What is IDM music?
The definition of IDM, which stands for intelligent dance music, is a style of electronic music that originated in the early 1990s, and is defined by experimentation rather than one specific genre. IDM tracks and artists don’t follow traditional standards laid out by other genres; artists working within this genre tend to combine influences from a wide variety of genres.
Early IDM artists include The Future Sound of London, Orbital, Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher, μ-Ziq, The Black Dog, and Plaid. The list of artists who have created IDM is long, as the genre is challenging to define, and includes artists like Moderat, Four Tet, Apparat, Leftfield, and Boards of Canada. Labels who have released releases that classify as IDM include Warp, Black Dog Productions, R&S Records, Carl Craig’s Planet E, and Planet Mu, among many others.
