I'll try to make this one brief, in part because I came soooooo late to the Electronic Dance Music party, and since it's sooooooo close to Christmas and Family Time. I've got a few links to share, that have turned me on to the idea of getting deeper into EDM and its flavors and nuances:
www.somafm.com
www.hbr1.com
They are, essentially, specialty online radio stations. Soma FM deals in an eclectic mix of music and and equally eclectic mix of programmers and DJs, venturing beyond the realm of EDM into alt-rock, folk, roots, and other genres. HBR1 deals primarily in EDM and its permutations: trance, trip-hop, etc. A friend of mine at work turned me on to them, and I decided to finally give the sites a spin. Spin taken, and I'm not dizzy. They are both listener-supported, so sending a few bucks their way should guarantee you good karma for the New Year (or any other time).
Speaking of the E in EDM, this film presents a fascinating, if somewhat incomplete and at times overly technical, history of the synthesizer:
http://www.idreamofwires.org/
I Dream of Wires starts the story back to the early days of electrical generation, through the Theremin in the 1930s, and discusses Robert Moog (father of the ubiquitous MiniMoog, Taurus, and other synthesizer products that bear his name), Don Buchla, and a few other pioneers, and traces a path through the decline of the analog synth, through its resurgence and new developments today, and its current use in EDM. The extra features found on the DVD and iTunes releases feature a (very) brief overview of how a modular synthesizer (think of those big machines Keith Emerson and Steve Porcaro took on the road with them back in the day), as well as an extensive interview with Vince Clarke of Depeche Mode/Erasure/Yaz fame. I would like to have seen some more footage devoted to other synthesizer pioneers, however: Suzanne Ciani, Alan R. Pearlman (developer of the ARP synthesizer), and Dave Smith (Sequential Circuits) come to mind. The ARP story, especially, is fascinating enough to warrant its own film - google it.
So, a few links to whet our mutual appetites to modern music and how its made. I'm still old-school, and always will be. But it's nice to get outside for recess and get some fresh air.
