influences. In the mid 1980s as Gorbachev, leader of USSR, implemented open-minded policies of perestroika and glasnost, East Berlin churches began to be used as alternative venues for concerts. For example, West German punk band, Die Toten Hosen, performed illegally in 1983 and 1988 in East Berlin churches. In July 1989 the first Love Parade festival was held, a celebration of electronic music. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991, illegal parties of techno and dance music thrived in abandoned areas along where the wall had been. This quickly transformed Berlin into a techno capital where budding and prominent DJs, artists and youth congregated from Germany and internationally, cementing nightlife culture of raves and dance. 21st century With the onset of globalisation, German, French and American musical influences contributed into developing a world-wide popularity for EDM, a broad term covering musical genres stemming from electroclash to techno. Germany's electronic music contributed to this global transition of electronic music from underground art to an international phenomenon, with festivals such as Love Parade, Winterworld and MayDay gaining prominence alongside raves and clubs. German electro artists and DJs continue to gain mass popularity, including Zedd, Robin Schulz, Paul van Dyk and Crazy Frog. Paul van Dyke, raised in East Germany, was majorly involved in the Berlin techno scene and is considered one of the best DJs internationally. In 2018, the New York Times described Berlin as "arguably the world capital of underground electronic music". Styles originating in Germany Electroclash is a style of music fusing 1980s electro and new wave synthpop with 1990s techno and electronic dance alongside elements of funk and punk. Also known as retro electro, tech pop and synthcore, electroclash primarily utilised keyboards, groove boxes, turntables and computers to produce grooving minimal tracks. More than the music, electroclash encompassed a musical culture of confident presentation: individualistic personalities and sexual freedom. Emerging in the later 1990s, with Berlin becoming an international hotspot, electroclash faded as a distinctive style as it fused into tech house music. Trance is a form of electronic dance music, characterised by a high rate of beats per minute (120-160), melodic progressive synths and repetitive rhythms. Typical song structure involves mixed layers developing into a build-up, a climax and then a release. Originating in the early 1990s, German minimalist artists, Klaus Schluze and Sven Vath, are often acknowledged as the fathers of trance music. is a