The full form of IDM is Intelligent Dance Music.

Intelligent dance music (commonly abbreviated as IDM) is a style of electronic music originating in the early 1990s, regarded as “cerebral” and better suited to home listening than dancing. Emerging from electronic and rave music styles such as techno, acid house, ambient music, and breakbeat, IDM tended to rely upon individualistic experimentation rather than adhering to characteristics associated with specific genres. Prominent artists associated with the genre include Aphex Twin, μ-Ziq, the Black Dog, the Orb, the Future Sound of London, Autechre, Luke Vibert, Squarepusher, Venetian Snares, and Boards of Canada.

The term “intelligent dance music” has been widely criticised and dismissed by most artists associated with the term, including Aphex Twin, Autechre, and μ-Ziq. The term was likely inspired by the 1992 Warp compilation Artificial Intelligence and is said to have originated in the US in 1993 with the formation of the “IDM list”, an electronic mailing list originally chartered for the discussion of English artists appearing on compilation. In 2014, music critic Sasha Frere-Jones observed that the term “is widely reviled but still commonly used”.

Most people are familiar with the incredibly popular music genre EDM; electronic dance music. Thousands flock to massives and festivals that show off the range of talent and sub-genres in EDM. One such genre is a lot more obscure, but has been around since the early 1990’s. Known as IDM, or intelligent dance music, it’s one of the first experimental genres to pioneer electronic music.

IDM came out of the internet on 1993 message boards. It became a place for people to discuss dance music that wasn’t mean’t for dancing: low frequencies, strange tones, and unheard experimental sounds. More often than not, this kind of music was atmospheric and introspective. These message boards saw people admiring pioneering works by  the likes of Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Autechre and μ-Ziq.