Tag: genre

11 Dance/Electronic Subgenres Heating Up This Summer

August 6, 2018

Dance and electronic music is known for its power to unite fans from across the globe, but real aficionados agree that there’s no one way to blend the many styles, sounds, and artists that make up the expansive and ever-evolving genre.

“The electronic music genre umbrella has to be the largest musical classification. It’s crazy how so many descriptors were accepted throughout its evolution,” says Spotify Dance editor Austin Kramer. “House, rave, club, EDM, dance, electronic are all part of the culture. The semantics all dissolve to one thing: how it makes you feel.” He praises Tomorrowland, which just wrapped two epic weekends, as an example of a popular festival that truly embraces “the diversity of dance music.”

According to Kramer, Tomorrowland hosts more breakout artists than many similar, large-scale festivals. But whether you nabbed a ticket to Belgium or not, there’s still a way to discover and connect with these new and rising artists.

If you’re a dance fan, you probably follow Spotify’s flagship playlist, Mint. Still, you might not know about Spotify’s many dance and electronic subgenre playlists, which house a veritable treasure trove of emerging (and established) artists within bass, indie, techno, and more.

According to diehard fans and experts like Kramer, there’s simply “no way to classify” the many subgenres (and sub-subgenres, and sub-sub-subgenres) that make up the growing dance/electronic/club scene. But while it’s impossible to neatly categorize, it is possible to explore the genre’s limits via Spotify.

Check out our Mint playlist right here, and then learn more about some of our other favorite styles below.

Featuring fast kicks, cymbal smacking, wobble leads, and noted Jamaican dub and reggae influences, Drum & Bass grew from the rave and jungle scenes of Britain in the early 1990s.

Future House is a subgenre that fuses electro/deep house with meaty bass lines. It can bounce and build.

Trap blends hip-hop production (hats, kicks, vocal cuts) with bass drops and large-room effects in halftime.

House originated in Chicago post-disco by mixing funk/soul samples on top of electronic synths/instruments and drum machines (though it now varies in style and influence). House can be seen as the style of music and its variations, but also as a movement and philosophy of unity and love, and the stem of dance music culture today.

Indie Dance/Electronic is a subgenre that fuses rock and electronic. Styles include synth pop, alternative dance, future bass and nu disco.

Characterized by its use of melody, Trance was another early style that’s been evolving for decades. Soaring builds, anthemic, uplifting, hard-hitting chords; a true culture in itself.

Techno is defined by repetitive instrumentals and futuristic themes, ranging from delicate melodic soundscapes to throbbing industrial beats.

Melodic Bass incorporates intense bass lines, colorful melodic builds, and airy drops.

Tech House fuses the minimalistic characteristics of techno with the swing of house.

Afro House/ Soulful House blends African music with house beats.

Fast and hard, Hardstyle is a subgenre that combines distorted leads, euphoric melodies, and face-melting kick drums.

Subscribe to Spotify’s dance playlists to stay updated on the latest and greatest in electronic music.

Straight Out of the Favela: Brazilian Funk

May 30, 2018

If you haven’t heard of Brazilian funk (or Baile Funk) yet, you will soon. Pumping hard from the heart of Rio de Janeiro, the genre derived from Miami bass and gangsta rap is blowing up across the world. With its infectious looping tamborzão rhythms and raw party anthem lyrics, Brazilian funk is twerking its way to the top of the charts. (After all, twerking is basically the unofficial dance of the genre.) And a rising new generation of funkeiros—Anitta, MC Kevinho, MC Fioti, and Ludmilla among them—are fueling the movement.

Brazilian funk star Anitta (née Larissa de Macedo Machado), who became a breakout sensation after singing in her home city of Rio at the 2016 Olympic Games, is catapulting the Miami bass and gangsta rap-rooted Afro-Brazilian genre into the global spotlight on Spotify.

Last December, just 12 hours after releasing “Vai Malandra” (feat. Tropkillaz & DJ Yuri Martins), the silky-voiced singer laid claim to the first Portuguese-language song to land on Spotify’s Global Top 50 chart.

“It’s a great time for Brazilian funk music because we have some great artists investing in it and producing great hits with funk beats,” Anitta said. “Tropkillaz, Major Lazer, me and many other artists are helping making this moment even hotter. A good example is MC Fioti’s song, “Bum Bum Tam Tam,” that exploded on Spotify. He even made a collab with J Balvin after that. It makes me really happy to see funk getting recognition worldwide.”

Empowered by the unparalleled freedom and exponential reach of digital music online, outspoken female Brazilian carioca artists like Anitta—along with protest rapper Karol Conka, feminist icon Valesca Popozuda, 18-year-old São Paulo prodigy MC Rita, and a growing wave of trailblazers like them—have been leading the way toward globalizing the genre. Anitta joins an eclectic cadre of bold voices including Ludmilla, MC Loma e As Gêmeas Lacração—and the list goes on.

“Seeing the explosion of Brazilian baile funk gives me the feeling that we are doing our role well as a label and in media, but at the same time it proves that this is the tip of the iceberg, which can be much larger and explore other territories,” says Brazilian music video director and producer Kondzilla. “Baile Funk as a genre is lively and contagious. The music industry is already watching.”

See for yourself just how quickly this viral music genre has spread like wildfire across the world from 2016 to 2018.

Music experts around the world are being wowed by this growth. “Brazilian funk is a true world phenomenon,” said Roberta Pate, Spotify’s Artists & Label Services Manager for Latin America and US Latin Markets. “In the last two years, the genre has broken the barriers and boundaries of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, and Brazil, to win the world. It’s now one of the most heard genres in Europe, North America and Central America.”

One Funk producer can release up to 100 original songs per month, and with every bass-bumpin’ beat streamed, the democratizing power of the Internet rapidly catalyzed the spread of already speedily produced funk far beyond Brazil’s favelas and onto a worldwide stage.

“Spotify and the Internet are great instruments for spreading good music around,” said Anitta. “It’s powerful, simple and fast, and it makes things easier for different artists to show their songs with Spotify.”

“The great partner of artists like Anitta, MC Kevinho, MC Fióti and Ludmilla, is the Internet, more precisely Spotify and music streaming services, which allowed this phenomenon to expand outside Brazil,” Pate said. “Proof of this success away from home and its internationalization, funk has a playlist focused on international users on Spotify, called Mother Funk.”

“Mother Funk,” the Brazilian funk-filled Spotify playlist, tells the history of funk, with greatest hits from the 80’s until today. It’s especially popular in the United States, Portugal, Argentina, Paraguay and Mexico. To hear what all the buzz is about—top songs from Anitta, Dani Russo, MC Kevinho and DJ Malboro included—check it out here.