It isn't techno. and it isn't electronica. Its not dance, nor is it musique concrete. Electronic music spans so far and wide, that it has eaten a slice of rock, encapsulates all of r&b rap, and nearly all of pop. It has roots so far back that you could say it predated the civil war, and it very well may be what you'll hear in one way or another for the rest of your life, unless you listen to bluegrass.
So with all of that in mind, I'm going to share something I was given as a study guide sometime back near 2005. It has been defunct for so long now, that I'm occasionally worried that its going to be deleted, yet it remains.
I give you, Ishkurs guide to Electronic Music (v. 2.5). This will take you HOURS to read through, and it can give a name to hundreds of vague genres that you always enjoyed, or wanted to know.
here's a bland quote
"The guide attempts to depict the chronological order of electronic music genres' appearance. It contains 7 separate parent areas of electronic music to explore - House, Techno, Breakbeat, Jungle, Hardcore, Downtempo, and Trance."
The whole thing is done in flash, which leaves it a little annoying to me since I've done interfaces and web design, but the depth and entertainment that it brings makes up for it in droves. The tutorial about electronic music's historical beginnings alone is about 14 pages, but if all you want is to skip through all that and get into the music surfing, then you can go right ahead, and explore through at least a hundred genres, with songs tied to them, his impressions of it, as well as a little background into why it is what it is, where it started, what the scene was like.. There are even radio stations linked in to tons of the genres so that you can just instantly start listening to netradio of your favorites, or look up the bands listed under the genres you like (thats how I found Tsunami One)
If I met this person I would buy them any drink or drug they wanted, and just sit back and talk with them for a day at least.
Rumors circulate that he's working on a version 3, but there hasn't been any news about it for a while now. His website is just a landing page, and the last thing I've found was a DJ set that he did in anticipation of the next version.. from 11 months ago.
https://soundcloud.com/ishkur23/ishkur-pure-trance
Ishkur - Pure Trance Mix
(Edit: it seems that Ishkur has quashed his account or at least the mix that was there. I found some online versions, so I've uploaded a copy to mediafire)
I hope that one day in the future, someone collects all of the information saved on this site, and keeps a copy of it as a backup to convert all that info into some other version, because one day in the future, this shit would make for the best textbook or college course ever.
Digitally Imported Presents - Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music
