The bass covers the dance floor like a thick carpet. Happy faces everywhere. Dancers with record company T-shirts and colorful outfits. It’s Saturday in Sweden, and it doesn’t matter where you are. Electronic dance music can be heard in indie clubs, gay clubs and trendy bars.

Things were different back in the late 1990s, when Swedish electronic music was almost declared dead and relegated to burial. In just a few years, The Field has gone from being a musician in small artistic circles to the man behind the German record conglomerate Kompakt’s best selling release — ever.

Young Swedes are still dancing themselves sweaty to Tomas Andersson and The Knife at parties with names like Indierave; the guys at Swedish House Mafia belong to some of the most popular house artists in the world; disco duo Ultracity and their Rollerboys Recordings label are also enjoying international success; and the popularity of the eternal techno insurgent Adam Beyer never seems to fade.

A genuine drive to succeed combined with a broad technological and communicative touch are considered key factors to the success of Swedish electronic dance music. But there’s no characteristic Swedish sound to speak of. Rather, it’s extremely nuanced with strains of techno just as common as house and 1980s-influenced new disco.