Intelligent dance music

Intelligent dance music or intellectual dance music (IDM) is a rather ambiguous term that covers a range of electronic or electronic-influenced music. The term has been considered by many to mean modern electronic music that is not necessarily designed for the dance-floor, but rather for home listening. The term may originate from the creation of an electronic mailing list called the IDM list in August 1993, originally intended for discussion of Rephlex Records. The term subsequently gained a life of its own, and became popular around the world as a means of referring to the then-novel mainstream success of certain kinds of experimental electronic dance music. Prior to the adoption of "intelligent dance music" as a blanket term for this music, terms such as electronic listening music, intelligent techno, listening techno, art techno, and experimental techno were common. Rephlex poked fun at this pidgeonholing of music by coining the word "braindance" as a parody. The use of the term is somewhat contentious, oweing to the inherent assumption that all non "IDM" electronic music is then unintelligent.

Related Topics:
Electronic - Electronic mailing list - 1993 - Rephlex Records - Parody

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IDM is not any one style in particular, but rather an umbrella term for a variety of styles of which the main unifying aspect is a desire to make music derived from any of those many genres (such as drill and bass, ambient, micro house, glitch, illbient, and grime) which deviates from the standard template for that genre in an interesting way.

Related Topics:
Drill and bass - Ambient - Micro house - Glitch - Illbient - Grime

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