@Laura steers

At heart, contemporary electronic dance music is a euphoric dream set to a 4/4 beat. That vision finds its purest expression in trance, a sleek, streamlined style that centres emotional uplift as its raison d’etre. The genre evolved alongside techno in the late ’80s and early ’90s, with the rigid arpeggios of Belgian new beat guiding its steady groove and glistening synths. Trance largely took shape in Germany, the site of its harder-edged innovations, and Holland, home to superstars like Tiësto and Armin van Buuren, while the trippier subgenre of psytrance took root in Israel and Goa. By the ’00s, aided by the music’s versatility—equally able to absorb pop melodies or get beefed up to main-stage proportions—trance had become a proudly global concern whose soaring melodies and rolling rhythms transcend borders and language. At festivals, trance fans may wear their home countries’ flags flung over their shoulders, but their chief allegiance is to the music and its message of unity.

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.

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.

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 social media and dance tents, and it's updated weekly with the latest cuts. If you hear a tune 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.