I don't know if that has already been said, but the difference between "popular music" listeners and IDM listeners is that most of those IDM listeners are interested in creating this kind of music, to create noise the way they want it to sound on their PC.
Girls who listen to Britney Spears will sing her songs but won't "create" something. Anyway, some guys who listen to Blink182 will play guitar or something related to punk-rock... and that's where I see the meaning of "intelligent" dance music.
In the other hand, creating punk-rock music is harder than creating IDM because of the song structure: there isn't any typical IDM song, you can't say "this is how an IDM music sounds".
A rock song have to be structured, or else musicians end up with some kind of unbearable shitty noisy mess.

(I apologize for the language if there's too much mistakes: I'm french)

actually, you did quite well

now, IDM can be catagorized into many different sound elements, but back in the day when it was just "termed" people actually knew what IDM was suppose to sound like, or that may just be my ignorance and/or opinion...

this is maybe unfair to say that, but I think IDM is the kind of music where we put every music that couldn't be categorized in a defined music style. "This is not techno, not ambient, not too experimental...so what ? oh ok, let's say it's IDM"
Faster that saying "this is some kind of experimental ambient-ish clicky techno song" heh ?

anyway, to get back on the topic, I'd say that IDM won't be VERY popular, but more "well-known"

agreed, it will never be real popular or be the norm of electronic music, but those who love it, adore it

"why is it so damn popular???? WHY WHY WHY??????????????? am I missing something here?"

dunno why.

but i know why i like it, tho.

[and, well, try listening to it on yr headphones. first i heard in on TV, and i had some hard time trying to adjust my jaw back after hearing the song. it blew me off completely when i listened to it on the headphones. overwhelming with weird sounds and details - i mean, every time i listen to it i discover something new and i've heard the song many, MANY times - awkward can't-get-used-to-it rolling beat... it's sounds like timbaland scratched the CD with the screwdriver, then called matmos to help him out with what was left of it... or something like that ]

"but those who love it, adore it"

hear hear.

[but, the funny thing i noticed: can't remember the last time i've read a review that gave some electronic/idm album a poor/average grade.]

wow... i've got to disagree on this claim... writing punk rock songs is NOT harder than making IDM... anyone who's played guitar for 3 months can start writing punk songs (doesn't mean they'll be any good though)... you don't need much creative vision when the structure is already laid out for you... typical punk song = 3 chords / verse / chorus / verse / bridge / verse / chorus / fin... creating an IDM song requires actual creative vision from the composer because there ISN'T a recognizable structure...

but didn't Pharrel do just about everything for mr. Timberlake? in addition, i know Timbaland had his hand in the beats as well.

i agree. IDM isn't something that can be laid out for the artist. there are so many possibilities and endless combinations. someone who wants to jump right into the process cannot make a piece of work as quickly as a punk-rocker. i might agree that punk rock has a lot of meaningful lyrics and such, but it cannot compare to the complexities of the IDM's process of synthesis.

'IDM' is now a cliche. Read most of the reviews for - 'Do you know Squarepusher', 'Drukqs', 'Bilious Paths', or even some for 'Draft 7:30'. The music is great, but the consensus is it's run its course. Much like 'Punk'. The only future path is for less innovative people to catch a whiff and water it down, sometimes for good, most times for evil.
(Read any review of Chris Clark to see some opinions...)

Too many times now, great artistry is destroyed by the whims of the naysayers and hipper-than-****-stupid-heads who think they know shit from clay. They don't.