EDM is a generic term that encompasses many genres of electronic dance. Dance Pop is EDM, but EDM is not Dance Pop. Electronic dance music (EDM), also known as dance music, club music, or just dance, is a wide range of electronic percussion music genres created primarily for nightclubs, raves and festivals. In an article published in The Guardian, journalist Simon Reynolds pointed out that the adoption of the term EDM by the American music industry in the late 2000s was an attempt to change the name of American rave culture and differentiate it from the rave scene of the nineties.
As you're learning about the difference between EDM and pop, you might be wondering what the difference between EDM and pop really is. Rather than designating a single genre, electronic dance music (EDM) encompasses styles that range from ambient music without rhythm to hardcore with 200 beats per minute, with house music, techno, drum and bass, dubstep and trance among the most notable examples. After the popularization of EDM in the United States, several producers and DJs, including Carl Cox, Steve Lawler and Markus Schulz, expressed concern that the supposed excessive marketing of dance music had an impact on the art of DJing.
