Progressive House, Euro House, Trance, House, and sometimes Techno. Example artists in this commercial/clubby category from the late 1990s and early 2000s include DJ Tiësto, Ferry Corsten, ATB, William Orbit, Dirty Vegas, Tall Paul, Peter Rauhofer.

Tribal

Tribal as a tag on Discogs is generally used in combination with other styles, like House, Techno, or Trance, to indicate a "primitive" aesthetic. It may emphasize straightforward, monotonous rhythms dominated by toms, bongos, and shakers, and may be devoid of build-ups, fills, hi-hats, claps, or other sounds that offset or distract from the main beat. However, there are always exceptions.

Tribal House

Description for this style.

Trip Hop

Description for this style.

UK Garage

Description for this style.

Style Guide
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