Dance Music Genre

The most comprehensive list of Dance Music genres available on the Internet

The Music Genres List site covers many of the most popular styles of dance music, we hope this becomes the definitive list of dance music genres on the Internet, send an email to add @ musicgenreslist dot com if you feel any dance music genres are missing and we’ll add to complete the music list.

• Breakbeat
• Dubstep
• Exercise
• Garage
• Hardcore
• Hard Dance
• Hi-NRG / Eurodance
• House
• Jackin House (with thx to Jermaine Benjamin Dale Bruce)
• Jungle/Drum’n’bass
• Techno
• Trance

Electronic dance music (also known as EDM, dance music, club music, or simplydance) is a set of percussive electronic music genres produced primarily for environments centered in dance-based entertainment, such as nightclub settings. The music is largely created for use by disc jockeys and is produced with the intention of it being heard in the context of a continuous DJ set; wherein the DJ progresses from one record to the next via a synchronized segue or “mix”.

Named for what is arguably the birthplace of house music — the Paradise Garage in New York — Garage is the dance style closest in spirit and execution to the original disco music of the ’70s. Favoring synthesizer runs and gospel vocals similar to house music but with even more polished and shimmering production values than house, garage has more of a soulful, organic feel.

During the early ’70s, Hip-Hop started to incorporate breaks in to their music. A break is a part of a track in which the beats stop allowing you to hear only the rhythmic patterns.

‘Kool DJ Herc’, the originator of breakbeat DJing, adapted this style and took it to another level by playing the same record on two record decks. The break would constantly be playing on one deck, with the beat on the other. He’d then interchange the break from deck to the other. Other Hip-Hop DJs quickly began to copy and build-upon this technique.

Dubstep (thanks to Erik Kirsten) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London, England. The music has been described as “tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals”.

The earliest dubstep releases date back to 1998 and were darker, more experimental, instrumental dub remixes of 2-step garage tracks attempting to incorporate the funky elements of breakbeat, or the dark elements of drum and bass into 2-step, which featured as B-sides of single releases.

In 2001, this and other strains of dark garage music began to be showcased and promoted at London’s night club Plastic People, at the “Forward” night (sometimes stylized as FWD>>), which went on to be considerably influential to the development of dubstep.

The term “dubstep” in reference to a genre of music began to be used by around 2002 by labels such as Big Apple, Ammunition, and Tempa, by which time stylistic trends used in creating these remixes started to become more noticeable and distinct from 2-step and grime.

Trance did a very promising start in the early nineties (1990’s) in Europe, and is currently one of the most promising and influential music genres on the music scene. Trance itself is very wide-scoped, it occupies wide territory with a lot of space and brings its influence deeply outside and well beyond its own bounds, that seem to be quite obscure.

Trance becomes more popularized, thanks to talented trance music DJ’s and producers, trance music labels, and even large recording companies. Pop and rock stars are starting to collaborate with or even outsource their recordings to trance music composers and producers.

Different sub genres of Trance

• Euro Trance
• Goa Trance
• Psychedelic Trance
• Progressive Trance