Electronica

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Electronica
Stylistic origins:	House, Techno, Electronic art music, Musique concrete, Experimental music, Rock music
Cultural origins:	early-1990s, Europe, United States
Typical instruments:	Synthesizer - Drum machine - Sequencer - Keyboard - Sampler (traditional instrumentation such as guitar, bass, drums often featured more regularly than other electronic genres)
Mainstream popularity:	Large, especially from 1996 onwards
Subgenres
Big beat - Bitpop - Chip - Downtempo - Glitch - IDM - Nu jazz - Trip hop
Fusion genres
Indietronica - Post-rock
Other topics
Electronic musical instrument - Computer music - Record labels - Notable artists and DJs

Electronica is a term that covers a wide range of electronic or electronic-influenced music. The term has been defined by some to mean modern electronic music that is not necessarily designed for the dance floor, but rather for home listening. The term subsequently gained a life of its own, and became popular in the United States as a means of referring to the then-novel mainstream success of post-rave global electronic dance music. Prior to the adoption of "electronica" as a blanket term for more experimental dance music, terms such as electronic listening music, braindance and intelligent dance music (IDM) were common.

In the mid-1990s, electronica began to be used by MTV and major record labels to describe mainstream electronic dance music made by such artists as The Chemical Brothers (who had previously been described as big beat or chemical breaks) and The Prodigy, although even at this stage it was not a particularly incisive term. It is currently used to describe a wide variety of musical acts and styles, linked by a penchant for overtly electronic production; a range which includes more popular acts such as Björk, Goldfrapp and glitchy experimental artists such as Autechre, Aphex Twin, and Boards of Canada to dub-oriented downtempo, downbeat, and trip-hop. Madonna and Björk are said to be responsible for electronica's thrust into mainstream culture, with their albums Ray of Light (Madonna), Post and Homogenic (Björk) respectively. Many popular artists today use some aspects of electronica in mainstream music.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Post-rave fusions 1.2 Growing commercial interest 2 Adoption by other pop genres 3 See also 4 External links

History

With the explosive growth of sequencing, sampling and synthesis technology in the late 1980s, it became possible for a wider number of musicians to produce electronic music. With the advent of computer sequencers, relatively cheap computer-based recording systems and software synthesis in the late 1990s, it became possible for any home computer user to become a musician, and hence the rise in the number of "bedroom techno" acts, often consisting of a single person. A classic example of the one man electronic composer is Bill Holt's Dreamies (an early analog pioneer of electronic pop) cited by the All Music Guide as one of the finest examples of experimental pop from the era. Despite the mainstream popularity of the word "electronica" today, it is often shunned or met with disgust by electronic musicians or former ravers. Many of the people who were actually part of the electronic and rave movements firmly believe that the word was invented by the music industry, and is just a press-word for electronic music. This is understandable, because a major part of the rave and electronic movement was an outcry against the "media machine", and many ravers and musicians did not wish for the music industry to have a large part in their lives. This part of the electronic movement has similarities to the punk movement, in that it was not meant to be mainstream.

Post-rave fusions

Artists that would later become commercially successfully under the "electronic" banner such as Fatboy Slim, Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method, Moby, and Underworld began to record in this early 1990s period. Underworld with its 1994 dubnobasswithmyheadman released arguably one of the defining records of the early electronica period with a blend of club beats, wedded to song writing and subtle vocals and guitar work. A focus on "songs", a fusion of styles and a combination of traditional and electronic instruments often sets apart musicians working in electronic-styles over more straight-ahead styles of house, techno and trance. This genre is also noted for far higher production values than others, featuring more layers, more original samples and fewer "presets", and more complex rhythm programming.

The more abstract Autechre and Aphex Twin around this time were releasing early records in the "intelligent techno" or so-called intelligent dance music (IDM) style, while other Bristol-based musicians such as Tricky, Leftfield, Massive Attack and Portishead were experimenting with the fusion of electronic textures with hip-hop, R&B rhythms to form what became known as trip-hop. Later extensions to the trip hop aesthetic around 1997 came from the highly influential Vienna-based duo of Kruder & Dorfmeister, whose blunted, dubbed-out, slowed beats became the blueprint for the new style of downtempo. Roni Size and Goldie commanded attention in the UK as exemplars of the drum n bass genre.

Growing commercial interest

Around the mid-1990s with the success of the big beat-sound exemplified by The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy in the UK (due in part to the attention from mainstream artists like Madonna), music of this period began to be produced with a much higher budget, production values, and with more layers than most dance music before or after (since it was backed by major record labels and MTV as the "next big thing").

By the late 1990s artists like Moby were pop stars in their own right, releasing albums and performing regularly (sometimes in stadium-sized arenas, such had the popularity of electronic dance music grown).

In fact, the status as the next big thing turned out to be shortlived, and some argued that this period exemplifies the notion of record labels and MTV attempting to force a trend upon an audience. During this period, MTV aired shows about the rave lifestyle, started purely electronic music shows such as AMP, and featured many electronica artists. However, the popularity of electronica was never sustained in the United States.

In the United States and other countries like Australia, electronic (and the other attendant dance music genres) remains popular, although largely underground, while in Europe it has arguably become the dominant form of popular music.

Adoption by other pop genres

See also Alternative dance

Musicians of other styles were also quick to pick up on the trends in electronic music, although much of this cross-influence long predated the use of the term "electronica", which only began in the 1990s. Hip-hop music had been influenced by electronic music from the beginning, inspiring the genre of electro and such artists as Afrika Bambataa and Public Enemy. Rock, synth pop, new wave and goth music of the 1980s was often heavily electronic in production or form, particularly Madchester bands in the United Kingdom which had a close connection to the rave scene. New Order, a rock band which had a series of "electronica" hits before the term was coined, exemplified the techno inspiration increasingly common during the '80s era.

Much of the pop music of the 1990s was electronic, ranging from teen pop to gangsta rap. So-called "post-rock" bands such as Stereolab and Tortoise, and more recently 65daysofstatic and Peace Burial at Sea, were also incorporating electronic textures into their music.

The adoption of elements of "electronica" by several of the world's most popular rock bands was also widely noted beginning in the mid 1990s, as the grunge influence in alternative rock fell from popularity. U2's Pop (1997), Radiohead's OK Computer (1997), R.E.M.'s Up (1998), The Smashing Pumpkins' Adore (1998), Blur's 13 (1999) and Oasis's Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) albums met with varying degrees of commercial and critical success. Several of these albums were produced with electronic dance producers, such as William Orbit. Radiohead's 2000 album Kid A was seen to adopt less commercial styles of electronic music influenced partly by artists such as Autechre and Aphex Twin, and became the rock band's highest charting release worldwide. The word "electronica" was commonly applied to such releases despite large differences in style. Indeed, by the late 1990s, the word was mostly used by rock fans to describe rock and pop artists' adoption of electronic music textures (such as samples, synthesizers and drum machines) with which they were otherwise unfamiliar, as well as to label a few dance-oriented acts that achieved popularity. This was particularly true in the US where the electronic dance subculture was much less prominent.

In the early 2000s, electronica-inspired post punk was seen to experience a revival, with rock bands such as Interpol and The Killers specifically drawing on the 1980s sound of New Order and The Cure.

With newly prominent pop music styles such as reggaeton, electroclash, and favela funk, electronic music styles in the current decade are seen to permeate nearly all genres of the mainstream and indie landscape such that a distinct "electronica" genre of pop music is rarely noted. However, the word continues to be more common in the US music industry for synthesized, techno-inspired pop music, as specific genres such as drum n bass, house and IDM never achieved mainstream attention.

See also

• Amp (TV series)
• IDM
• List of electronic music genres

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