250 Greatest Electronic/Dance Artists

I'd Recommend Brainticket. Good to see a lot of krautrock on this list!

My two cents. Nice to see Tangerine Dream up there, although I slightly disagree with Frankie Knuckles' place.

Ricardo Villalobos
Burial
Lightwave
Peter Gabriel
Dandy Jack

Pretty nice list. I don't know why Oakenfold makes it so high though. Great DJ, but his original work is downright awful.

It's great to see Yellow Magic Orchestra at #4, which is about right, but you ought to look into the work of two of the members, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haroumi Hosono. Sakamoto in particular has been pushing electronic music forward for over 30 years now, and Hosono I would consider to be one of its best proponents and most influential personalities (similar to Brian Eno). I would recommend Sakamoto's B-2 Unit or Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence albums if you're looking for great 'early' electronic music (early 80's).

Also I would add Cornelius, I think he's something of a genius of electronic music, his approach as of late has been fascinating.

Of course I can't expect you to know all those guys, but they are just suggestions. Otherwise this list is surprisingly comprehensive. But I do wonder what your criteria for "greatness" is. For example I don't really see Oakenfold, Daft Punk, or even the Chems ranking very high on many of those criteria - they're somewhat influential, but their critical acclaim has dropped off somewhat and they're starting to fade away. If you're looking at influence first, I'd say Kraftwerk, Cluster, The KLF (like it or not they did really kickstart the house movement of the 90's), YMO, Brian Eno, Moroder (where would electronic music be without "I Feel Love"??), Gary Numan, Aphex Twin (for better or worse), The Orb, and Afrika Bamaataa. But, that is just the way I would do it. This list is great, kudos.

I just did a quick search but I did not see The Knife on there. I think they deserve a slot...

and check out Trentemøller, he is my favorite artist of all time. Not necessarily the best, but he's my favorite.

Excellent list, you can't be more accurate with kraftwerk, depeche mode, aphex twin, jmj (although he deserves a higher place in the list), the prodigy...

Although Paul Oakenfold could be too high, Paul Van Dyk really deserves his place in the top. And one of the only tops in which I see PvD higher than Tiesto. I'm glad Armin van Buuren and Ferry Corsten are not in the list.

Yes, I am a trance listener.

What about about Keith Fullerton Whitman?

What about these artists:

Ulrich Schnauss
Royksopp
Ladytron
Goldfrapp
Apoptygma Berzerk
Kosheen
Bonobo
Bent
Zero 7
LCD Soundsystem
Lemon Jelly
Telefon Tel Aviv
Ultramarine
Way Out West
Spooky - the band, not the DJ

Great list! I agree with most of your suggestions (besides a few poppier ones) - if not always the order, but that's to be expected. I'm going to check out the ones I haven't heard of. Thanks!

BTW, I have a few suggestions (all of them acclaimed, and all have produced at least one widely regarded classic). I did a search for each on the list to ensure I'm not recommending repeats:

Biosphere
Producer of what is almost unanimously voted the best ambient album of all time (or at least one of the top 10, although the ambient mailing list votes it to the top year after year): Substrata. It's highly influential as well, a whole subgenre has formed based around his conception of ambient: "arctic" ambient. His other work is also really good - it's all essentially extensions of and additions to his unique sound - from the impressionism inspired Shenzou to the jazz-inflected Dropsonde. The best is, of course, Substrata, but it's all worth checking out, and all really good, really acclaimed, and really important in the ambient world. I'd recommend him for the top 50, at least.

Steve Reich - He should go somewhere in your ambient pioneers section, or perhaps even the list itself (since his work is still loved in the current electronic scene, and he still produces what one might call ambient music, to favorable reviews). His take on minimalism was a huge inspiration for ambient house, "minimal," minimal techno, early trance, and actually a huge amount else in electronic music. And, unlike most of the other electronic pioneers, his music is quite beautiful and very listenable - check out the endlessly lovable Music for 18 Musicians - it's the kind of album you know you're still going to love in 50 years. Besides this only semi-electronic work, he also created many very influential (if very annoying) early electronic works. Brian Eno, for example, has reported Reich as one of his most major influences, and inspirations for ambient music.

Simon Posford - Created both what is almost universally regarded as psytrance's best album - Hallucinogen - Twisted, and again what is almost universally regarded as psybient's best album (Shpongle - Are You Shpongled). He is also potentially one of the inventors of psybient. Widely influential and regarded both in and out of the goa scene.

My Bloody Valentine - Their work was primarily based around the electronic effects they applied rather than their guitar work, so I'd argue that they qualify under "electronic" - especially with the influence they've had on the purely electronic genres nu-gaze and space ambient, and on the semi-electronic ones post-rock, indie noise pop (Broken Social Scene), and space rock. If you haven't heard them, check out Loveless. If a band like Primal Scream qualifies, then My Bloody Valentine most certainly does. To boot, they were much more important musically than Primal Scream, and a widely cited by electronic artists as a major influence. Plus Loveless is usually seen near the top of "Best albums of the 90s" lists, and is one of the few albums Scaruffi declares a masterpiece. I'd put these guys in the top 40 at least.

Matthew Herbert - He has put out three essential, genre-bending albums: Bodily Functions, Around the House, and Scale, all using completely new self-developed production techniques and an incredible sense of musicianship. Bodily Functions and Around the House are now widely considered a major classics of electronic music (IE making pitchfork's 100 best albums of the 90s list), and I can certainly attest to that. Check out Harmonize as a good introduction, then listen to Bodily Functions, then his remix of Koppchen. It's quite varied stuff, but always incredible and unmistakably Matthew Herbert - which to me is the mark of a great artist. Also look into the way he works and does things, and the amazing influence his techniques have had. I'd recommend this guy for the top 30, actually - he was certainly more influential and acclaimed than say, Oakenfold (and IMO better).

Akufen - probably the most creative electronic artist of the last 8 years. Listen to his album My Way (especially Deck the House - that's a great place to start - but give it a few minutes - it makes sense in a short time) - it's a masterpiece. He produces the most cacophonous, detailed funk house music has ever put out; along with some beautifully atmospheric and organic ambient tracks (IE: Horror Inc - The Absent).

James Holden - The father of so-called neo-trance. Again, an incredibly versatile artist with an unmistakeable style - which has been dubbed "the Border Community sound." Check out the first CD of his DJ mix Balance 005 (CD 1, especially) for his incredible DJ mix, then Nothing (93 Returning mix) for what was basically the last good idea pure trance came out with, Horizons, then his remix of The Sky was Pink. I'd be very surprised if you listened to them and didn't give him a place somewhere on the list. It's all very critically acclaimed - Balance 005 especially (his magnum opus, and a modern electronic classic in general).

Michael Mayer - founder of Kompakt records, he essentially shot today's minimal scene out of the gate, on the massive success of his label and productions. Listening to them, you really understand why - try Amanda and Lovefood. Plus he put out the definitive (and probably altogether best) microhouse mix - Immer.

DJ Koze - he's been a huge trendsetter for the minimal scene for the last 3 years, and an integral part of it for about 9, and was one of the original artists to kickstart it. His last three major productions have essentially led the minimal scene in its next direction - whenever the scene is out of ideas, a pile of tracks show up exploring whatever tangent his latest track went off on. Check out Djungle Froot, All the Time, and I Want to Sleep. It's really innovative stuff (within the genre), and I think it at least makes him worthy of an honourable mention.

Steve Roach - another huge ambient pioneer. His (again, widely regarded, acclaimed, and influential) classic is Dreamtime Return, but there's quite a bit of good work in his discography.

A few others to check out as well: 4Hero (jungle/drum and bass pioneers, and arguably the inventors of atmospheric jungle; try Parallel Universe - they probably deserve top 70, IMO); Farben (another acclaimed microhouse/minimal master - his best being Textstar); m83 (perhaps the best nu-gaze artists around - Dead Cities, Red Seas, and Lost Ghosts is deeply beautiful); Vladislav (one of the inventors of microhouse, and a glitch pioneer; check out Luomo - Vocalcity); Isolee (the other potential inventor of microhouse, and the producer of its first great track and anthem - Beau Mot Plage. His newer album Wearemonster is also very critically acclaimed); Tim Hecker (best glitch ambient producer - his album Radio Amour is beautiful, widely lauded, very acclaimed, and influential; also a very important nu-gaze producer); Fennesz (Venice and Endless Summer are masterpieces and classics that commonly make decade top 10 lists - another integral nu-gaze and noise ambient artist. He is also very popular and has crossover appeal, which is very unique for ambient music - let alone noise ambient).

Also, like others have suggested, Astral Projection, Infected Mushroom, Juno Reactor, and Man With No Name - the big 4 psytrance artists (besides Simon Posford) who have produced a huge portion of the genre's major classics.

Hope you enjoy the suggestions! And great job with the list. (sorry for the enormous post, I got a bit carried away - but I think they're all good suggestions and would highly recommend any one of them to you - I only posted musicians that I truly believe are classic artists - and I've heard quite a bit of electronic music).

"This is the one genre the Beatles are severely underrated"
There is not one area in which The Beatles are underrated, let alone severely. When a band sells the amount The Beatles did, and is declared by a majority of critics to be the greatest ever to exist, in all of history, ever ever, whether true or not (not) there is no question that they are not being under-rated in any way.

"The Beatles' ability to marry studio experimentation with a strong pop song structure..."
The Beatles were not the first to do this, nor particularly influential in this field. It was a standard practice in psychedelic pop, before and after The Beatles.

Still, I agree that Tomorrow Never Knows is a pretty clever song, and actually quite good. However, I disagree that they had more than a fleeting impact on electronic music, and most of that comes from the fact that rock bands constantly cite The Beatles as an influence (although why not say, The Beach Boys, who did much more for the development of electronic music? - which is still not that much). Since a lot of rock bands "go electronic" (IE Radiohead), those that did this and cited The Beatles could be said to have had their sound influenced by The Beatles in some way - even after going after electronic. In other words, if The Beatles didn't exist, bands like Radiohead would likely sound at least a bit different.

Thanks, ilias. I had Enigma in the 90-100 range at one point in time. There's no denying they're immensely popular worldwide (selling millions upon millions of records), but I don't know if they've got enough impact or influence to make the top 100. Along with a couple other music collectives (e.g. Deep Forrest, Delerium) Enigma was among the first to put danceable grooves to new age music, but what subgenres did they create? I'm not quite sure where I'll place them when I get to ranking the next 100 spots, though it will probably be somewhat high based almost solely on their enormous popularity... I'm thinking 100-120 range.

As for Vangelis, he's a crucial electronic pioneer that deserves a high placement, but because the majority of his work falls under new age, his influence is somewhat limited on the major electronic subgenres (house, techno, trance). I figured the 25-35 range was good for him. Great artist all around, though.