EDM listed as world’s 3rd most popular genre

By Jake Gable 3.29k

An IFPI survey ranked dance/electronic as the world’s 3rd most popular music genre, behind pop and rock with 32% of people saying they typically listen to it. Applying this to the global population of 16-64 year olds would mean an estimated 1.5 billion people typically listen to electronic music.

With dance music still considered a fairly underground genre until the turn of the past decade, acts like Swedish House Mafia, David Guetta, and Calvin Harris, helped catapult electronic dance music (aka ‘EDM’) into the spotlight thanks to their radio-friendly hits, with the clubbing and festival culture growing in a meteoric way across the United States, particularly at party hotspot, Las Vegas.

Undoubtedly one of the genre’s leading pioneers was Swedish star Avicii, who became a well-known musician across the entire world thanks to his commercially loved hits such as ‘Wake Me Up’. Following his death in April 2018, the electronic scene has stayed universally popular thanks to the efforts of current stars who blur the lines between dance and pop, such as Martin Garrix, Marshmello, Zedd, and The Chainsmokers.