Groove & energy

Sings loneliness in a mechanical world as a melody that still wants to believe in tomorrow.

1980s Japanese city pop, chopped and sped up over French house kicks and filters: vaporwave in the sun.

1920s–'40s swing horns and vocals plugged into modern house beats.

The body is driven by hard sequences and finds strength in repetition.

A steady four-on-the-floor keeps different people in the same room.

Slower, warmer and deeper than house: thick bass, jazzy chords and half-heard vocals, a late-night rooftop dance floor.

House swing with techno's tough kicks and bass: one of the most-played sounds in clubs today.

Disco samples, filter sweeps and robotic vocals: the French turned the '70s dance floor into glittering house.

Machine loops can hold soul, community and another kind of tomorrow.

Builds emotion through repetition and finds transcendence in unfolding melody.

Rolling sixteenth basslines and psychedelic effects, dancing in the forest till sunrise.

Italian-made, Japan-loved high-speed dance music, the soundtrack of drifting and para para.

Kicks distorted into a punchy snap and epic melodies, written for tens of thousands to jump at once.

Russian hard bass: very fast bouncing bass, simple synths and chanted slogans, danced by tracksuited youths in a squat.

Beneath fast breakbeats, the low end keeps the city's breathing steady.

Chopped, sped-up Amen breaks over reggae bass, the wild forerunner of drum & bass.

Takes the few seconds a drummer left behind and rebuilds them into new paths for the body.

A bouncing triplet kick and chopped-up vocals: club music that jumped from Newark block parties to short-video feeds.

Skipping kicks at 160 BPM and chopped vocals: ultra-fast dance music made for Chicago footwork battles.

Swinging, syncopated 2-step beats and slick R&B vocals, the stylish groove of a London weekend night.

Chopped into tiny pieces, yet easy to move to: glitch editing meets hip-hop and funk grooves.

Max out the hype in 89 seconds: fast guitars, a declarative chorus and a title you can shout.

Group unison, sparkling arrangements and gaps left for the crowd's chants, songs written for cheering.

Turns excessive cuteness, repetition and strange logic into a channel of its own.

Touhou Project themes rearranged into rock, metal, electronic and jazz; one game raised an entire doujin music scene.

Ultra-fast hardcore kicks, moe vocal samples and goofy effects, the frantic electronic music of Japan's doujin scene.

High-BPM electronic music designed for fingers and eyes: dense notes, sudden tempo shifts, the harder the better.

Brazilian funk's bouncing drums meet phonk's cowbell: hypnotic Portuguese vocal chops, dark yet danceable.

Chinese pop songs remixed into pounding slow-rock and car-stereo DJ edits, cheesy yet addictive.

Half-shouted, half-chanted bravado from livestream rooms: four syllables at a time, all swagger, so over-the-top it becomes addictive.

Speed a song up, raise its pitch, add an anime picture: an online remix culture that grew out of a Norwegian school project.

Swinging rhythm and blues plus country guitar, the first time teens screamed for music of their own.

Wet guitars drenched in spring reverb and fast tremolo picking, like riding into a wave.

One guitar riff, a big drum kit and one voice can fill a whole stadium.

Three chords, two minutes, hurling anger and jokes at the wall together.

Fast, sweet and loud: three-chord punk with instantly singable pop choruses.

Offbeat guitar "chk-chk" plus horns, bouncy joy you dance with bent knees.

Punk energy with synth gloss: short, sharp and stylish; much of the 1980s sound starts here.

Fast, intensely melodic and emotionally full, the sound behind countless anime openings.

Punk speed poured into metal weight, anger played as the fastest downpicking.

Fast double kick, soaring vocals and heroic sagas make metal bright and uplifting.

Fiddles, bagpipes and folk melodies plus distorted guitars, an epic feast that turns into a tavern brawl.

Horsehead fiddle, throat singing and distorted guitars gallop across the steppe; metal can carry wind and hoofbeats.

Down-tuned grooves, rap and turntables brought metal to late-'90s streets and MTV.

Metalcore breakdowns collide with EDM synths and drops, made for jumping on a rainy rooftop.

Gives a community, a person and a way of life a place to speak on their own beat.

Heavy drum hits and lean loops give a verse solid ground to stand on.

Lazy funk bass and whistling high synths, cruising a sunny boulevard in a lowrider.

Heavy low end slows time down while fine-grained rhythms keep speeding up between pressure and confidence.

Dialects, local pride and internet memes enter rap, from underground cyphers to variety-show stages.

Writes the tone, rhymes and personal stance of the Korean language into beats the body can hear.

Church fire carried into the street, one voice singing a whole community's dignity.

Everything on the one, every instrument turned into a drum.

Four-on-the-floor and shimmering strings, inviting everyone to be the star of the same night.

Hip-hop swing beats plus R&B harmonies, the coolest street dance music of the late '80s.

Pop built for both the dance floor and the charts: big hooks, four-on-the-floor and shiny production.

Precise electronic production turns pop melody into a recognisable character and stage.

Weaves melody, dance and vocal roles into a stage language the world can remember.

Guzheng, dizi and opera-style vocals meet electronic drums and drops: gufeng melodies sped up and bass-boosted into danceable C-style EDM.

A hopping left hand and a playfully syncopated right: saloon piano from the early 1900s, jazz's grandparent.

A whole horn section swinging together, so nobody on the dance floor can stay still.

Fast, complex harmony and virtuoso improvisation took jazz from the ballroom into small clubs to be listened to.

Jazz improvisation plus the electric force of rock and funk, complex yet grooving hard.

Jazz, funk, soul and hip-hop samples dancing together in a London basement.

Songs sailors roared while hauling rope: a lead line, a group answer, stomping as the beat.

Three-finger banjo rolls, mandolin and fiddle taking fast turns, joy on an Appalachian porch.

Horns, piano montuno and clave rhythm set the whole dance floor spinning.

Accordion and guacharaca's two-step shuffle, the riverside town dance that's slow yet impossible to stop.

The rolling rhythm of a full percussion corps, the heartbeat of the carnival parade.

Street parties in Rio's hillside communities: bouncing drum-machine beats, a wall of speakers and an MC's chants.

One dembow rhythm, and the whole city sways together.

Traditional corrido guitars with trap attitude and a young voice: new Mexican music sweeping Latin America and the US.

Guitar chops on the offbeat and a cheerful horn section: dance music faster than reggae and sweeter than punk.

A light stroke on the offbeat, giving both protest and love a sunny ease.

Digital reggae: faster, more electronic, made for the dance floor, DJs toasting over riddims.

Light percussion and warm melodies turn a party into an easy, rolling groove.

Log-drum bass, jazzy piano and laid-back house groove, a sunset rooftop party in Johannesburg.

House's four-on-the-floor with South African rhythms, melodies and vocals in African languages: dance music with a spiritual feel.

Trumpets and tubas racing in odd meters, like a street wedding that won't stop.

Big song-and-dance numbers from Bollywood films: strings, tabla and electronic beats all making a grand entrance.

Shamisen, shakuhachi and taiko meet rock or electronics, a Japanese night under lanterns.