A young woman once came up to me at a club I was playing at. It was right after this really dark, breakdown into this crazy old school sounding breakbeat. She asked with curiosity in her voice, what is this that you are playing?
Returning her curious gaze “Electro” I responded back to her. She looked back and said “I love it, I have never heard anything like it before. “thank you” I replied as if she knew what I was talking about, but her eyes revealed a different thing. I thought about that for a second thinking it strange that she didn’t know what I was playing, but then smiled and was glad that I expanded her musical tastes.
Electro, what is this mystery style of music that seems to be taking the dance world by storm. Is electro the new Trance, will electro based DJ’s soon be topping the charts, or will electro be doomed to the shadows before it ever starts. Locally in the Los Angeles scene, it seems like everyone is jumping on the Electro bandwagon, with more and more clubs doing there own electro night, and more and more artists are fusing both pop and rap with electro sounds and elements. But I believe before we get into that, we need to get into what electro really is, where did it come from? Is it really all that new, or is Electro really an old school flavor revitalized for a new generation?
Electro had its beginnings in the 80’s which really was the birth of the electronic music genre that we know it. Before the house scene exploded, electro was there. Electro was first created and labeled as Electro-Funk, which was simply an electric version of the current funk music popular in the late 70’s early 80’s.Young savvy artists and black funk musicians started taking the instruments out of their songs, opting for a more electronic based feel by using drum machines, looping, and synthesizers. Thus getting an electronic or electro for short, laced music. This caused a lot of commotion in the music world, especially in the funk/soul era where traditional musicians attacked these electronic funk musicians, claiming it was not real music. Bronx, NY based artist Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock”(1982) is really one of the first big electro records to date, using elements of early Kraftwerk it began a slew of new music, using these new techniques. Juan Atkins group Cybotron, Planet Patrol and others like them went on to influence genres like techno, ghettotech, and Drum and Bass. Even artists such as Egyptian Lover and Arabian Prince gave birth to Electro hop, a more bass heavy West-Coast sound. During that time Detroit came on the scene featuring a darker style sometimes called Electro but really more Techno like, and really spurred the Detroit techno Scene as we know it.
There is some debate concerning where it all really started but looking back you will see that these artists and there use of drum machines, sequencers, synthesizers, and vocoders really spurred the hip-hop, electronic, and breakbeat scenes. Early electro took over in the 80’s with the popularity of breakdancing and then the hip-hop culture, which still by terms was considered early electro music. The disco scene, funk artists like George Clinton, Stevie wonder, and even Miles Davis really started the use of electronic instruments, and was what really inspired the early electro artists. Herbie hancock and “rockit”(1983) was labeled as jazz, but was really groundbreaking electronic music at that time, and which fit into the electro category. Tracks like “On a Journey(I sing the funk electric) by electric funk, and Shock’s “Electrophonic Phunk” really brought electro into its own category separating it from all other styles of music.
By CJ Powell aka Wires Fast forward to 2009 and electro seems to be everywhere. With the resurgence of the 80’s look and feel it seems that electro is back at the for-front. But so much has changed since the first Electro track was released. The music is no longer groundbreaking In the terms of the instruments being used, yet there are still a lot of elements of that original sound being used today, infused with new elements laced with the current styles and categories. Current electro has so many different styles and elements, stemming from the vast variety of styles that fit into electronic music. With electronic music having developed so much over the past 25 years, each style has really grown into its own dominating power, with so many sub-genres and side genres it can get confusing. Yet if you look back, most current dance music can trace its roots back to Electro.
What is the future of Electro music? Will it be the savior the dance music scene needs? Will it replace the trance era that has dominated the dance scene for so long, with the top DJ’s in the world being trance artists. All these things can be answered by listening to the world around you. Although trance music is still the master, electro is slowly creeping its way into the main stream. Whether it is just another fad, like it played out in the eighties, or is it the resurgence that will bring it to the front and keep it there. You can hear electro now in commercials, video games, pop music, rap, movies, and almost anywhere you go. More and more clubs are converting to Electro style events, growing in popularity and numbers, Electro is slowly taking the world by storm. Even once die hard house Dj’s and fans are slowly jumping on the electro band wagon by producing more electro songs, and attending in larger numbers electro fueled events.
There has been a trend recently that I have noticed not only in track production but in DJ’s that play electro music. Even once MC’s like MC Messinah now spins electro music. Drum and Bass DJs' that I think hear those early influences of what started DnB are creating alter ego’s and spinning and producing electro music. Every style of electronic music now, is seeming to go an electro route, because there are so much routed in early electro it makes it really easy. With Electro-Pop, Ghetto Tech, Hard Style Elctro, Nu-Disco, Fidget, Electro-House, Electro-Hop and just plain Electro, there seems to be a style of electro for everyone. So get out there find your favorite Electro DJ and just know that although you may think they are jumping on the bandwagon, they are really paying omage to what once started what we now call electronic music.
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