>>127385380
I think of it as "technically danceable" electronic music that's more focused on being a journey, an experience, than on the pop element. Highly abstracted, with little or unconventional use of acoustic instruments, and regularly themed on futurism.
There's also a particular '90s sound I associate with IDM. But at the very least, I think it's all music made with the idea that advances in technology would dictate the future of music; hence why many artists from the '90s were inspired by similarly technology-inspired scenes, such as krautrock, industrial music, hip-hop, EBM, electro, and weird experimental punk. Then other influences, such as minimalism and ambient, naturally fell into place and also became part of IDM.
