I think it's mostly because of drum machines. Real drums have complex sounds, and take a long time to fully decay. Synthetic drums strip the sound down to its m

I think it's mostly because of drum machines. Real drums have complex sounds, and take a long time to fully decay. Synthetic drums strip the sound down to its most important elements, and cut it off sooner so the sounds don't layer over each other so much. This makes the rhythm clearer and stronger feeling. I've never heard real drums anywhere near as danceable as a TR-808: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:808patterns_01.ogg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:808patterns_01.ogg