This video is a general overview crash course about the different genres of EDM, all the types of music you’re going to hear at raves and EDM festivals, and I will play song examples so you can hear what they sound like.
If you’re new to my channel, hello. My name is Cotton Candy.
I am an EDM and music festival junkie, so I traveled the world going to different events to make exclusive video content about them.
Huge disclaimer: I am not an expert on any EDM genre.
I am not a producer.
I am not a DJ.
I’ve just been listening to dance music and raving and going to festivals for a very, very, very long time.
This is just a beginner’s guide to EDM and it was so incredibly difficult to lump all of these different sub genres into digestible categories of these main genres because there are so many and they’re just so different.
It’s not necessarily fair to group them together.
But again, this is a beginner’s guide, an introduction to the genres of EDM. The first genre on my list is house music. House music is all about the rhythm and the V. It less has to do with like big jobs, which a lot of genres of EDM do, and there are so many different genres and sub genres that are technically house music. There are actually like big room house, electro house, tech house, progressive house, deep house, tribal house, like the different styles literally go on and on.
Here are a few song examples of the different types of house music just so you can get an idea of what they generally sound like and see that there are so many types of sub genres and styles that they hardly fit under this one category of house.
A lot of producers and DJs like to mix and match different styles, so it’s really hard to pinpoint exactly what genre a song is.
But these were some examples, so you can get a general idea of house music.
Here’s a list of different house music DJs that you can check out: Carl Cox Fisher Chris Lake Mala and Tommy Dombrowski.
Dr.
Fresh is so good.
He has such a unique style like Jamie Jones and has been hot since 82.
Here are a couple of house podcasts. I would recommend checking out Michael Calvin’s treasured tape Toolroom Radio by Mark Knight. You can also look up house DJs and listen to their music, but I think the best way to get a feel for the actual music is to watch or listen to those DJs’ live sets on YouTube.
SoundCloud, mixcloud and their fun, like the Tomorrowland Music Festival live sets and the Ultra Music Festival Live Sets. They have DJ sets from all the different genres and they’re super fun to watch.
So I pulled the bedroom house aside because I definitely think it needs to be separated from all the other genres of house music. They groom house can, for the most part, be a lot more commercial, mainstream examples would be like Martin Garrix, Hardwell W and W Afrojack.
Nicky Romero The list goes on and on.
But you get the picture of basically all the huge main acts that you’re going to see on the main stage of these really big festivals.
I’m not going to play any examples of big groups because all of these DJs are so big that playing their music in this video will definitely get my video deleted. All of these DJs especially do have their live sets on like YouTube and SoundCloud. You can check out their sets here. I also want to pull out electro house from the house blanket because what I said about house is that a lot of it has to do with rhythm and B Electro House does not have that kind of rhythm or B it’s very energetic.
I guess some of these genres are so hard to explain.
So let me just show you a few examples.
The next major EDM genre on my list is trance music.
And again, just like house music, there are so many different types of genres and sub genres under this blanket term of trance music. There’s uplifting, trans hard, trans classic, trans acid, trans simutrans.
Yeah, the list goes on and on forever.
The types of trans are just so so different that I’m just going to play you a few different song examples so you can hear the differences.
So there’s this more melodic side of trans rights that’s generally like the above and beyond recourse and this kind of music can be really uplifting and euphoric and just straight out beautiful.
And then, of course, the other spectrum, like side trans hard trans acid trans, is a lot less like melodic or vocal bass.
A lot of the time, they can be more edgy or like psychedelic sounding. A few very popular trance DJs would be above and beyond. Armin Van Buren ferry corsten, Simon Patterson, Ace Ventura Asterix and Vinnie Vici There are a million things I can name, but there are just a few for you beginners out there.
Here are a few podcasts you can check out: state of trance by Armin Van Buren, group therapy buy above and beyond courses countdown, and open up by Simon Patterson. It is a really cool podcast because Simon Patterson likes to highlight the different styles and so you get a little bit of each style from the spectrum in his podcast. The next major EDM genre in this video I’m going to talk about is dubstep. I do love dubstep, especially live. I just love the bass and I love the crowd energy. Of course, you have songs and styles that are more edgy, some that are more melodic, some that are more vocal bass.
Here are a few song examples and examples I have from live sets of going to different festivals.
Some notable dubstep DJs would, of course, be Excision, Virtual Riot sub tronics, Sudden Death blunts, and Blonde Zeds, Dead Zombie Boy Ganja White Knight, and Bass Nectar.
As far as the podcast goes,
You can also follow Dead Beats radio and Zombie Rock and Roll radio.
Don’t forget to check out some of these DJs’ live sets and mixes again. This is the best way to get exposed to most of this music. Drum and bass is the next major genre on my list, also referred to as dnb. Like all the other different genres of music, there are sub genres like oboe, drum and bass, liquid dnb, jungle jumper,etc. Drum and bass has a very distinct sound. It has a very distinct beat.
You can’t miss it.
Here are some song examples and live examples I took from festivals. You’ll hear what I’m saying when I say Drum and Bass has a very distinct signature.
Some notable DJs you can check out really big drum and bass producer DJs in the scene would be Andy C, Pendulum, Chase, and Status Net Sky Sigma Noisia.
I think I hope I’m pronouncing it correctly. sub focus and cammo incorrect crooked. Actually, now I remember I just said Chase and status.
But when I saw them, the emcee actually said Chase and status.
So I think it’s actually Chase and status.
I don’t know if I’m an American guy. I probably pronounce stuff wrong all the time.
Yeah, you can find really good live sets of mixes from all of these DJs. One of my favorite producers DJs of all time, has tons of really good live sets online.
Lots of really good live sets.
Pop music is the next major genre I’m going to mention in this video.
The less confusing thing about trap is that there are not a bunch of different sub genres or ones, but I do think it’s like its own thing.
It doesn’t necessarily belong under any other major blanket genre terms.
So it’s getting its own section.
Trap music is basically hip hop and I know that was a statement that kind of triggered people for a while, but it is generally like hip hop and I’m gon na play some song examples and you’ll hear what I’m talking about.
So trap, especially the section, was really hard for me to work on because I don’t know or couldn’t narrow down producer DJs that are specifically trap DJs, like there are a few, but a lot of producer DJs kind of do these like mashups between trap and different genres, like slanders, Skrillex, Diplo, all do make trap music, but for example, if I send you to their Spotify, the music that comes up right away like their top five or 10 or Bower’s yellow claw flosstradamus And like I mentioned, slanders, Skrillex and Diplo, future bass is the next genre in this video and I am pulling it out as its own genre because I don’t think it fits under any of these major genre umbrellas. As you know, it doesn’t really belong. It’s very future bass.
It has a very distinct sound.
Some notable changes that a future bass would be like Millennium seven lions son Hello, slander does make future bass So, like I mentioned, slander makes trout. They also make future bass and a bunch of different kinds of music.
I really love Future Bass.
I’ve seen all of these DJs a bunch of times, so I’m gon na play some examples.
So you can get a general idea of what future bass sounds like.
And then I’ll play some live examples that I have from blogging.
The next major blanket genre I’m going to talk about in this video is hardstyle.
And actually, the correct term is hard dance music because hard dance music is a sub genre of hard dance music. Hard dance music is the genre I know most about. It is like my shit and I don’t get offended because I don’t really like music and there’s no reason to get offended about things that don’t matter.
But I do kind of cringe when people call everything hardstyle and that’s why I’m doing this video to inform you guys that everything is house, everything is hardstyle, not everything is techno. These are all different genres and sub genres. Euphoric hardstyle relies a lot on melodies, and raw style is a lot more broad and edgy, or on two completely different sides of the spectrum.
And then there’s heavy hardcore, which is faster than hardstyle.
And most of the time, it’s more melodic and then there’s hardcore, which can be way more edgy, way more fast and arguably angry, and so I’m going to play you some song examples of hardstyle and hoppy hardcore and then I have some live examples of different types of hard dance music too.
Here are a few different producer DJs of hard dance music. You can check out the tweakers’ atmospheres: code block rebellion, malice, little Texas SEPA anger fest. Aaron sells his Happy Hardcore and he’s amazing. I really really love the keeping. If you want to dive deeper into it, his podcast is definitely the place to start.
The last genre I’m going to talk about in this video is techno. I remember a time back in the day when people called everything techno. For some reason, techno, just like every other genre and sub genre I mentioned in this video, is its own thing. It has its own very distinct sounds and signatures and styles. It’s all about the rhythm and the B, not really about these huge build ups and drops. It’s all about taking you on a journey is the best way I could describe it. I will
Some really notable producer techno DJs out there would be Nicoma Dobber, Carl Cox, Richie Hawtin, Adam Bayer, Nina Kraviz, Green Velvet, and Charlotte DeWitt.
As far as podcasts go, you can check out Adam Bear’s drum code radio and Chris Lighting AM FM. Thank you for tuning in to this crash course about the different types of EDM genres. Of course, there are a million and I absolutely can not get to them all in this video. I would actually love it if everyone out there could help me out and contribute to this video.
Also, drop your knowledge in the comment section. Feel free to elaborate on the genres I went over briefly in this video by giving some song examples and DJ recommendations. I would appreciate it and I’m sure everybody else viewing this video will appreciate it too.
I hope this video was helpful.
I hope I introduced you to the genre. Maybe you didn’t know anything about it, but you like it. If you’re not already subscribed to my channel, I would like to ask you to please do so. It means so much to me. Check out the other EDM and music festival videos on my channel.
I spend my life traveling the world for music and I love sharing my adventures with you guys.
Thanks again for watching and until next time, peace out Girl Scouts.
