@Jessica Csikos

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Throughout all the bass mutations of the 21st century, drum 'n' bass—the high-BPM, breakbeat-driven style that evolved out of early hardcore rave and dub-influenced jungle in the '90s—keeps going strong. The UK remains home to a vital scene that stays focused on the future without losing sight of the music's roots. These songs stem from that tradition: Deep, soulful and fluid, they're as well-suited for listening as they are dancing. Our editors regularly refresh this playlist. If you like a track, add it to your library.

Big beat—an expression of ’90s dance music at its most crowd-pleasingly boisterous—was always upfront about its intentions. Its philosophy was right there in the name: The bigger the beats, the better. Coldcut and M/A/R/R/S lay the foundation in the late ’80s, fusing acid house and turntablism with infectious hooks. By the mid ’90s, at club nights around the UK, DJs like Fatboy Slim and The Chemical Brothers were bringing ravers and rockers together under the umbrella of the eclectic new sound. Big Beat’s early incarnation joined hip-hop breaks, rock guitars and attention-grabbing vocals with a distinctly gonzo sensibility that helped entice American fans previously immune to electronic music’s allure. Long past the style’s chart-topping late-’90s heyday, its super-sized sonics helped pave the way for DFA’s dance/rock crossovers, French electro and the ’10s EDM boom. Just like the Big Bang’s gravitational waves, ripples from big beat’s collision of rave, rap, rock and pop keep spreading outward.

Funk can be hot—think blazing basslines, belted vocals, drums pushed in the red—but it can also be delectably chill. These soulfully funky electronic tracks might raise the pulse, but they also steady the nerves. Woven together from deep-in-the-pocket beats, head-nodding sample flips and carefully chosen instrumental leads, then sprinkled with futuristic energy, these selections are perfect for beach parties, backyard BBQs and anywhere else that warm sun and good vibes are in abundance. This playlist is updated regularly, so if you hear a song you like, add it to your library.

Here’s where you’ll find the best dance tracks making the rounds online. Just like your feed, this playlist is constantly being updated—if you hear a song you like, add it to your library.

Inside electronic music's myriad scenes and subcultures, bass music occupies a world all its own—it's as much a physical experience as an aural one. Its low-end wobbles draw on some of dance music's most interesting rhythms—grime, dubstep, trap, drum 'n' bass and UK garage are a few—with DJ/producers carving out deeper, more experimental sounds to accent their woofer-flexing drops. This playlist has some of the gnarliest tracks rumbling through Reddit threads and dance tents, and it's updated weekly with the latest cuts. If you hear a tune you like, add it to your library.

Isgubhu, a Zulu word meaning “beat”, celebrates an evergreen and ever-growing set of dance and electronic genres and subgenres sweeping the continent, from amapiano, gqom and Afro-house to kwaito, Shangaan electro and more. This week, the playlist features Dlala Thukzin’s “Ungenzani”, a standout from the producer’s recently released <i>MAYVIS</i> album. Listen to “Ungenzani” on the Isgubhu playlist, and if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

Get ready for a season you’ll never forget. Ibiza’s clubs are opening, and we’ve got the soundtrack to every sunset, every night that will live forever and every euphoric moment the White Isle has to offer. These, our editors predict, are the tracks set to blow up as Ibiza 2025 kicks off. If you hear or recognise something you love, add it to your library—we’ll be updating the playlist as the season heats up.

Calvin Harris' production work is as varied as his solo catalogue—from indie dance remixes for bands like Passion Pit to his floor-filling pop smashes with Rihanna. But it all has one thing in common: Harris' ultra-vivid synths, rife with 8-bit bleeps, sawtooth leads and shimmering pads, which bubble and sparkle from the corners of every song, like geysers spouting pure champagne—the expensive stuff, too.

Throughout 2020’s lockdown, dance music DJs and producers have had to think outside the booth: What might their fans want to hear when they can’t sweat it out under a disco ball? While underground club music largely moved online, drawing fans to digital festivals and live streams for a good cause, the mainstream was dominated by nostalgic cuts that pined for rave culture’s heyday—the early ’90s. And Calvin Harris’ Love Regenerator side project—which delivered vintage-sounding releases such as the exemplary “Live Without Your Love” with Steve Lacy—made it clear that the ’90s were having a moment. Spiralling synthesisers, progressive builds, piano rhythms and acid breaks replaced the bright-eyed dance pop of recent years. Harris wasn’t alone. Duke Dumont, Prospa and Eli Brown also looked back for inspiration, with transportive, ecstatic dance cuts that drew from soul and disco. In other corners of the virtual club, melodic deep house still held strong; Paul Woolford, Diplo and Kareen Lomax’s “Looking for Me” drew instant comparisons to a club Tracy Chapman, and SIDEPIECE’s groovy “On My Mind” went viral on TikTok. But of all the moody bangers that soundtracked 2020, none was as inescapable as Joel Corry and MNEK’s “Head & Heart”, an impossibly catchy banger-lite that had us—and everyone—humming “ba-ba-ba-dum” all year long. Revisit 2020’s biggest dance tracks right here.