Rave music may either refer the late 1980s genre or any genre of electronic dance music that may be played at an electronic dance party such as a rave. Very rarely, the term is used to refer to less electronic related genres glam, powerpop, psychedelic rock and dub music parties.
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The genre "rave", also known as 80s hardcore by ravers, first appeared amongst the Acid House movement in the UK during the mid 1980s as a reaction to New Beat. While New Beat usually borrowed an aggressive industrial sound, rave tended to borrow New Beat's elements that were harder than Acid House, while retaining the neutral mooded sound of Acid House. Rave tended to be a happy genre that favoured synthesised melodies over the duller sound of the TB-303 in order to attract a wider audience. The genre was later reestablished as oldskool hardcore, which lead onto newer forms of rave music such as drum n bass and jazzstep, as well as other hardcore techno genres, such as gabber, hardstyle and happy hardcore.
The different genres of electronic dance music played at raves and other forms of dance parties such as freetekno parties can be massively diverse, the term nowadays includes the following:
Breakbeat music refers to any form of rave music with breakbeats, this may range from nuskool breaks to drum n bass, some genres such as hardstep and breakcore cross over into the hardcore techno sound as like as Digital Hardcore, a hardcore punk/metal crossover only played by live bands. Fusions of house and trance also exist but the drum n bass still remains the most popular form of breakbeat played at rave parties. For the article on breakbeat music see here.
Electro music refers to electro and techno, these two genres largely featured psychedelic sounds and are largely considered the earliest forms of electronic dance music genres to utilise the term "rave music" in respect to its modern terminological use. Techno sometimes crosses boundaries with house music, hence the genres trance and acid techno. Miami bass and crunk is sometimes included as "electro".
For the article on electro see here; for the article on techno see here.
Hardcore techno refers to any hard house genre that was influenced by the "rave" genre, usually these genres have a distorted kick drum, and a 3/4 or 4/4 rhythm. Happy hardcore blended the Dutch hardcore sound with eurodance and bubblegum pop, the genre (also known as happycore for short) featured pitched-up vocals and a less distorted 4/4 beat. Trancecore also exists and is a less vocal fusion of happy hardcore with trance music, however hardstyle is a more purer form of trance/hardcore genre since it retains the hardcore sound.
You may see a list of hardcore techno genres here.
House music is a derivate of post-disco influenced genre with the electronic music sounds that were popular in Europe at the time of development. Electro, funky and acid house are its most popular forms. Electro and funky tends to favour a club sound compared to other genres of rave music such as trance. Trance is a fusion of techno with house music and often has an effect of "taking the dancer on a journey" with its constant beat and euphoric melodies that reflect some emotional feeling, and thus psychedelic drug usage is promoted more in trance than house. Since house was originally club music, there are many forms of it, some more appropriate to be played at raves than others. In the UK, genres such as UK Funky, Speed garage and dubstep emerged from garage house, all three genres tended to be more darker or tribal sounding than traditional house, with dubstep being the darkest and slowest. Many club music producers brand themselves as house music, however, in rave culture it is often disputed that "house-pop" is not musically related to house.
You may see a list of house music genres here.
Industrial is a goth/rock/punk related genre. While the genre is not usually considered rave music in itself, it is often fused with rave music genres. Industrial is the origin of many sounds found in rave music, it is one of the first genres that took the sounds that are now popular in rave music such as "acid" as its musical backdrop. Industrial music fans are usually considered rivetheads and do not tend to call themselves ravers.
You may see an article on industrial dance music here.
Trance music is often declared the most emotional form of electronic dance music, sometimes it may overlap with other forms of electronic music, such as hardcore techno, acid techno and house music. Originally trance music took the electronic sounds from krautrock and industrial music, adding a techno beat and house rhythm to make the genre much more danceable.
You may see a list of trance music genres here.
Downtempo and even non-dance styles that might be heard in a rave "chill-out" room or at a rave that plays slower electronic music includes:
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