Okay, off the back of this thread and a general desire to get up to speed on classifications for the sake of curiosity and for research avenues, i’d like some curated input on the seminal sub-genres of Dance Music, and if it’s not too wide a net, Electronic Music. To keep it narrower, there’s no need to venture into the experimental realms as this is its own genre i guess.
I have a broad taste in sound, but i always come to ‘dance’ music from other directions and influences and genres, so the idea of classification is not obvious to me. In a candid confession mode I can honestly say that i haven’t a clue about most of it, particularly the pioneering major genres and obviously the sub-genres. Patronise away and indulge the joy of sharing seminal works (preferable to favourites of a genre, although something referential and very typical will do the job too).
I probably can’t contribute much to the thread, but i’ll raid my vaults for stuff i have that i’d fail to classify and ask for insights into the lineage. Whilst i do know what hip-hop, Trip-Hop is or drum and bass e.g. (the easy ones) it could be said that others in the community of differing years or cultural backgrounds might not, so knock out any you see fit.
One request, one (sub)genre per post and please start it with a big bold heading, thusly …
HOUSE
I kid you not, if my life depended on it ,i probably would fail on all but an obvious multiple choice here ! So what’s house, why house, (wtf is Garage?) i should’ve gone to google at this point, but where’s the fun in that. This is community curation (i’m fairly confident i couldn’t give a flying fuck about happy-house, just a hunch, let’s skip that, though it could be fun to know)
ps: Something like Autechre LP5 is one of my all time favourite top 5/10 albums, i’m putting that in Electronica/Experimental and possibly beyond the groove based remit, though it ticks all sonic boxes for me
Can anyone help me like dub step, i’m all for a bit of dub-techno, at least what i think of as dub techno ! What’s dark techno
I won’t like anything that has folks waving their arms in the air with whistles and glowsticks
Again, help me get ACID, i seriously hate squelchy resonant filters, the Korg MS filters are the first i could happily crank the res up on
E.g. I love this track, and all the Jimi Tenor stuff with this vibe , what is its dubby badge specifically, maybe not a great example of the areas where i’m missing even ballpark understanding
okay, one of my favourite tracks, makes me dance, makes the audience dance, lots of synth action, but is it dance ? can it be dance/electronica with too many regular instruments, presumably not, is it too loose to be a genre as such, therefore just dance(y) albeit i get the obvious post-punk and new wave influences, i was there man (well i was soaking it up whilst i was getting off on Eno, Berlin Bowie, Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra and european/scandinavian jazz and the likes)
Try to keep the posts as much like a Wire(magazine) Primer or show the connections that make similar BBC documentaries fascinating, i’m all ears, get those links (sound text vid) and bpm rules up. I’m fairly confident i won’t have heard of half the genres tbh …
Here’s a cheeky (zero electronics, ineligible?) indulgent one then from my formative years
DISCOTRONICS
i’m joking
So proper genres … tia