Rave music is a colloquial for electronic dance music. Mostly you can assume it'll be a variation on hardcore techno
, because the term also assumes drug intake from my understanding.
Dubstep is boring downtempo music with wobbling bass
, which is good for testing your sub-woofer if nothing else. Also described as dubstep is a bastardized form of the genre which is actually much closer to electro-house (see below) - brostep, which is basically electro-house at a slower tempo and glorifies harsh-sounding bass patches. Just look up Skrillex, I can't be arsed looking for a tune by him.
Electro can mean either the '80s harsh-sounding predecessor genre of hip-hop
or electro-house, which is dance music which originated in '00s and generally features a simplified bass-snare-bass-snare pattern, lots of compression, treble, mid-range bass patches and general fruitiness
.
edited 3rd Jun '11 10:39:07 AM by Litis
Electronic dance music seems to be pretty varied. Rave is mostly described as synonymous with breakbeat hardcore. Electro is the oldschool type. Dubstep is what sounds like a vacuum cleaner
"Take your (...) hippy dream world, I'll take reality and earning my happiness with my own efforts" - BarkeyNot really IMHO. Term 'techno' is often misused. If you know what it really means, google 'detroit techno' for the archetypal type
"Take your (...) hippy dream world, I'll take reality and earning my happiness with my own efforts" - BarkeyNo, that is not techno by any means. It's shitty mainstream trance. People who listen to music like this find it easier to generalize it by terms like "techno" (which is an entirely separate genre from trance).
Techno sounds like this: [1]
[2]
If you get confused by all these (very) flimsy genre definitions, just call all of it electronic music and don't bother. No one will scold you for it.
Of all music genres, electronic music definitely has the most subgenres, which are also the most problematic ones because: 1. they hardly define a concrete style most of the time; 2. they're made out of thin air these days (that is, it's enough to have a little press buzz around some catchy term and BAM, you have a new genre).
edited 3rd Jun '11 11:07:04 AM by Litis
Telling the stuff apart just by noise?
Rave: I don't have a lot of experience here, but lots of the stuff I heard has these kind of odd whistle-ish noises
Dubstep: Dubstep has a distinctive "Wup / wobble" noise that is quite distinctive. Also, it tends to induce a sort of head nodding motion when you listen to it, as opposed to actual dancing.
There are lots of electronic music genres, so I'll run through a few quick:
House: Started by Gay D Js after Disco. If you've ever heard a generic "NTZ NTZ NTZ NTZ", that's (Really Bad) house.
EBM: Angry Belgians having a wrestling match with a washing machine.
Old school industrial: lot's of abrasive synths, people banging on homemade instruments, disturbing samples and bizarre lyrics.
More modern industrial: As above, but more dance-y
Trance: Often long, no vocals, relies heavily on sawform waves, and has a distinctive Build / Drop structure.
Trip-Hop: What happens when you fuse Hip-Hop with Electronic music 'till it sounds like neither.
Synthpop: Pop music ON SYNTHESIZERS.
Darkwave: Synthpop's evil twin.
Dance Pop: Turn to your local pop station. Katy Perry, all that shit.
Glitch: Think of the noises a scratched CD makes. Now sample those and make it into music.
Chiptunes: Music that sounds like it was made using the software used to make old video game music. Because it is.
The 5 geek social fallacies. Know them well.I only have the album he did with Dave Lombardo and it is awesome.
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt." - Some guy with a snazzy hat.The funny thing with dubstep is that, when I listen to some of the earlier, more outré stuff, what comes to mind is some kind of perverted, stripped-down version of trip-hop...
And then I listen to current dubstep and feel the urge to gouge out my eardrums with paring knives whilst screaming, "How can slowing down bad trance make it suck harder?!?!"
I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.If there were any truth to the genre name, Kevin Martin would probably be a lot more popular...
I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.For Dubstep or electronic music in general?
I know little of Dubstep, so for electronic music I'm gonna pimp KMFDM (*I know it's Industrial Metal, but as a Gateway Series it can't be beat IMO*):
edited 4th Jun '11 5:58:53 PM by inane242
The 5 geek social fallacies. Know them well.Resident Rivethead says:

Now maybe it's because i'm not that young, or because i'm American, but what's the difference between the 3? My friend made me a dubstep CD, but she must of assumed I knew about it it's still stuck on my HD.
I just hear a beat and some electronic noise.