Chill in - A warm-up for a fantastic night of dancing and good music.

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Chill out - If you're not completely exhausted after dancing for hours, you can unwind before falling asleep in a chill out. In 1990, when Detroit Techno was already reigning in the underground clubs, The Orb began making music based on techno but with more landscapes (textures) to be played after the parties. In Sheffield, Great Britain, the Warp label was created to release this type of music. The two volumes of "Artificial Intelligence" are classics of the genre.

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Club House - This is the name given to one of the branches of American House Music that originated in New York. What characterizes CH and sets it apart are the stronger and less repetitive beats (bpms), enhanced with musical instruments, and much more well-crafted vocals compared to Euro House, with remixes of top-notch artists known worldwide, usually from American POP and R&B (Rhythm And Blues) music, ensuring good content lyrics and bombastic rhythms!

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Deep House - A subgenre of house music that is slower and usually more jazzy.

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Drum'n'Bass - Also D+B, or D'N'B. Music made in a frenetic, very fast, and totally syncopated rhythm (breakbeat), meaning it's not that straightforward beat but instead, a complex rhythm. D+B emerged from jungle (although they are often confused) and differs from it by being more melodic, using strings like violins or electronic elements that imitate them (while jungle is more aggressive, often featuring reggae vocals), making it more melodic with more sung than shouted vocals. Other elements of D+B include a strong reggae-influenced bassline and syncopated beats. Prominent names (mostly Black, ironically) include Goldie, Grooverider, Flytronix, Roni Size, J-Majik, Alex Reece, Omni Trio, 4 Hero, Talvin Sigh, The Dream Team, etc.

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Dark Roller - A subgenre of Drum'n'Bass that has much darker and somber tones than traditional D+B. It's like D+B for listening to in a cemetery.

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Disco - A very cheerful dance style, not yet heavily electronic, and strongly influenced by African American music that took the media by storm in the late 70s, reinforced mainly by movies like "Saturday Night Fever" and "Thank God It's Friday" with Donna Summer and Lionel Ritchie, and by artists and bands like Donna Summer, Jackson 5, Gloria Gaynor, Chic, Village People, The Commodores, Bee Gees, Earth Wind and Fire, etc. The beat is 4x4 with bass on the 1 and 3 and claps on the 2 and 4, with a super cheerful sound featuring horns, vocals, and short, fast guitar riffs. Contrary to popular belief, Disco is still made today with electronic bases, a lot! Current big names like Luke Slater and Thomas Bangalter make disco. Or do you think "Gin Tonic" and "Stardust" are techno?

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Downbeats - Relaxing beats and warm basslines originating from Hip Hop. Basically, all non-Drum'n'Bass/jungle or bigbeat breakbeats fall here. In January 1998, the French band AIR released their debut album "Moon Safari," an example that best combines the mix of styles in the same sound.

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Downtempo - A subgenre of music that, as the name suggests, has a very slow tempo or rhythm. It is derived from Ambient and, like Ambient Drum'n'Bass, the rhythm or beat is not the focus, although it exists, unlike pure Ambient.

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Dub - Not even a musical genre but a reconstruction or deconstruction of other songs, extremely instrumental, electronic, dirty, and repetitive. It doesn't have vocals, but the vocal from the original song sometimes comes in as another element of the chaos created by the dub version author. A notable figure? DJ Mad Professor, who even released an album of dub versions of Massive Attack songs.

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Electro - Extremely electronic textures with tones of futuristic music from the past, meaning those computer sounds from the 70s, and dance beats leaning more towards rock than techno. It splits into electroclash (almost always with female vocals, sounding like an 80s new wave revival with electronic beats), hard electro, electro-rock, electro-funk, dark electro, etc. Tiga, Miss Kittin, Anthony Rother, Dopplereffekt, Digitalism, Vitalic, and Mylo are some of the main names in the genre.

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EBM - Electronic Body Music or Industrial. A genre developed in Belgium between 1985-1988 that is actually a heavier derivation of Electro, with an industrial feel due to the heavy bass and electronic beat. The most representative bands are Front 242, T99, Tragic Error, and the more recent Nine Inch Nails and Ministry.

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Euro - When House Music arrived in Europe in 1989/90, it became more commercial, and for the first time in decades, bands from countries like the Netherlands (2 Unlimited), Germany (Culture Beat), Spain (Snap), Italy (Double Dee, Blackbox, 49'ers), and Sweden (Dr. Alban) topped the charts (previously dominated by Americans or Brits).

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Experimental - Minimalist techno music. The Orb and Future Sound of London (FSOL) are the key figures.

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Flipside - Or B-side. The other side of a 7'' single. An example of a successful B-side is "Higher State of Consciousness" by Josh Wink, released in 1995 and hitting the top ten two years later.

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French House - Paris is the birthplace of a subgenre of House that brought new freshness to House since 1997. Key figures include Dimitri From Paris, Etienne de Crécy, Motorbass, Catalan FC, Bob Sinclair, Thomas Bangalter, Jeff K., etc. The Wednesday nights at Queens (Respect is Burning) and labels like Yellow and Roulé are responsible for this French boom. The Techno-funk-disco-house (the name given to Daft Punk and Motorbass's style) of the album "Homework" took the scene by storm in 1997. Stardust's New-Disco by Thomas Bangalter/Bob Sinclair did the same in 1998.

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Funk - Dance music with an emphasis on bass and beat. Major figures are James Brown, Sly Stone, and George Clinton. It has a strong influence on later genres like Hip Hop, Breakbeat, Acid Jazz, etc. Funky refers to that strong emphasis on rhythm and beat in music. A funky house or electro funky, therefore, is a house or electro with a lot of emphasis on rhythm, often with an urban or sometimes Latin feel, making you want to dance even if you're not familiar with or don't like the music.

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Gabba or Gabber - A type of techno with an extremely fast, dirty, and heavy beat, similar to punk rock. It's the heaviest and fastest style of electronic music. Imagine putting a microphone in a blender, turning up the amplifier to maximum volume, hitting a can hard while counting from 1 to 100 as fast as you can, hitting the can on each number. Every 16 counts, stop for a second and burp. The noise you produce is an acoustic gabba. The beats per minute can range from 200 to 400 BPM. It originated in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 1989. Gabber means "buddy" in Dutch.

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Garage - A subgenre of House created to differentiate it from the less commercial house with refined vocals. Created in New York (named after "Paradise Garage", a legendary NYC club in the 80s by Larry Levan), it is also influenced by R&B, characterized by being warmer, more soulful, and more vocal-oriented than pure Chicago house. Alison Limerick, Robin S., and Sounds of Blackness produced some of the most representative music of the genre.

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Goa Trance - A subgenre of trance created in the Asian city of Goa. It mixes electro sounds (full of electronic equipment noises) with the repetitive sound of trance, making it less commercial and much more psychedelic, with clear references to Indian deities and themes.

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Groove - Refers to the feel or swing of the music, essentially the soul of the music. A song with a Latin groove has a lambada feel. A song with a strong groove emphasizes the rhythm. It doesn't mean faster or slower, heavier or lighter, funkier or less funky.

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Groovy - Something that has a strong emphasis on the groove, regardless of the type of rhythm. A groovy house or artist is one that places a strong emphasis on their rhythm, be it Latin, Brazilian (like incorporating sambas), or jazz. US3, for example, is quite groovy and funky at the same time. Sao Paulo is rather groovy without being funky because it emphasizes a Brazilian groove but lacks a strong, marked rhythm.

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Groovebox - Equipment for generating musical grooves or bases. It differs from a Beatbox because the latter only generates beats, while the groovebox also generates the base. The MC-303, 505, 307, 909, and 808 are part of Roland's groovebox line. An electronic drum machine would be a beatbox.

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Hair Whipping - Known as "bate cabelo" in Brazil. It is a type of commercial house, almost always with female vocals (usually with a powerful voice akin to Harlem gospel singers) and tribal beats. The "hair whipping" refers to drag queens who often lip-sync to this type of music in nightclub shows and invariably rotate their hair fiercely. Whitney Houston, Cher, and Mariah Carey are absolute divas with their House remixes.

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Hardcore - Aggressive, abrasive, repetitive techno music. Gabber and Hard Trance are considered Hardcore.

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Hardstep - A variant of jungle where the bass sound is reinforced and syncopated (off-beat). Widely used by Grooverider.

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Hi NRG - The successor to Disco Music. A bit more electronic.

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House Music - A genre extremely oriented towards dance floors, emerging in 1988 in Chicago (the name HOUSE comes from the club The Warehouse in Chicago). It updated the disco of the 70s with electronic bases (Roland 303) in response to the depressive music that dominated the mainstream in the 80s. Initially very basic, it had its boom with Acid House. After the creation of House, nothing in the music world would be the same, as the focus on dance floors, the use of studio elements post-recording (samplers, loops, remixes, etc.), DJ culture, and all elements of house music influenced the genres that followed. In Chicago House, the original, vocals are used along with a typical piano loop.

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Hip Hop - A musical genre derived from disco in the 1970s, characterized by spoken vocals. Although it already existed in the black ghettos of American suburbs, Hip Hop went mainstream with "Rapper's Delight," which featured lyrics over the base of Chic's "Good Times."

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Ibiza - A Spanish island known for hosting dozens of major clubs and hundreds of top DJs from around the world during the European summer. Electronic music that is typically associated with summer often becomes known as Ibiza music.

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IDM - Intelligent Dance Music. A label created to define music made for the dance floor but with a more intelligent, creative, and innovative touch. This label can include everything from the ambient sounds of µ-Ziq and Aphex Twin to the electro of Kraftwerk, the drum and bass of The Dream Team, the trip hop of Portishead, or the listening techno of The Orb. However, this title has taken on a somewhat elitist connotation, and many now prefer to call it Ambient Techno or Braindance.

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Illbient - Essentially ambient music designed to unsettle rather than relax. Created by DJ Spooky using elements of jungle, with Aphex Twin being the most prominent and creative artist in this style.

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Indie Dance - A variation of English independent rock incorporating electronic elements and geared towards the dance floor. Key figures include My Bloody Valentine ("Glider" - 1990), Happy Mondays ("Hallelujah" - 1990), Stone Roses ("Fools Gold"), and Primal Scream ("Loaded" - 1989 and "Come Together" - 1991).

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Jazzdance - Jazz music oriented towards the dance floor. Often confused with Acid Jazz and currently with Deep House.

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Jazzstep - Another variant of jungle that incorporates jazz elements into the beat.

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Jazzy - Contains jazz elements, primarily from Bossa Nova by artists like Tom Jobim, Vinícius de Moraes, and Marcos Valle. Nowadays, everything from Deep House to Drum'n'Bass incorporates jazz (pianos, trumpets, saxophones, xylophones) and Brazilian elements into the textures and vocals.

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Jungle - Originated in the London suburbs in 1989, gaining recognition in 1995 with artists like 4 Hero, Goldie ("Timeless"), and A Guy Called Gerald ("Voodoo Ray"). The genre is described as very fast breakbeat (140 to 170 BPM) with a slow bassline (half that speed). Some describe it as half those BPMs (70 to 90 BPM, following the bass speed) but with doubled beats. For many, there is no distinction between Jungle and Drum'n'Bass, while others see a difference. See Drum'n'Bass.

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Leftfield - Music that is quite different from what is normally produced or mainstream. It can't be classified, hence it's called Leftfield.

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Nightmare - A sinister and ominous tone in music. Think of something like Brainbug's "Nightmare" and "Benedictus," or even darker.

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Nu School - Or New School. A new way of approaching a musical style. So, Nu School Jungle would be the new variations that innovative bands in the style are creating.

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Old School - Music that is still experimental before it becomes something or before a label is created for it. Some call old or classic music Old School.

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Progressive - A more melodic and psychedelic sound in music. There is Progressive House, Progressive D+B (LTJ Bukem), Progressive Trance (Tiësto), etc.

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Psy-trance - The psychedelic branch of trance. Much of what is produced in psy is called Full On, with leading figures like GMS, Skazi, Eskimo, and Infected Mushroom. This style is very popular in Israel, even playing on FM radio.

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R&B - Rhythm and Blues, sometimes called Charme in Brazil. A highly marketable musical genre, increasingly close to electronic music. It is characterized by being funky, slow, and warm. It derives from Hip Hop and Blues but is extremely danceable. TLC, Lighthouse Family, Brandy, Usher, etc., are top sellers in this genre.

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Techno - A genre of heavy electronic music. It is a variation of House but with fiercer and less smooth beats, containing mechanical beats and using sounds ranging from apocalyptic sirens to samples of TV or movie dialogues. It was created and developed in Detroit, with Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, and Juan Atkins being the "three heroes" of Techno. Original Techno is faster than House (126 to 130 BPMs) and generally does not contain the claps characteristic of House and Disco. The heavier and rougher Technos are known as "Hard Techno."

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Trance - Defined as Ambient with more pronounced and faster beats. It's fast (140+ BPM) but trippy. Subgenres include Euro-trance (commercial), Goa-trance, Hard-trance, Psy-trance, etc.

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Trip Hop - Initially known as "dance music for the chair" due to its very slow tempo (120 BPM). It is not concerned with the dance floor. The Bristol scene deserves special mention, as Massive Attack (some credit Soul II Soul) is probably the origin in 1991. Slow beats like Hip Hop combined with influences from Reggae and Dub and creative, sensual, sometimes depressing sounds (influences from 80s bands). "Unfinished Sympathy" by Massive Attack is the biggest hit (considered the best dance track of all time by DJ Mag in a survey of famous British and American DJs). Other important artists in the style are Portishead, Tricky, Morcheeba, Cibo Matto, The Aloof, Sneaker Pimps, Mono...