Intelligent dance music (commonly
IDM) is a genre of
electronic music that emerged in the early 1990s. It was originally influenced by developments in underground
dance music such as
Detroit techno and various
breakbeat styles that were emerging in the UK at that time. Stylistically, IDM tended to rely upon individualistic experimentation rather than adhering to musical characteristics associated with specific genres of dance music. The range of post-techno styles to emerge in the early 1990s were described variously as "art techno", "ambient techno", "intelligent techno", and "
electronica". In the
United States, the latter is often used as a catchall term to describe not only downtempo or downbeat/non-dance
electronic music but also
electronic dance music (EDM).