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The movement emerged as a reaction to the 'laptop concert problem,' where a musician hidden behind a screen could just as easily be checking email. The TOPLAP organization issued a manifesto: the process must be transparent. At algoraves, code is projected onto walls, allowing the audience to see how loops and conditionals transform into rhythm. The instruments are not keys, but programming languages: TidalCycles (based on Haskell), Sonic Pi (Ruby), and SuperCollider. The musician doesn't launch pre-recorded clips but builds the structure from scratch during the performance.

The term 'Algorave' was coined by Alex McLean and Nick Collins in 2011, with the first event taking place in London in 2012. It is a subculture where a glitch or a server crash is not a failure, but part of the show. Live coding blurred the line between composer and performer, turning algorithm writing into a performative art where thought becomes sound instantly, without the stages of compilation or rendering.