Without a doubt, the most crucial element here is rhythm. Think about any song you’ve heard before in your life. If it’s something that’s filled you with energy, you’ve probably found yourself tapping your foot on the ground or banging on the table with your hands. That’s your mind and body responding instinctively to the rhythm, which will have two particular qualities in energetic music.
The first of these rhythmic qualities that you’ll notice is that it will generally be relatively simple. In order for your mind to get on the pace of the energetic music that you’re listening to, its rhythm should not be overly complex, as complexity makes it harder to follow along. This is, for example, why dance music frequently makes use of the “four to the floor” rhythm. Aside from simplicity of rhythm, you’ll also find has a faster pace. This makes perfect sense, as if you’re trying to get your energy levels up, you’ll necessarily want to be moving more quickly and not more slowly.
As far as instrumentation is concerned, energetic music can take a variety of forms. One, for example, might think of a classic rock tune when they think of a song that gets one “pumped up.". Just the same, another person might think of a dance track or even a rap song. The instruments, aside from those that provide the rhythm, are therefore secondary.
Energetic music is not a genre unto itself, but rather an umbrella term that can (and does) apply to all different genres of music, even genres you might not expect like classical and jazz. Really, the instrumentation and style only provide the color to the song, and do not provide the energetic qualities that the rhythm does.
