Everything is called electro
// September 11th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized
One of my biggest pet peeves is when non-EDM listeners call everything “techno.” Doesn’t matter if it’s fast, slow, or even has or doesn’t have heavy thumping bass; everything that sounds like it was made with a computer is somehow “techno.” (I blame Benny Benassi.)
But almost as annoying is the lack of subgenre distinction within the wide range of electronica. Some things are obvious: vocal trance mostly consists of vocals (usually female, quite often very cheesy) placed over a melodic, addicting beat, while dubstep blends slow hip-hop or reggae instrumentals with a pulsing bass. Yet one term, “electro,” seems to describe a surprising majority of dance music, even those with completely different styles.
Early electro was used to describe minimalist electronic music with stuttering, syncopated drum beats (often created with drum machines such as the legendary Roland TR-808). A classic example would be Kraftwerk’s Trans-Europe Express, which would be eventually sampled in Afrika Bambataa’s Planet Rock.
But modern “electro” often refers to a group of microsampled throbbing beats, like this one from Felix Cartal:
Blurring the definition even more is the mishmash of “sub-subgenres” part of electro. Kraak & Smaak’s Squeeze Me (as heard in a few Rhapsody commercials) has been called “electro-funk” due to its incredibly catchy string sample:
Electropop, not surprisingly, combines the modern sounding electro with hipster European pop:
And there’s still a ton of other mashes, like electro house (Michael Woods, Deadmau5), electroclash (Felix da Housecat, Miss Kittin) and electrodisco (Calvin Harris). In addition, artists as varied as MSTRKRFT, the Chemical Brothers, Le Tigre, Crookers, The Ting Tings, Eric Prydz, Busy P, and the Black Eyed Peas have all referred to their own music as a type of electro. (My favorite is Justice, who call themselves “electro-Christian club.”)
Old school electro hasn’t been completely forgotten. There are still a few bastions left, like Claude vonStroke:
But for the most part, electro no longer has a solid definition. While this might be annoying for us music geeks, who love our microsubgenres, this actually could be beneficial to the average listener. If you know nothing about electronic music, and a pretty catchy bass-laden song is playing, call it techno and your dance-loving friends might shun you. Call it electro and there’s a very solid chance you’d hit the nail on the head.
~Inter (who, by the way, does not call his own compositions “electro”)
