Music:
     The science and the art of tones, or musical sounds, i.e., sounds of higher or lower pitch, begotten of uniform and synchronous vibrations, as of a string at various degrees of tension; the science of harmonical tones which treats of the principles of harmony, or the properties, dependences, and relations of tones to each other; the art of combining tones in a manner to please the ear. & hand; Not all sounds are tones. Sounds may be unmusical and yet please the ear. Music deals with tones, and with no other sounds.

Webster's 1913 Unabridged

Now that you know a bit about the rave lifestyle It is time for you to know why people dedicate their weekend sleeping hours and in many cases their lives to what may seem like a strange ritual.

Techno:
       Noun. A type of electronically created dance music, not greatly dissimilar to 'house', but with little use of vocals and 'samples'.

"A dictionary of slang in the UK"

Techno music can most easily be described as a series of electronic blips and bleeps that are organized onto musical patterns, often including samples, or short sound pieces from other works of music, movies, spoken word, etc.

This "electronic" music is mixed together by disc jockeys or "DJs" who "spin" this music before large dancing audiences at rave events, known as parties to those in the scene,

It can be said then that this music, filled with low danceable beats gives these parties and the people in them life.

Life:

Of human being: The union of the soul and body; also, the duration of their union; sometimes, the deathless quality or existence of the soul; as, man is a creature having an immortal life.
2.  (Philos) The potential principle, or force, by which the organs of animals and plants are started and continued in the performance of their several and cooperative functions; the vital force, whether regarded as physical or spiritual.           

Webster's 1913 Unabridged

This techno music I speak of is not merely a type of music as is rock and roll, but a whole way to make music.  With genres ranging from the slow trance to fast energetic hardcore.

The differences between these genres is easy to tell, but artists often blur the lines, so sometimes distinguishing between them can be different.

As the focus of this website has changed over time, I have limited the description of electronic music; to start you on with your quest, I have included an exerpt from the X-RADIO page describing the different genres. 

Ambient, Intelligent Dance Music (IDM)
                   Brian Eno (a key figure in the development of ambient music) is often quoted as saying that"[ambient music]... must be as ignorable as it is interesting." Ambient music and it's hybrids I.D.M. (intelligent dance music) and Space Music and ambient ______ (insert sub genre here) seem to be applied to any beatless music or any electronically composed or constructed music under 90bpm. We like to think of ambient & as something for your "mind, body, and soul". Yes it could be an hour long recording of running water or kids playing or it maybe fabulously textured electronic music, in the end who really cares? - just listen and enjoy.

Dub & Reggae
                   Dub's influence on electronic music is enormous yet constantly ignored. Essentially it was ska, rocksteady & reggae tracks dubbed, i.e. with the vocals removed and pressed on the B-side of a 7-inch single, an instrumental version if  you will. Then Studio Engineers like King Tubby & Scientist played with these 'versions' adding echo & reverb and delay etc and produced what is beautifully described as an "x-ray of music".

Electronica
                   Currently a commercial catch-all title for anything composed by electronic means, we prefer to use to describe those electronic (eclectic) artists who push the boundaries of electronic music, cross genres and mess with your mind

 Hip Hop
                   Like jazz, hip hop is an American art form that has taken on international  dimensions. With it's origins in South Bronx , New York block parties and influenced by Jamaican-style toasting lyrics as well as disco and funk beats, hip hop has become the premire form of 20th century poetic expression. It's signified by it's rhyming lyrics, downtempo drum machine beats and up-front sesibilities often incorporating soul, jazz and funk samples. True hip hop differs from so called "rap" music in that it's stridently independent, originating from a vibrant underground scene with a more musically original sound. X-Radio is proud to carry the finest examples of true Hip Hop music both in instrumental and vocal formats. Hip Hop also includes the sub-genre of "turntablism" which is the highest form of the DJ art of mixing, scratching and dual-record manipulation.

House
                   "Disco sucks!" that's what THEY said (but it didn't) and then along came some clever individuals and gave disco a new lease of life as adding soulful vocals, better percussion & basslines and occasional horn sections, add developing keyboard & drum machine technology et voila - House! "Music that makes you  want to dance around your house" -Farley "Jackmaster" Funk. House Typically involves a steady 4-4 beat, a melodic bassline, occasionally pianos & female  vocals. Possibly the most successful of all electronic or dance music genres, often diluted & ripped off to please drunken crowds at enormous clubs and constantly mistaken as a flag bearer for all electronic music

Jungle, Breakbeat, Drum 'n' Bass
                   "Feel the Jungle Vibe babe" Borrowing heavily from Ragga (reggae style rythmns sped-up with rasta-like vocals), jungle exploded onto London Dancefloors typified by its incredibly sped-up looped drum riffs reinforced with 909 drum machine kicks and chest rumbling bass, it became popular as an antidote to a then tired rave scene. Drum n Bass soon followed , essentially a techno meets jungle  hybrid, think guys with keyboards and samplers adding stuff to the early sound. These days it is split into multiple sub-genres including Dark, Tech-step, Intelligent etc to be argued over by those with more time than musical creativity.

Techno
                   Lots of clever people from Berlin & Detroit (and other places) in the late 70s and early 80s found that new electronic instruments and studio techniques could be made into "real" music. Drum machines, samplers, sequencers and emulators  allowed musicians to do things electronically that people had only dreamed of. Early pioneers like Kraftwerk from Germany had broad success and more mainstream pop bands rapidly adopted keyboards and drum machines into their acts, sometimes completely replacing traditional instruments like guitars etc. Typified by a 4-4 beat and a pure electronic sound (i.e. not electronics attempting to sound like 'real' instruments), techno is a blanket term for so much electronic music, it's not worth defining.

Trance, Psychedelic Trance, Goa
                   Take the pounding techno beat, speed it up a bit, give it a mantra, some tripped out vocal samples or alien and/or psychedelic mushroom and/or LSD references, add lots of Roland 303 basslines (that wiggidy squiddy sound). For Goa add lots of eastern names/references (Goa is a place in India where many english & australian trance heads spend time each summer listening to trance and finding themselves.) "Morning tunes" refers to generally slower tunes for the morning (yes those kids stay out ALL night long dancing) For Psy-Trance or Psychedelic  trance add tons of psychedelic references/samples or if in England, make it pounding mate so they can be 'avinit large.

I urge you to checkout the Selekta.com, we have a very extensive collection of Real Audio and MP3 files of many different genres for you to sample.