Why Electronic Music Seldom Made Into Mainstream?

   Among all music genres, electronic music is a special existence. If you dive in to the electronic music section, you would find the crazy amount of sub-genres that electronic music had. According to Wikipedia, one of the biggest genres of electronic music, House music has about 36 sub-genres.

    But, electronic music has seldom entered the charts in history. You can argue genres like disco, new wave, modern EDM were making waves over the past DECADES, but very soon they were gone. And in my opinion, the new wave and modern EDM are more likely to be punk music and pop music, so in fact, only bands like daft punk should be considered as“pure electronic music". And speaking of PURE Electronic music, the popularity is nowhere near rock and hip-hop, considering electronic music is one of the origins of hip-hop music.

    Thanks to the development of technology, HUGE bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd can use synthesizers to make their music sounds more psychedelic. Electronic music began to rise. The Beatles and Pink Floyd are OBVIOUSLY not counted as Electronic musicians, bands like Kraftwerk, NEU! and Tangerine Dream are the actual Electronic bands. Their influence is massive, but they were not popular. The rising era I would definitely say it's the 90s.

Kraftwerk

    The 1990s are the most important decade to ALL KINDS OF modern music. It was like an enormous explosion that all kinds of music just have grown insane. Rock music had the strongest comeback ever, Hip-hop was at the pinnacle, and even Jazz music evolved. The ALL-TIME LEGEND Aphex Twin led IDM and Ambient music to higher ground, Dance music in the UK was loved by nowadays music critics. A lot of my favorite electronic bands were all come from that era, like The Prodigy(the big beat band, not the rapper), Boards of Canada, Stereolab. There was plenty of great music, but still, except Daft Punk, Electronic music was not popular.

Daft Punk

    Entering the 21st century, Electronic music was still not mainstream. Modern EDM from my perspective is just another wave of pop music. Electronic music is very contributive to modern music, but it just didn't make it.

    Why can't Kraftwerk be the next Pink Floyd? Why can't The Prodigy be the next Nirvana? While there are two main reasons.

    First of all, Electronic music isn't a serious genre. Genres like Jazz, Rock, and Roll, Hip-hop are all based on the style of music, but there isn't a style called "Electronic".So Radiohead and Gorillaz are not considered to be Electronic bands, while they were"actually" making Electronic music.

    Second, Electronic music, in general, is too glitchy, abstract, and experimental for the mainstream. That's why several genres were made for the corresponding audience, for example, Acid House in the UK was actually made for drug addicts. Soon after, the government resisted the rave clubs.

The Prodigy

    Overall, it genuinely doesn't matter if Electronic music is seldom made the mainstream. Electronic music is always evolving, staying contributive to other kinds of music.

    I'm not a musical expert, it's just my personal opinion.