Defining Dance Music

Dansband:
"Dansband" ("Dance band") is a term in used typically for Swedish bands who play a certain kind of popular music, which is known as "dansbandsmusik". This term for this type of dance music came into use around 1970, and before this term was used, many of the bands were classified as "pop groups". This type of dance music is particularly popular in the Nordic countries.


Disco:Disco is a form of dance music, which contains elements of funk, soul, pop, and salsa. It became most popular during the mid to late 1970's, though it has had brief resurgences afterwards. It inspired the electronic dance music genre.

Electronic:
Electronic dance music was developing in 1981. This was a form of dance music, which was made using electronics. It is a style of popular music which is commonly played in dance music nightclubs, radio stations, shows and raves. As the use of disco began to decline in the 1970's, the old disco then became influenced by computerization. The first notable fully synthesized disco hit was "I Feel Love" by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. Looping, sampling and segueing, which was typically found in disco, continued to be used as a creative technique within trance music, techno music and especially house music.

Electronic dance music experienced a boom after the rapid increase in ownership of personal computers in the 1980's, manifest in the dance element of Tony Wilson's Haçienda scene (in Manchester) and London clubs like Delirium, The Trip, and Shoom. The ongoing influence of Shoom can be most seen in its 25th anniversary party, which was held at Cable Nightclub on 8 December 2012, which was sold out in four days. The scene rapidly expanded to the Summer Of Love in Ibiza, which became the European capital of house and trance. Clubs like Sundissential and Manumission became household names with British, German and Italian tourists.

Many music genres that made use of electronic instruments developed into more contemporary styles mainly due to the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) protocol, which enabled computers, synthesizers, sound cards, samplers, and drum machines to interact with each other and achieve the full synchronization of sounds. Electronic dance music is typically composed using computers and synthesizers, and rarely has any physical instruments. Instead, this is replaced by digital or electronic sounds, with a 4/4 beat. Many producers of this kind of music however, such as Darren Tate and MJ Cole, were trained in classical music before they moved into the electronic medium.

commercial tracks are usually associated with dance music, such as "The Power" by Snap!, "No Limit" by 2 Unlimited, "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" by C+C Music Factory, and the Beatmasters' "Rok Da House".However, the term "dance music" is applied to many forms of electronic music, which can be both commercial and non-commercial.

Some of the most popular upbeat genres include house, techno, drum & bass, jungle, hardcore, electronica, industrial, break-beat, trance, psychedelic trance, UK garage and electro. There are also much slower styles, such as down-tempo, chill-out and nu jazz.

Many sub-genres of electronic dance music have evolved. Sub-genres of house include acid house, electro house, hard house, funky house, deep house, tribal house, hip house, tech house and US garage. Sub-genres of drum & bass include tech-step, hardstand, jump-up, intelligent D&B/atmospheric D&B, liquid funk, sambass, drum-funk, neurofunk and ragga jungle. Subgenres of other styles include progressive breaks, booty bass, Goa trance, hard trance, hardstyle, minimal techno, gabber techno, breakcore, broken beat, trip hop, folktronica and glitch. Speed garage, breakstep, 2-step, bassline, grime, UK funky, future garage and the reggae-inspired dubstep are all subgenres of UK garage.