Resident Advisor 2000-2025: Best Electronic Music Ranked

RA's 25-year electronic music retrospective: What you need to know

The project's scope and methodology

Resident Advisor's "2000-25" initiative surveys a quarter-century of electronic music through three ranked lists: Best Tracks, Best Records, and Best Mixes. Over 100 global contributors—artists, label owners, club operators, journalists, and RA staff—cast thousands of votes, shortlisting nearly 900 releases.

Best Tracks prioritizes club anthems with lasting influence and subgenre-defining impact. Best Records spans albums, EPs, 12-inches, and compilations. Best Mixes traces DJ culture's evolution from vinyl to digital and cloud-based formats. The project launched with RA.1016, a three-hour mix by Mala chronicling dubstep's 25-year trajectory, setting the tone for community discussion across forums and social platforms.

How RA built the definitive 2000-25 rankings

A contributor-driven methodology

RA gathered input from over 100 global contributors—spanning artists, label heads, club operators, promoters, DJs, journalists, and staff—to shape the rankings. Thousands of votes narrowed the field to nearly 900 releases across three categories: Best Tracks prioritized club anthems with lasting influence and genre-defining power; Best Records assessed albums, EPs, 12-inches, and compilations by cultural impact; Best Mixes charted DJing's evolution from physical media through the digital and cloud era.

The lists debuted December 10–11, 2025, with Best Tracks sparking immediate forum debate over inclusions like "Skeng." Additional 2026 content includes editorial deep-dives, curated mixes, and RA.1000-style playlist guides designed for interactive discovery rather than passive nostalgia.

Why this project matters for electronic music history

Documenting two decades of dance floor evolution

Resident Advisor's 2000-25 project represents the most ambitious effort to canonize 21st-century electronic music, synthesizing input from over 100 global contributors—artists, label heads, promoters, journalists—who cast thousands of votes across nearly 900 shortlisted releases. Unlike retrospectives driven by editorial whim, this crowd-sourced methodology captures consensus from the scene's tastemakers, tracing genre mutations from dubstep's emergence to the digital-to-cloud DJ workflow shift documented in the Best Mixes category.

The initiative arrives as electronic music fragments across streaming niches and algorithmic feeds. By ranking definitive club anthems, landmark albums, and era-defining mixes, RA offers a shared reference point—a canon sparking debates on longevity versus novelty across platforms like Dogs On Acid. The project positions RA not just as chronicler but authority, shaping how coming generations discover and contextualize dance music's modern legacy.

How to explore the lists and what comes next

Navigating the ranked lists

RA published the Best Tracks list on December 10, 2025, followed by Best Records and Best Mixes on December 11. Each list emerged from thousands of votes by over 100 contributors—artists, DJs, journalists, and club operators—distilling nearly 900 shortlisted releases into ranked canons. The platform emphasizes club longevity for Tracks, comprehensive impact for Records, and DJ evolution for Mixes, from vinyl to cloud streaming.

Beyond the rankings, RA will extend the project through 2026 with editorial deep-dives, exclusive mixes, and playlist-led listening guides modeled on its RA.1000 format. The series launched with RA.1016, a three-hour dubstep retrospective by Mala tracing the genre's 25-year arc. Fans can engage via social platforms, sparking debates on inclusions like "Skeng" reportedly landing in the top 10.