What is glitch music?

Glitch music is an electronic genre built around the sounds of technological malfunction -clicks, cuts, skips, digital artifacts, and system errors transformed into rhythmic and textural elements. The genre emerged in the 1990s from experimental electronic and IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) scenes.

Pioneers like Oval, Autechre, and Alva Noto established the vocabulary of glitch -using CD skips, software errors, and granular synthesis to create otherworldly soundscapes. The aesthetic ranges from barely-there minimalism to dense, aggressive digital noise.

Production techniques include microsound editing (manipulating audio at the millisecond level), deliberate buffer overruns, bit crushing, and sample rate reduction. Modern DAWs and plugins emulate many glitch effects, making the style more accessible to producers.

Glitch has influenced countless electronic subgenres and production techniques. Its legacy appears in contemporary pop, hip-hop production, and sound design. The philosophy of embracing errors extends beyond music into the broader glitch art movement.