In its broadest sense is music composed or played specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing, either as a whole musical piece or as part of a larger musical arrangement. In modern parlance, generally used for the more commercial forms of electronic dance music, which is a style of popular music commonly played in dance music nightclubs, radio stations shows and raves.

Styles include house, jungle, trance, techno, garage and many others. Associated with dance music are other commercial forms that are less easily pigeonholed, but which are typically characterised by mixing dance music and hip hop. The chorus usually derives from disco music, the music itself consists mainly of very danceable hip hop beats.

Electronic dance music experienced a boom with the proliferation of accessible computing in the 1980s, with innovations such as the MIDI protocol which enabled computers, synthesizers, sound cards, samplers and drum machines to control one another and achieve the full synchronization of sounds. Electronic dance music is typically composed using computers and synthesizers, and rarely has any physical instruments. Instead, this is replaced by digital/electronic sounds, with a 4/4 beat. Dance music typically ranges from 120bpm, up to 200bpm, with techno, trance and house being the most widespread.