The Electronic Music Web

Timeline

Every genre placed by the decade it started. Colours match the map.

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Every genre by decade

Roots: Early Electronic , Krautrock , Hip Hop Breaks , Dub , Disco , Ambient , Industrial , Euro-Disco , Hi-NRG , Synth-Pop , Funk and Boogie , Italo Disco , EBM , Electro , New Beat

House: Chicago House , Garage House , Acid House , Deep House , Balearic , Italo House , Hip House , Tribal House , Afro House , Kwaito , Progressive House , Soulful House , Ghetto House , French House , Tech House , UK Garage , Jackin House , Minimal House , Microhouse , Electro House , Nu-Disco , Dutch House , Rominimal , Balkan Pop House , EDM , Big Room House , Deep Tech , Amapiano , Pop Deep House , Afro Tech , Future House , Organic House , Bass House , Lo-Fi House

Techno: Detroit Techno , Bleep Techno , Ambient Techno , UK Techno , Acid Techno , Berlin Techno , Free Tekno , Lo-Fi Techno , Minimal Techno , Dub Techno , Hard Techno , Japanese Techno , Schranz , Ghettotech , Hardgroove , Nortec , Hypnotic Techno , Industrial Techno , Raw / Deep Techno , Electro Techno , Gqom , Warehouse Techno , Melodic House and Techno , Peak-Time Techno

Drum & Bass: Breakbeat Hardcore , Darkcore , Jungle , Ragga Jungle , Atmospheric Drum and Bass , Drum and Bass , Jump-Up , Techstep , Neurofunk , Liquid Drum and Bass , Minimal Drum and Bass , Halftime

Trance: Trance , Acid Trance , Goa Trance , Progressive Trance , Dream Trance , Psytrance , Suomisaundi , Tech Trance , Ibiza Trance , Uplifting Trance , Vocal Trance , Dark Psytrance , Full-On , Progressive Psytrance

Hardcore: Hardcore Techno , Gabber , Makina , Happy Hardcore , Speedcore , Terrorcore , Breakcore , Frenchcore , J-Core , UK Hardcore , Freeform , Mainstream Hardcore , Crossbreed , Uptempo Hardcore

Hard Dance: Eurodance , Hard House , Bouncy Techno , Hard Trance , Hard Dance , Hard NRG , Jumpstyle , Hardbass , Hardstyle , Bounce , Hands Up , Euphoric Hardstyle , Rawstyle

Breakbeat: Breakbeat , Florida Breaks , Big Beat , Broken Beat , Nu-Skool Breaks , Breakstep , Chemical Breaks

UK Bass: Speed Garage , 2-Step Garage , Bassline , Dubstep , Grime , UK Funky , Future Garage , UK Bass , Riddim

1960s

  • Early Electronic — The first musicians to make popular music with synthesizers and drum machines.
  • Krautrock — Experimental German rock from the 1970s that mixed electronic sounds with repetitive rhythms.
  • Hip Hop Breaks — The short drum sections of old funk and soul records that became the building blocks of dance music.

1970s

  • Dub — A Jamaican remix style that removes vocals and adds deep bass, echo and reverb.
  • Disco — A joyful 1970s dance music built on a steady beat, lush strings and soulful singing.
  • Ambient — Calm, quiet electronic music made to change the mood of a room rather than to be the focus.
  • Industrial — An experimental, harsh style that uses noise, machines and dark themes.
  • Euro-Disco — A European form of disco with catchy melodies, clean production and electronic instruments.
  • Hi-NRG — A fast, electronic disco style with a strong beat and powerful singing, popular in gay clubs.
  • Synth-Pop — A pop style built mainly on synthesizers, drum machines and catchy electronic melodies.

1980s

  • Funk and Boogie — A smooth, electronic 1980s dance style that grew from funk and disco after disco's peak.
  • Italo Disco — A melodic, electronic Italian disco style with drum machines and dreamy synthesizers.
  • EBM — A hard electronic dance style with shouted vocals, heavy beats and a cold, serious mood.
  • Electro — A 1980s style that mixed funk with drum machines and futuristic electronic sounds.
  • Chicago House — The first house music style, made in Chicago from disco, drum machines and soulful vocals.
  • Garage House — A soulful, vocal-heavy house style from New York and New Jersey club culture.
  • Detroit Techno — The first techno style, made in Detroit with drum machines and futuristic synthesizer sounds.
  • Acid House — A raw house style built on the squelchy sound of the Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer.
  • Deep House — A warm, smooth house style with soft chords and a relaxed, soulful mood.
  • Breakbeat — Club music built on a sampled, syncopated funk drum loop.
  • Balearic — A free, open-minded DJ style from Ibiza that mixes many kinds of relaxed dance music.
  • Italo House — A bright, piano-led house style made in Italy in the late 1980s.
  • New Beat — A slow, hard Belgian dance style from the late 1980s that mixed EBM, acid and samples.
  • Hip House — A late-1980s mix of house music beats and rapped vocals.
  • Trance — Melodic electronic dance music with long builds and breakdowns, developed in Europe in the early 1990s.
  • Florida Breaks — A fast, bass-heavy American breaks sound from central Florida.
  • Eurodance — 1990s European dance-pop with rap verses and big sung choruses.
  • Tribal House — Percussion-heavy house music built on layered drums from Africa and Latin America.
  • Bleep Techno — A short-lived British style from the north of England built on deep bass and simple electronic beeps.

1990s

  • Breakbeat Hardcore — A fast, colourful British rave style that mixed breakbeats, piano riffs and sampled vocals.
  • Hardcore Techno — Fast, distorted rave music that began in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany in the early 1990s.
  • Afro House — A South African house style with deep, spiritual chords and African percussion.
  • Kwaito — Slow South African house music with local languages, deep bass and township pride.
  • Progressive House — A long, building British house style with layered melodies and a trance-like feel.
  • Ambient Techno — Techno that is made for listening at home as much as dancing, with soft textures and slow beats.
  • UK Techno — A hard, dark British techno sound with rough drums and industrial textures.
  • Acid Trance — Early trance built around the squelchy sound of the Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer.
  • Goa Trance — Early 1990s psychedelic trance from Goa, India, with melodic, hypnotic tracks.
  • Darkcore — A dark, serious form of hardcore that led towards jungle and drum and bass.
  • Hard House — Fast, punchy British house music with hard kicks and offbeat bass, popular in the late 1990s.
  • Gabber — The Dutch fast hardcore style with distorted kick drums, dark themes and a large youth scene.
  • Makina — Fast Spanish dance music mixing hardcore, bouncy techno and hard trance.
  • Soulful House — House music built around soul and gospel vocals, live instruments and warm keyboards.
  • Acid Techno — Techno built around the squelchy sound of the Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer.
  • Berlin Techno — The deep, serious techno sound of Berlin clubs, built for long nights and big rooms.
  • Free Tekno — Fast, raw European party techno played at free parties and teknivals.
  • Jungle — A fast British style with chopped breakbeats, deep bass and a strong ragga or soul influence.
  • Ragga Jungle — Jungle mixed with Jamaican dancehall and ragga vocals, fast and full of energy.
  • Bouncy Techno — A fast, happy rave style from Scotland and northern England with a bouncy beat.
  • Hard Trance — Hard, distorted trance with strong kicks and heavy reverb, popular at European raves.
  • Happy Hardcore — Fast, happy breakbeat rave music with pianos and pitched-up vocals, popular in Britain in the mid-1990s.
  • Speedcore — Extreme-tempo hardcore, usually above 300 beats per minute.
  • Ghetto House — Raw Chicago house with simple drum machines and often explicit vocals.
  • Lo-Fi Techno — Rough, hardware-made techno with a muffled, low-fidelity mix.
  • Minimal Techno — A stripped-back techno style that uses only a few sounds and repeats them in small changes.
  • Atmospheric Drum and Bass — A calm, melodic form of drum and bass with soft chords and long, floating pads.
  • Terrorcore — Harsh, dark hardcore with very fast tempos and horror-themed samples.
  • Dub Techno — Techno mixed with the echo and delay effects of Jamaican dub music.
  • Hard Techno — A fast, loud and forceful form of techno made for energetic club crowds.
  • Japanese Techno — Japanese techno, known for a precise, stripped and often melodic sound.
  • Progressive Trance — Slower, smoothly building trance with long breakdowns and changing basslines.
  • Drum and Bass — A fast British style with heavy bass and broken beats, the wider name for jungle's later sound.
  • Jump-Up — A loud, simple and fun drum and bass style made to get crowds moving.
  • Breakcore — Chopped and distorted breakbeats played at hardcore speed with a wide range of samples.
  • Frenchcore — Fast French hardcore with a loud, distorted offbeat bassline, popular at freetekno parties.
  • French House — A French house style built on filtered disco samples and heavy electronic effects.
  • Tech House — A club style that mixes the groove of house with the sounds and structure of techno.
  • UK Garage — A fast, chopped British style that mixes house, soul and jungle rhythms.
  • Schranz — A very fast, hard German techno style built on heavy drums and short, sharp loops.
  • Dream Trance — Soft Italian trance led by piano melodies, popular in the mid-1990s.
  • Psytrance — Fast, layered psychedelic trance that grew out of Goa trance.
  • Suomisaundi — Free-form Finnish psychedelic trance, known for humour and unusual sounds.
  • Tech Trance — Trance with techno-style drums, a dark drive and few vocals.
  • Big Beat — Sample-heavy, rock-tempo breaks made for big rooms and charts.
  • Jackin House — Sample-heavy Chicago house built for dancing, with chopped vocals and funky loops.
  • Ghettotech — Fast Detroit techno, electro and ghetto house with crude vocals.
  • Speed Garage — UK garage with a house four-to-the-floor and a heavy, warped jungle bass.
  • Techstep — A dark, mechanical drum and bass style with harsh bass and science-fiction sounds.
  • Minimal House — A stripped-back house style that uses only a few sounds and lots of space.
  • Hardgroove — Fast, loop-based techno with a strong, funky drum groove.
  • Ibiza Trance — Warm, melodic trance with guitars and sea sounds, linked to Ibiza.
  • Broken Beat — Jazz- and soul-inflected broken rhythms from West London.
  • Hard Dance — An umbrella name for fast, hard club styles such as hard house, hard trance and hardstyle.
  • Hard NRG — A darker, harder form of UK hard house with aggressive, gritty sounds.
  • Jumpstyle — A Belgian and Dutch hard dance style with a fast beat and its own jumping dance.
  • Uplifting Trance — Fast, emotional trance with long breakdowns and big melodic returns.
  • Vocal Trance — Trance tracks with a full lead vocal, usually a pop-style female singer.
  • 2-Step Garage — UK garage with a shuffled beat that leaves out the usual four-to-the-floor kick.
  • Nu-Skool Breaks — A British breaks revival with technical, modern sounds and a strong bassline.
  • Neurofunk — A technical, aggressive drum and bass style with complex, twisted bass sounds.
  • Hardbass — Fast Russian pumping house with a metallic 'donk' bass, heavy kicks and chants.
  • J-Core — Japanese hardcore that mixes European hardcore with anime, game and pop samples.
  • Microhouse — A quiet, detailed house style that uses tiny clicks, cuts and strange samples.
  • Dark Psytrance — The fast, dark and distorted end of the psychedelic trance spectrum.
  • Full-On — High-energy Israeli psytrance with rolling basslines and big melodies.
  • Progressive Psytrance — Rolling, hypnotic psytrance that builds slowly with few big melodies.
  • Breakstep — A short-lived London mix of breaks and early dubstep bass.
  • Liquid Drum and Bass — A smooth, musical drum and bass style with soulful singing and warm chords.
  • Hardstyle — Dutch mid-tempo hard dance with a distorted kick, reverse bass and big melodies.
  • UK Hardcore — The British hardcore style that mixed happy hardcore with trance sounds after 1999.
  • Nortec — Mexican fusion of techno and electro with norteno and tambora brass.

2000s

  • Chemical Breaks — The Australian breaks scene and its progressive, big-room sound.
  • Bounce — A bouncy UK and Irish hard house style built on a sharp offbeat 'donk' bass.
  • Hands Up — Fast, melodic German club music with hard kicks, supersaw leads and pop vocals.
  • Freeform — Complex, trance-influenced UK hardcore with fast rhythms and big melodies.
  • Bassline — Fast, bass-heavy garage from northern England with chopped R&B vocals.
  • Dubstep — South London bass style with heavy sub-bass and sparse half-step drums.
  • Mainstream Hardcore — The polished, slower Dutch hardcore sound that grew from gabber in the early 2000s.
  • Grime — London MC-led style over sparse, hard beats at about 140 BPM.
  • Electro House — A loud house style with distorted electronic bass and heavy, robotic sounds.
  • Nu-Disco — A modern dance style that rebuilds the sound and feeling of 1970s and 1980s disco.
  • Minimal Drum and Bass — A quiet, detailed drum and bass style that uses very few sounds and lots of space.
  • Crossbreed — Drum and bass tempo and breakbeats mixed with hardcore kicks and heavy distortion.
  • Dutch House — A loud Dutch club style with hard electronic drums and simple, catchy riffs.
  • Rominimal — A Romanian take on minimal house, with long, rolling grooves and small, strange sounds.
  • Euphoric Hardstyle — Melodic, uplifting hardstyle with big supersaw leads and emotional breakdowns.
  • UK Funky — A London house and garage mix with African and Caribbean rhythms and vocals.
  • Balkan Pop House — A Romanian and Balkan pop-dance style from about 2008 to 2013 with house beats and accordion hooks.
  • Hypnotic Techno — Slow-changing, deeply atmospheric techno that repeats small details to create a trance-like state.
  • Industrial Techno — A very heavy techno style with distorted drums, noise and industrial textures.
  • Raw / Deep Techno — Stripped, groovy techno with a raw, low-mixed sound, revived in the 2010s.
  • Future Garage — Melancholy, atmospheric garage revival with pitched vocal chops and swing.
  • UK Bass — An umbrella name for UK club styles that mix house, garage, grime and dubstep.
  • EDM — A mainstream 2010s umbrella term for festival dance music with big drops and pop hooks.
  • Electro Techno — Techno built on electro beats and machine funk, revived in the 2010s.

2010s

  • Big Room House — A very simple, loud festival style built around one big drop.
  • Gqom — Dark, broken Durban house and techno with heavy bass and no four-to-the-floor kick.
  • Riddim — Repetitive, aggressive dubstep built on minimal sub-bass patterns.
  • Rawstyle — Harder, stripped-back hardstyle with aggressive kicks, screeches and few melodies.
  • Deep Tech — A 2010s club style that mixes deep house warmth with tech house drums.
  • Warehouse Techno — A 2010s British style that mixes hard techno with the energy and breaks of early rave music.
  • Uptempo Hardcore — Very fast Dutch hardcore with hard, distorted kicks, popular at festivals from the 2010s.
  • Amapiano — Slow South African house with piano melodies, deep bass and a log drum rhythm.
  • Pop Deep House — A British chart sound from the mid-2010s that put deep house beats under pop songs.
  • Melodic House and Techno — A slow, emotional mix of house and techno built on strong melodies and deep bass.
  • Halftime — Drum and bass played at half the speed of the drums, leaving a slow, heavy groove.
  • Afro Tech — South African house with African percussion and a strong techno influence.
  • Future House — A 2010s style that mixes deep house warmth with a metallic, bending bass sound.
  • Organic House — A slow, soft house style with natural sounds, live instruments and a warm, dreamy mood.
  • Bass House — A heavy 2010s club style that mixes house drums with loud, low bass and garage sounds.
  • Peak-Time Techno — A loud, direct techno style made for the busiest part of a big club night.
  • Lo-Fi House — A rough, emotional house style with hissy drums, soft chords and a homemade feel.