Electronic dance music (also known as EDM, dance music, club music, or simply dance ) is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres made largely for nightclubs, raves, and festivals. EDM is generally produced for playback by disc jockeys (DJs) who create seamless selections of tracks, called a mix, by segueing from one recording to another. EDM producers also perform their music live in a concert or festival setting in what is sometimes called a live PA. In Europe, EDM is more commonly called ' dance music ' or simply ' dance '.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, following the emergence of raving, pirate radio, and an upsurge of interest in club culture, EDM achieved mainstream popularity in Europe. In the United States at that time acceptance of dance culture was not universal, and although both Electro and Chicago house music were influential both in Europe and the USA, mainstream media outlets, and the record industry, remained hostile to EDM. There was also a perceived association between EDM and drug culture which led governments at state and city level to enact laws and policies intended to halt the spread of rave culture.
Subsequently, in the new millennium (2000s), the popularity of EDM increased globally, including the United States. By the early 2010s, the term "electronic dance music " and the initialism "EDM" was being pushed by the United States music industry and music press in an effort to rebrand American rave culture. Despite the industry 's attempt to create a specific EDM brand, the initialism remains in use as an umbrella term for multiple genres, including house, trap, techno, trance, drum and bass, dubstep, and their respective subgenres.
