I came across an interesting article in Igloo Magazine about the genre descriptor IDM. I know many long debates have occurred over in that crazy wild Indie Rock subforum due to the fact that "indie rock" has become so ubiquitous and nebulous a definition as to lose nearly all meaning. Has the same happened to IDM? What exactly is IDM anyway? Is IDM a useful definition or should we judge artists separately and stop trying to lump them into a broad "electronic-that-isn't-necessarily-4/4-with-pad-synths" label? What do you guys think?

Here is the link to the article:
http://www.igloomag.com/doc.php?task=view&id=1638&category=features

As a side note: that article mentions tons of legendary IDM artists and thus is quite informative even if you don't care about what your music is called at all. Enjoy & Discuss!

Ive never heard or see that "IDM" expression. Who uses that? I'll listen to some math rock now

I use the term "IDM" sometimes, but generally just try and stick to the umbrella term "Electronic" music. I wll say that I really dislike the articles use of the word "Techno" to encompass everything that wasn't "IDM" the early nineties. When I think "Techno" I think obnoxiously bad acts such as Aqua and Eifel 65.

Re: The "Death" of "IDM," I would say that it still survives, considering that Ulrich Schnauss, Venetian Snairs, and µ-Ziq all have releases this year, I don't think it's a very good argument.

I think the reason the term became so prevalent was because the tag "electronic" was even wider and less genre-specific. House, or techno music with its focus on 4/4 stomp and simplistic structures was obviously not a good fit to describe works by Autechre or Aphex etc.

The very first IDM release I purchased was actually Mouse on Mar's "Idiology" which samples lots of non-electronic live instrumentation (it even has unprocessed vocals!). So I've always struggled with the definition of IDM, preferring to "call it when I hear it." So when an artist layers swelling pad synths and chimes over a stuttering glitchy hip-hop beat, I'll call it IDM but still have no clue as to what the entire genre encapsulates.

When the article mentions the "death" of IDM, they do not mean that the music itself is dead in any way, far from it. Rather, the article argues that the term itself has fallen out of favor among critics and the artists themselves. I'm curious to see if a new banner will arise to describe these more "experimental" electronic artists.

The other complication I find is the massive amount of overlap between certain experimental electronic genres. Some artists like Beautumn, for example, prefer to sneak in tumbling hip-hop beats among the more pure ambient compositions. Does this mean Beautumn is "Ambient/IDM?" He also utilizes found sounds and non-musical field recordings. Does this make him an "Ambient/IDM/MusicConcrete/Miscellaneous" artist? You can see how absurd and inaccurate these genre descriptors are in describing any artist who mixes and matches stylistic elements from a wide range of sources.