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: Phuture ; DJ Pierre ; Armando ; Adonis Gene Farris ; Earl Smith Jr. ; Johnny Fiasco ; Mike Dunn ; L.A. Williams ; Roy Davis Jr. ;
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 at the beginning of the 90's. 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 ; Us3 ; Love T.K.O. ; United Future Organization ; Kruder & Dorfmeister ; Galliano ; Vibraphonic ;
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: Harold Budd ; Geir Jenssen ; Biosphere ; Tetsu Inoue ; Pete Namlook ; Aphex Twin ; Steve Roach ; Boards Of Canada ; The Orb ; 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
Also called "Rave" 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. Breakbeat is also the style that generate Hardcore Techno, Jungle & Hardstyle. The "Golden Age" of this style was The early 90's.
Example Artists: The Prodigy ; Smith & Mighty ; Junior Reid ; Shut Up & Dance : Shades Of Rhythm ; Chris Simmonds ; 2 Bad Mice ; Holy Ghost Inc. ; N-Joi ; Sy-Kick ; Manix ; Paul Fitzpatrick ; Hybrid ; Parallax Breakz ;
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, PsyBreaks, 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
Deep belong more to Jazz & Soul where for classic House is more to Funk or Disco but the style was also in Chigago borned. Large Bass & Atmospheric Chords , sometimes Women Vocals & Tempo around 120 bpm make the style distinctive. Recently the term "Deep" is also used for more cinematics productions from minimalistic techno artists but it'sn't House as well . Deep House is looking for warmess , dreamy or introspective ambiance. The Original Tribal scene from Florida was also in the style when they sounded more Balearic .
Example Artists: Aaron-Carl ; Swag ; Larry Heard ; David Alvarado ; Robert Owens ; Chris Brann ; Roger Sanchez ; Danny Tenaglia ; Carl Craig ; Alkemy ; Derrick Carter ; Chez Damier ; Ron Trent ; Angel Moraes ; Kenneth Graham ; Marshall Jefferson ; C & M Productions ; Larry Heard ;
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
50 to 90 BPM. Downtempo (a.k.a. downbeat) music is associated with a variety of different genres including electronic, jazz, rock and some world music. Take note that there may not be any beat represented in the music!
Typically downtempo is used to specifically describe chillout or lounge music that has a slow, rolling groove. Otherwise, it is an umbrella term for some of these style descriptions; low-fi music with moody tones, chilling to passionate vocals, crossover indie and mellow beats.
Drone
Music style characterized 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 ;The Neon Judgement ; Haujobb ; 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. Basically the first Electro track is "RockIt" composed by the Jazz musician Herbie Hancock . 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. This Style Introduce also the concept of sample before that the electronic industry vulgarise it. By mounting tracks with magnetic bands, where the Hip-hop composer is looking for an old funky vinyl , the Electro one was more looking for industrial or synth-pop recordings.
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 like Justice or Kavinsky
Example Artists: Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force ; Anthony Rother ; Simian Mobile Disco ; A1 People ; Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five ; Egyptian Lover ; Oxia ; RenniePilgrem ; Scuba ; Paul Hardcastle ; Visit Venus
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
Style of Hardcore born in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) to react to the house scene of Amsterdam acting in luxuous Clubs and snobbing the Techno Raver. The essence of the gabber sound is a distorted kick sound clipped and so distorted that it makes a recognizably melodic tone. Tempo is around 250 bpm and rarely go under 180 BPM. Gabber was popular in the mid 90's with Huge party like Thunderdome or Goliath. The new generation call him Gabba. Mokum Records , Rotterdam Records & Ruffneck Records are representative labels from Gabber.
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. This style was popular in the beginning of the 90's. In the European record shops, was one the first style aivable on the market due to the better distribution from New-Yorker labels as Nervous Records or Strictly Rhythm on the club circuit. A good Chicago answer was held by Cajmere on his label Cajual Records.
Example Artist: Armand Van Helden ; Mel & Kim ; The Reese Project ; Kym Sims ; Chez N Trent ; Colonel Abrams ; Djaimin ;
Ghetto
Description for this style.
Glitch
Description for this style.
Goa Trance
The term Goa Trance was first used in 1994 and change in 1996 for Psy Trance. The first specifics labels were Dragonfly Records that edited in August 93 the compilation Project II Trance & Underground French-Kommunication. Than a lot of "Goa" labels were founded in London : TIP , Platipus, Matsuri, Flying Rhino, Blue Room Released, Bomm Records, CelticRecords, Sirius Records, Phantasm & Symbiosis Records. This explosion of labels in London was possible after than Paul Oakenfold give to the Goa sound his legitimacy on « Essential Mix », a popular Radio show on BBC Radio 1. Meanwhile in Germany, Goa Artists were diffused via classical Trance labels like Gaia Tonträger , Tunnel Records , Polytox Records , Spirit Zone Recordings or Eye Q Records and the style became also very popular in Israel with group like Astral Projection or Infected Mushroom. Lot of Goa Trance fans considers the 12" Etnica Tribute as a milestone of the style. In 1998 the scene get another direction more dark & repetitive like Techno . So this style of "Goa Trance" is in fact the Psy Trance.
The Goa Trance is played in tempo around 130-150 bpm . This kind of Trance is hypnotic, with pulsing melodies , floating basslines and use a lot of Mid-Asiatic musical phrasing . A popular element of Goa trance is the use of samples, often from science fiction movies & all that refeer to esoterism. Most of the technology used was popular analogue synthesizers. Another caracteristic from the style is that the Djs used DAT players to execute theirs sets , because they're more practical to travel and less sensitive to the beach sand. While the DAT didn't get pitching system the mix between the songs was very short and not necessary in the tempo. Another "Goa" tradition is to make a blank between the sets so the dj's can estimate their popularity by the dancers applause level.
Example Artists: Juno Reactor ; Eat Static ; Etnica ; Dimension 5 ; Ayahuasca ; Man With No Name ; Miranda ; Chi-A.D. ; Electric Universe ; X-Dream ; Total Eclipse ; Disco Volante ; Technossomy ; ManMadeMan ; S.U.N. Project ; Cosmosis ; Doof ; Hallucinogen ; Blue Planet Corporation ; Asia 2001 ; Optica ; The Infinity Project ; Cydonia ; Transwave ; Power Source ;
Sub style found in Discogs:
NITZHONOT means winnings in hebrew...- Well, most people will say this isn't really psy... it's done mostly in Israel and Greece and it sounds like kids playing around with cartoon-samples and melodic psy ideas, but not something very coherent. It's sorta like melodic/ israeli Trance pushed to the limit of commericalism.
Example Artists: Shiva Shidapu ; Eyal Barkan ; Holy Men ; Cyan ;
Grime
Description for this style.
Happy Hardcore
Example Artists: Paul Elstak, Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo, Bodylotion
Hard House
Description for this style.
Hard Trance
Hard Trance designates one „ harder “and faster subspecies of the music style Trance with influences from hardcore Techno and quite often also Acid Techno. So the harder impression results of more aggressive melody elements , from a massive bassline & 303-Acid-Lines. The Bass tempo is the double of kick one around 148bpm but sometimes till 160 bpm . Although with the Hard Trance harder sounds and mechanical rhythms are used. Hard Trance knows (contrary to progressive Trance and Tech Trance) among the melody-oriented Trance styles to be ranked ; but always in the respect of Trance tradition also with emotive climate. The principals countries where the style borned are Germany, Belgium & Netherland. The U.K. stage was more experimental and more with Techno Influence.
Example Artists: DJ Scot Project ; DJ Wag ; Hennes & Cold ; Lunatic Asylum ; Nostrum ; Jones & Stephenson ; M-Zone ; JK Walker ;
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 Artist: 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 & 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 Artist: Proem ; SubtractiveLAD ; Bola ; Autechre ; Arovane ; Telefon Tel Aviv ; Lusine ;
Illbient
Description for this style.
Example Artists: Scorn, Spectre
Industrial
Description for this style.
Example Artists: Throbbing Gristle ; SPK ; Monte Cazazza ; Cabaret Voltaire ; Einstürzende Neubauten ;
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 mid-1980s. This style/scene is said to have been named by ZYX Records boss Bernhard Mikulski to market licensed releases and numerous compilations, although not always strictly Italian productions. Thus, the term is sometimes used more broadly to describe dance music from outside of Italy and from different eras and in more diverse styles. 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, although there are no clear boundaries.
Example Artists: Valerie Dore ; Fun Fun ; Den Harrow ; Kano ; Klein & M.B.O. ; Sabrina
Italodance
Italodance is primarily Italian dance music of the 1990s. It was a development of late 1980s Italo-House, and was a blend of all electronic genres of that era. Nowadays an old Italodance record is easily recognizable; it is built on a 4/4 drum layer within 120-130 BPM, the 'mood' is happy and simple, the track structure is uncomplicated (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 like hoover or 303 lines, late '80s piano-house riffs, and the usual melodic, 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'). Italodance has always followed the market, so as the music market changes, Italodance changes. '90 and '91 records incorporated house sounds, '91-'93 used techno sounds, '94-'96 used trance sounds. In other words, Italodance is a commercial, upbeat 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
We can make an analogy with Rock Music and may be considered that Jungle is the Jazz-Rock of Electronic music. Jungle found his roots when Raggamuffin fuse with original Breakbeat (also call Rave). This make foster the introduction of element from Dub more soft than the primal Breakbeat sound. So the roughness of the kick beat (typical in Techno) was replace by sophisticated tempo construction heritage from the early Electro dj's works with tapes (A time without sampling machine...). Jungle has also integrated female Voice & Hover ambiances focuses on an atmospheric intelligence contrasting with the violence of his high tempo (160/180 bpm). The bass treatment is also more Chilled that in Drum & Bass. Meanwhile most of the pionniers major actors of this scene have also acting in Drum & Bass .
Example Artists: 4 Hero ; Doc Scott ; Mystic Moods ; Jonny L ; Funky Technicians ; Subject 13 ; Goldie ; Hidden Agenda ; Alex Reece ; Tayla ; LTJ Bukem ; Angel Farringdon ; Total Science ; Aquasky ; JMJ & Richie ; Roni Size ;
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.
Example Artists: Leftfield ; Akin O. Fernandez ;
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). The term was first time used on a track from Speedy J. E.P.'s Intercontinental on the label Plus 8 Records know for have a colder and minimalistic sound than early Michigan Lake labels. While minimalism is hard to define precisely, its aesthetic can be summarized by the saying "less is more", like cold-wave bands looking for a empty sound in the 80's. 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: Gabriel Ananda ; Dominik Eulberg ; Jake Fairley ; Ricardo Villalobos ; Steve Bug ; Trentemøller ; Märtini Brös. ; Martin Landsky ; Oliver Huntemann ;
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
Whilst in the 80's some industrial project was engaged in a radicalisation of their sounds, some others made a come-back to the source of folk music from the years 1960/1970 (Scott Walker, Leonard Cohen, Donovan...). Death In June & Current 93 was the first chronologically, follow by Sixth Comm, Sol Invictus & The Revolutionary Army (Of The Infant Jesus). Acoustics guitars, persistently déclamations & martials rhythms are characteristic from Neo Folk. The message from this music is generally developped about Europe and his culture, from his violent history, in a mix of nostalgia, reproach & apocalyptic cavebeat. This Euro-centered speech maintaining second degree & ambiguity that feeds a lot of polemicals. The other thems from the style are Paganism & Occultism .
Neo folk as 3 substyles : Apocalyptic Folk, Folk Noir & Martial Industrial.
Example Artists: Fire & Ice ; Horse Feathers ; Von Thronstahl ; Blood Axis ;
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 ; Mike Oldfield ; Will Powers ;
Example Labels: Windham Hill Records and its sublabels, Narada and its sublabels ;
New Beat
New Beat was a wave of electronic dance music specific to the Belgian club scene from around 1987 and into 1991, with its greatest popularity in 1988 and 1989. New Beat was often characterized by a plodding, relatively slow beat, and distinctly non-"groovy", monotonous (or nearly-so) bass lines. There's not a lot of "pure" New Beat music; it was always a fusion genre, constantly incorporating the sounds of other popular dance music of its era, including synth-pop, EBM/industrial dance, electro, house, acid house, and to a lesser extent, Detroit techno.
New Beat had a significant, reciprocal influence on the stabby, buzzy "rave" aesthetic in techno music. Via groups like Technotronic, Lords of Acid, and Praga Khan, New Beat spawned mainstream, radio-friendly branches of techno. And some of the most monotonous, hypnotic examples of New Beat became the foundation of trance music (e.g. Age of Love's "The Age of Love" and Revelation's "First Power"/"Synth-It").
New Beat faded into history as its artists increasingly converted to making higher-tempo music more strongly associated with techno or trance.
On Discogs, feel free to supplement New Beat with other styles if they're strongly evident, even if only approximate. For example, the "Skizzo" form of New Beat can be tagged with New Beat and Techno, indicating it's the ravey-techno side of New Beat.
Example Artists: Confetti's ; Jade 4U ; Nux Nemo ; In-D ; Technoid ;
New Wave
Example Artists: Rheingold, Cure, The
Noise
Description for this style.
Power Electronics
Description for this style.
Progressive House
Progressive House's roots are primarily in the U.K. in the beginning of the '90s, typified by producers like William Orbit, with his Guerilla label, and Leftfield, with their Hard Hands label. Two British DJs, Sasha & John Digweed helped popularize the sound in the club "Renaissance". One of the biggest hits of the genre was "Passion" by Gat Decor.
Typical elements of the style are house rhythms around 125 BPM; a dubby, galloping/chugging bassline; and a dreamy, spacey atmosphere. In a sense, it is a combination of house and trance, with the soulful, booty-shaking elements toned down and replaced by long chords and dubby ear candy. It evolved into a more minimalistic aesthetic with the emergence of a new scene in 2003 led by musician/DJs such as James Holden & Nathan Fake from the label Border Community.
Related styles are Progressive Breaks, Progressive Trance, and Progressive Psytrance. It's often difficult to say a particular track is strictly progressive house, progressive breaks, or progressive trance, so people often lump the three genres together under a single "progressive" catch-all.
Example Artists : React 2 Rhythm ; Acorn Arts ; Secret Knowledge ; Justin Robertson ; Marc O'Tool ; Matthew Dekay ; Kosmas Epsilon ; BT ; Lemon 8 ; Way Out West ;
Progressive Trance
Description for this style.
Psy-Trance
Heritage from the Goa Trance, Psychedelic Trance is more dusky & repetitive than the original orientation of the style. There is also less multi layered melodies ; that make the sound more techno like . The style emerged during the year 1998 with germans productions from X-Dream or Planet BEN. The Scandinavians artists bring also a major influence on the style with a colder and harder sound . Artists like Atmos ; Koxbox or Son Kite make it popular till 2002.
Example Artists: Vibe Tribe ; Infected Mushroom ; Talamasca ; Phanatic ; Sesto Sento ; Brain Damage ; Ananda Shake ; Perplex ; Beat Hackers ; Bizzare Contact ; Space Cat ; UltraVoice ; Atomic Pulse ; Xerox & Illumination ; Filteria ;
Rhythmic Noise
Description for this style.
Speed Garage
Essentially, speed garage is relatively fast, brash UK house music that was popular in the 2000s. What differentiates it from other house music is an emphasis on jungle-style basslines, and its simple house rhythms with prominent hi-hats. Some of the more commercial examples include the hit "Superstylin'" by Groove Armada and the music of Basement Jaxx.
Speedcore
Description for this style.
Synth-pop
Synth-pop, as a Discogs style tag, can apply to pretty much any pop music dominated by synthetic sounds. Before non-electronic music was allowed in the database, the tag was applied quite liberally in order to justify the inclusion of dance records from the pop and R&B club scenes, and is still used fairly broadly.
The synth-pop genre, though, primarily originates in late 1970s/early 1980s New Wave, the post-punk "alternative" rock movement that encompasses a wide range of styles and attitudes. There are some non-New Wave synth-pop bands like Pet Shop Boys, but on the whole, the synth-pop scene of the 1980s was dominated by a faction of New Wave bands that embraced the use of electronic instruments and relatively light, dance-oriented songwriting, yet still retained a fairly typical four-piece rock-band structure (percussion, lead instrument, bass instrument, vocal). Most synth-pop combines electronic and other instruments, plus strong vocals and melodies, and elements of whatever dance music styles are popular at the time. The music generally isn't very experimental, serious, or dark, but some synth-pop bands like The Human League and members of the "minimal wave" scene explored a more alternative, moody sound at times. Synth-pop enjoys revivals now and then, with new bands deliberately paying homage to the old sounds, or just stumbling onto a similar aesthetic in their experimentation with styles.
Example Artists: Yazoo, Howard Jones, Men Without Hats, The Human League, Freezepop, The Echoing Green
Tech House
This genre is a bit difficult to define. Techno and house music have a shared history and compatible sounds, so every so often there's a wave of releases that integrates the two genres. Every time this happens, the trends are a little different, sometimes sounding more strongly techno and sometimes more strongly house, but not fitting perfectly into either category. Sometimes these brief scenes are given names. Tech house is one such "techno-y house" scene from the late '90s and early '00s. However, the term is sometimes applied to other waves of techno/house combinations from as far back as the early '90s and all the way forward to the present day. That's not to say that everyone would agree that all those styles are actually tech house.
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. From the New Beat scene, 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.
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