Category: Glossary

Definition: House is a genre of electronic dance music and has been the current standard of ?club music? since the late eighties. Derived from disco, it typically features a 4/4 beat structure accented on the off-beats by a hi-hat in what has been onomatopoetically labeled as ?uhn tiss uhn tiss.? The mood, compared to disco, is typically a bit darker and minimalist as house music uses many other sounds including synths, funk, and soul. It is also the easiest dance music genre to combine with other genres to produce a new sound, like disco house, electro house, and tribal house.

Origin: House began in Chicago in the late 70s but didn?t find true life until the 80s. DJs and remixers delved into infusing disco with new sounds. These tracks were played heavily at The Warehouse, a popular
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by: Ben Norman

Definition: Trance is a genre of electronic dance music. It is a combination of many styles of dance music, but what sets trance apart is the high rate of BPM (beats per minute) that typically ranges from the mid 120s up to the 160s. Trance features a significant amount of synthesized sounds, like house and electro, but trance synths tend to be melodic and progressive, while the beat remains static. The presence of vocals in trance gives us the Vocal Trance subgenre.

Origin: Trance?s roots are in Germany in the early 90s. The two tracks generally considered to be the beginning of trance music are ?Age of Love? by Age of Love and Dance 2 Trance?s ?We Came In Peace.?

Artists: Age of Love, Dance 2 Trance, Jam & Spoon, Ferry Corsten, Paul Van Dyk

See also: Euro-Trance, Hard Trance, Goa Trance

By: Ben Norman

Definition: Synthpop is the stylistic meshing of electro and pop music. While combining song structure typical to pop songs (verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus/chorus), it predominantly features a synthesizer as the lead instrument.

Origin: Synthpop derived from the same place as electro, although it didn?t find a real home until the mid-to-late 1980s when electronic music really began to influence mainstream pop, yielding what most incorrectly call New Wave.

Artists: Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Freezepop, Bodies Without Organs, The Knife

See also: Electro, New Wave