A term for music created using electronic devices, as opposed to acoustic or electro-mechanical instruments.

Electronic music really began to take off with the invention of the synthesizer in the 1960s. In the late 1960s, Wendy Carlos popularised early synthesizer music with two notable albums: Switched-On Bach and The Well-Tempered Synthesizer, which took pieces of baroque classical music and reproduced them on Moog synthesizers. As technology developed and synthesizers became cheaper, more robust and portable, they were adopted by many rock bands including Pink Floyd.

In the 1970s, the electronic style was revolutionised by the German band Kraftwerk, who used electronics and robotics extensively. Electronic sounds were also incorporated into popular music by other German bands such as Tangerine Dream, Can and Popol Vuh.

During the early 1970s, some of the leading jazz pianists started to use synthesizers on their fusion recordings, most notably Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul (Weather Report) and Jan Hammer (Mahavishnu Orchestra). Other musicians such as Brian Eno, Vangelis, Mike Oldfield, Jean Michel Jarre and Kitaro also popularised electronic music. Electronic music also began to be used etensively in film soundtracks, such as Wendy Carlos' score for A Clockwork Orange.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s there was a great deal of innovation around the development of electronic music instruments, with analogue synthesizers largely giving way to digital synthesizers and samplers. Much popular music was developed on these digital devices by artists such as Ultravox, Gary Numan, the Human League, Eurythmics, Thomas Dolby, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Art of Noise, Depeche Mode and New Order.

The new kinds of electronic noise that synthesizers could create contributed to the formation of the genre of industrial music, pioneered by groups such as Throbbing Gristle. The development of the techno sound in Detroit and house music in Chicago in the 1980s, and the later UK-based acid house movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s fuelled the development and acceptance of electronic music into the mainstream and introduced electronic dance music to nightclubs.

Electronic composition can create faster and more precise rhythms than is possible using traditional percussion. The sound of electronic dance music often features electronically altered sounds (samples) of traditional instruments and vocals.