Intelligent dance music

Intelligent dance music (IDM) is a loose label used to describe experimental forms of electronic music associated with early-1990s ambient techno, "electronic listening music" and related forms of electronica. Rather than being defined by a fixed set of genre conventions, IDM has generally been associated with individualistic experimentation. Music described with the term often drew on electronic dance music styles such as acid house, ambient techno, Detroit techno and breakbeat. Music described as IDM was often promoted or regarded as suited to home listening, although artists associated with the label also produced dancefloor-oriented tracks. Prominent artists associated with the label include Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher, μ-Ziq, the Black Dog, the Future Sound of London, and Orbital.

The phrase "intelligent dance music" has been associated with the 1992 Warp compilation Artificial Intelligence. The acronym "IDM" came into wider online use in 1993 with the formation of the "IDM list", an electronic mailing list chartered for discussion of English artists appearing on the compilation. The term has been widely criticised and dismissed by artists associated with it, particularly for the implication that other dance music is less "intelligent". Rephlex Records, co-founded by Aphex Twin, promoted "braindance" as an alternative term. In 2014, music critic Sasha Frere-Jones observed that the term IDM "is widely reviled but still commonly used".