Electro (music)

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(Redirected from
Electro music
)
Not to be confused with Electro house.
Electro
Other namesElectro-funk
Stylistic origins
  • electro rock

Electro (or electro-funk)

talkboxing. It palpably deviates from its predecessor boogie
by being less vocal-oriented and more focused on electronic beats produced by drum machines.

Following the decline of

Hashim. Seminal electro tracks included "Planet Rock" (1982) and "Nunk
" (1982), both featuring its characteristic TR-808 drum beats.

The early 1980s were electro's mainstream peak. By the mid 1980s, the genre moved away from its electronic and funk influences, using harder edged beats and rock samples, exemplified by

electrocore and skweee
.

Definition and characteristics

An electro track example
The beat like that of a Roland TR-808 Synthesizer at 0:04 and the electronically processed vocals at 0:22 are the characteristics of the genre.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

From its inception, one of the defining characteristics of the electro sound was the use of drum machines, particularly the Roland TR-808, as the rhythmic basis of the track. As the genre evolved, computers and sampling replaced drum machines in electronic music, and are now used by the majority of electro producers. It is important to note, that although the electro of the 1980s and contemporary electro (electronic dance music) both grew out of the dissolution of disco, they are now different genres.

Classic (1980s) electro drum patterns tend to be electronic emulations of breakbeats with a syncopated kick drum, and usually a snare or clap accenting the backbeat. The difference between electro drumbeats and breakbeats (or breaks) is that electro tends to be more mechanical, while breakbeats tend to have more of a human-like feel, like that of a live drummer. The definition however is somewhat ambiguous in nature due to the various uses of the term.[11]

The Roland TR-808 drum machine was released in 1980, defining early electro with its immediately recognizable sound. Staccato, percussive drumbeats tended to dominate electro, almost exclusively provided by the TR-808. As an inexpensive way of producing a drum sound, the TR-808 caught on quickly with the producers of early electro because of the ability of its bass drum to generate extreme low-frequencies.[12] This aspect of the Roland TR-808 was especially appealing to producers who would test drive their tracks in nightclubs (like NYC's Funhouse), where the bass drum sound was essential for a record's success.[13] Its unique percussion sounds like handclaps, open and closed high-hat, clave and cowbell became integral to the electro sound. A number of popular songs in the early 1980s employed the TR-808, including Marvin Gaye's “Sexual Healing,” Cybotron's “Clear,” and Afrika Bambaataa's “Planet Rock.”[14] The Roland TR-808 has attained iconic status, eventually being used on more hits than any other drum machine.[15] Through the use of samples, the Roland TR-808 remains popular in electro and other genres to the present day.

Other electro instrumentation was generally electronic, favoring

afrofuturist aspect of electro,[16] reflected in both the lyrics and instrumentation. The imagery of its lyrical refrain space is the place for the human race pays homage to Sun Ra's 1974 film of the same name,[17] while its synth lines and sound effects are informed by sci-fi, computer games, and cartoons,"born of a science-fiction revival.".[16]
: 148 

Most electro is instrumental, but a common element is vocals processed through a vocoder. Additionally, speech synthesis may be used to create robotic or mechanical lyrical content, as in the iconic Planet Rock and the automatous chant in the chorus of Nunk by Warp 9.[18] Although primarily instrumental, early electro utilized rap. Male rap dominated the genre, however female rappers are an integral part of the electro tradition, whether featured in a group as in Warp 9 or as solo performers like Roxanne Shante. The lyrical style that emerged along with electro became less popular by the 1990s, as rapping continued to evolve, becoming the domain of hip hop music.

About electro origins:

It was all about stretching the boundaries that had begun to stifle black music, and its influences lay not only with German technopop wizards

electronic instruments during the 70s (and as early as the late 60s in Miles Davis’s case).

— Greg Wilson

Gary Numan. Man he was dope. So important to us. When we heard that single, "Are Friends Electric?" it was like the aliens had landed in the Bronx. We were just throwing shapes to this tune, man. More than Kraftwerk. Numan was the inspiration. He's a hero. Without him, there'd be no electro.

— Afrika Bambaataa[19]

History

Afrika Bambaataa (left) in 2004

Following the decline of

technopop, in addition to influences from the futurism of Alvin Toffler, martial arts films, and video game music. The genre's immediate forebears included Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO).[9]

In 1980, YMO was the first band to utilize the TR-808 programmable drum machine.[21][22] That same year, YMO member Ryuichi Sakamoto released "Riot in Lagos", which is regarded as an early example of electro music,[23][24] and is credited for having anticipated the beats and sounds of electro.[1] The song's influence can be seen in the work of later pioneering electro artists such as Afrika Bambaataa[1] and Mantronix.[24]

1982 was a watershed year for electro.

The Jonzun Crew and Whodini.[16]

In 1983,

Rockit
".

Bambaataa and groups like

Arthur Baker,[30] John Robie and Shep Pettibone) later featured prominently in the Latin Freestyle (or simply "Freestyle") movement, along with Lotti Golden and Richard Scher (the producer/writers of Warp 9) fusing electro, funk, and hip hop with elements of Latin music.[16]

By the late 1980s, the genre evolved into what is known today as

It's Like That (1983) marked a stylistic shift, focusing down on the beats in a stark, metal minimalism.[16]: 151  Rock samples replaced synthesizers that had figured so prominently in electro, and rap styles and techniques evolved in tandem, anchoring rap to the changing hip hop culture.[31]
Baker, Pettibone, Golden and Scher enjoyed robust careers well into the house era, eluding the "genre trap" to successfully produce mainstream artists.[32]

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Detroit Techno musicians James Stinson and Gerald Donald released numerous EPs, singles and albums of conceptual electro music under several different aliases. Their main project, Drexciya is known for exploration of science fiction and aquatic themes.

Electro-soul

Electro-soul
Stylistic origins
  • Electro
  • Denver
Other topics
New jack swing, hip hop soul

In the early 1980s, Detroit techno DJ Eddie Fowlkes shaped a related style called electro-soul, which was characterized by a predominant bass line and a chopped up electro breakbeat contrasted with soulful male vocals.[33] Kurtis Mantronik's electro-soul productions for Joyce Sims presaged new jack swing's combination of hip hop and soul elements.[34] In a 2016 profile on the genre's rise in Denver's music scene, Dylan Owens of The Denver Post writes, "As with all fledgling genres, little about electro-soul is defined — even what to call it. (Of the eight artists interviewed for this article, none agreed on any one name.) But what does seem sure is its rise, especially locally. If Denver can be known as the musical torchbearer of any genre, it's electro-soul's half-live, half-produced swirl of hip-hop, soul, funk and jazz."[35]

No Self Control by Peter Gabriel, taken from his 1980 album Peter Gabriel, has been described as electro-soul,[36] fused with art rock.[37]

Contemporary electro

See also: Electroclash, Electro house, and Skweee
"Electrocore" redirects here. For the company, see ElectroCore. For the fusion genre of metalcore and/or post-hardcore with elements of various electronic music genres, see Electronicore.

Although the early 1980s were electro's heyday in the mainstream, it enjoyed renewed popularity in the late 1990s with artists such as

b-boy
styles of Breakin’ Records and Dominance Electricity, to the electrofunk of Citinite, and to harder more modern styles of electro of labels like Bass Frequency Productions and Nu Illusion Music.

New branches of electro have risen over the last couple of years. Florida has pioneered the "Electrocore" sound, started in the late 1990s by artists like Jackal and Hyde and Dynamix II and carried on to this day. Skweee is a genre which developed in Nordic countries such as Sweden and Finland, hence its first name "Scandinavian Funk". The outlets and artists of Skweee are still mostly limited to the Nordic countries.

From the late 1990s onward, the term "electro" is also used to refer two other fusion genres of electro, either blended with techno and new wave in electroclash,[38][39] In 2006, Direct Influence, a 6-piece Melbourne based electro/rock/reggae group was formed.[40]

The genre enjoyed a resurgence from 2016 onwards, with DJs like Helena Hauff and DJ Stingray gaining more popularity and festivals like Dekmantel featuring it prominently on their lineups. Labels like Cultivated Electronics, CPU, Mars Frequency Records, Furatena, brokntoys and Mechatronica are currently pushing a new trove of artists [41][42] which has introduced the genre to a new generation.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e David Toop (March 1996), "A-Z Of Electro", The Wire, no. 145, retrieved May 29, 2011
  2. ISBN 9781466884526
    .
  3. ^ "Electro-Funk: What did it all mean?". Greg Wilson on electrofunkroots.co.uk. Retrieved December 23, 2009.
  4. ^ a b Rap meets Techno, with a short history of Electro. Globaldarkness.com. Retrieved on July 18, 2011.
  5. ^ Gavin Weale (2001) The Future Sound Of Electro. ElectroEmpire.com
  6. ^ Reynolds, Simon (2013). Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture. Soft Skull Press. The dominant style at Hard Summer, provided by artists like Zedd, Erol Alkan and Bloody Beetroots, is what's been tagged 'electro house', although to my ears it has little relationship with either house or electro (in the original eighties 808-bass-bumping sense).
  7. ISBN 978-0-19-860860-8
    .
  8. ^ Sean 'P-Ski' P (1995) Electro – What Does It Mean?. ElectroEmpire.com
  9. ^
    Allmusic
    . Retrieved June 20, 2012.
  10. ^ Ishkur (2005). "Ishkur's guide to Electronic Music". Archived from the original on April 7, 2019. Retrieved June 1, 2014.
  11. ^ Electro-Funk : What Did It All Mean?. Electrofunkroots.co.uk. Retrieved on July 18, 2011.
  12. ISBN 978-0-8195-6309-5
    .
  13. ^ Harvey, Steven "The Perfect Beat" The Face Magazine, October 1983
  14. ^ Dayal, Geeta (2013). The Grove Dictionary of American Music. Oxford Music Online. pp. Roland TR–808.
  15. ISBN 978-2-88479-037-6
    , retrieved May 20, 2011
  16. ^
    ISBN 1-85242-627-6
    .
  17. ^ "Space Is the Place". IMDb.com.
  18. ^ Moley, Raymond; Phillips, Joseph Becker; Muir, Malcolm; Smith, Rex; Williamson, Samuel Thurston (November 20, 1983). "Newsweek". Newsweek, Incorporated – via Google Books.
  19. ISBN 9781351568548
    .
  20. ^
    ISBN 9781441191366
    .
  21. ISBN 978-0-313-33903-5
    , retrieved May 29, 2011
  22. ^ Jason Anderson (November 28, 2008). "Slaves to the rhythm: Kanye West is the latest to pay tribute to a classic drum machine". CBC News. Retrieved May 29, 2011.
  23. ISBN 978-84-96222-79-3
    . Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  24. ^ a b "Kurtis Mantronik Interview", Hip Hop Storage, July 2002, archived from the original on May 24, 2011, retrieved May 25, 2011
  25. ISBN 978-1-56639-362-1
    , retrieved May 26, 2011
  26. ISBN 978-0823084289
    ), p. 73.
  27. ^ Kellman, A. (2007). Hashim Biography. All Media Guide. Retrieved September 6, 2007, from [1]
  28. ^ Hashim (2000). "Hashim interview". ElectroEmpire.com (Interview). Interviewed by Rascal. Archived from the original on June 5, 2008. Retrieved September 5, 2007.
  29. AllMusic
  30. ^ When The Planet Rocked. Electrofunkroots.co.uk. Retrieved on July 18, 2011.
  31. ^ "Electro". AllMusic. Retrieved October 4, 2014. Despite its successes (documented in full on Rhino's four-disc Electric Funk set), the style was quickly eclipsed by the mid-'80s rise of hip-hop music built around samples (often from rock records) rather than musical synthesizers.
  32. ^ Miami Gets Put On the Musical Map. ElectroEmpire.com
  33. ^ King, SB (2003). "The Fader". The Fader. No. 16–17. p. 188.
  34. ISBN 978-1843532637
    .
  35. ^ Owens, Dylan (December 29, 2016). "How electro-soul found its home in Denver's 'middle of nowhere' music scene". The Denver Post. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
  36. ^ Thomson, Graeme (October 30, 2015). "Peter Gabriel - the first four solo albums remastered".
  37. ^ "The Quietus | Features | Anniversary | Peter Gabriel 3: Melt 40 Years On By Chris Roberts". The Quietus.
  38. ^ Dorian Lynskey (March 22, 2002). "Out with the old, in with the older". The Guardian.
  39. ^ "The Electroclash Mix by Larry Tee". Ew.com. Archived from the original on September 30, 2012. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  40. ^ Rhythm & Vines (November 2010). "Direct Influence". Rhythm & Vines. Archived from the original on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
  41. ^ "The return of electro". Djmag.com. August 25, 2017. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  42. ^ "The rise and rise of electro". Mixmag.net. Retrieved February 25, 2021.

External links

Look up electro in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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