Electronica is both a broad group of electronic music-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing
History
Early 1990s: Origins and UK scene
The original widespread use of the term "electronica" derives from the influential English experimental techno label New Electronica, which was one of the leading forces of the early 1990s introducing and supporting dance-based
electronic music oriented towards home listening rather than dance-floor play,
although the word "electronica" had already begun to be associated with
synthesizer generated music as early as 1983, when a "UK Electronica Festival" was first held.
At that time electronica became known as "electronic listening music", also becoming more or less synonymous to
ambient techno and intelligent techno, and was considered distinct from other emerging genres such as
Jungle music and
trip hop.
Electronica artists that would later become commercially successful began to record in the late 1980s, before the term had come into common usage, including for example the Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, Daft Punk, the Chemical Brothers, the Crystal Method, Moby, Underworld and Faithless.["Crystal Method...grew from an obscure club-culture due to one of the most recognizable acts in electronica, ...", page 90, Wired: Musicians' Home Studios : Tools & Techniques of the Musical Mavericks, Megan Perry, Backbeat Books Music/Songbooks 2004, ]
Mid-1990s: Effect on mainstream popular music
Around the mid-1990s, with the success of the
big beat-sound exemplified by the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy in the UK, and spurred by the attention from mainstream artists, including
Madonna in her collaboration with
William Orbit on her album
Ray of Light and Australian singer
Dannii Minogue with her 1997 album
Girl,
[Girl (Dannii Minogue album)] music of this period began to be produced with a higher budget, increased technical quality, and with more layers than most other forms of
dance music, since it was backed by major record labels and
MTV as the "next big thing".
["Electronica reached new heights within the culture of rave and techno music in the 1990s." Page 185, Music and Technoculture, Rene T. A. Lysloff, Tandem Library Books, 2003, ]
According to a 1997 Billboard article, "the union of the club community and independent labels" provided the experimental and trend-setting environment in which electronica acts developed and eventually reached the mainstream. It cites American labels such as Astralwerks (the Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, the Future Sound of London, Fluke), Moonshine Music (DJ Keoki), Sims Records, and City of Angels (the Crystal Method) for playing a significant role in discovering and marketing artists who became popularized in the electronica scene.
Madonna and Björk are said to be responsible for electronica's thrust into mainstream culture, with their albums Ray of Light (Madonna),
Late 1990s: American inclusion
In 1997, the North American mainstream music industry adopted and to some extent manufactured
electronica as an umbrella term encompassing styles such as
techno, big beat, drum and bass, trip hop,
downtempo, and
ambient music, regardless of whether it was curated by indie labels catering to the "underground" nightclub and
rave scenes,
or licensed by major labels and marketed to mainstream audiences as a commercially viable alternative to
alternative rock music.
New York City became one center of experimentation and growth for the electronica sound, with DJs and music producers from areas as diverse as Southeast Asia and Brazil bringing their creative work to the nightclubs of that city.["In 2000, Brazilian Gilberto capitalized on New York's growing fixation with cocktail lounge ambient music, an offshoot of the dance club scene that focused on drum and bass remixes with Brazilian sources. ...Collaborating with club music maestros like Suba and Thievery Corporation, Gilberto thrust herself into the leading edge of the emerging Brazilian electronica movement. On her immensely popular Tanto Tempo (2000)..." Page 234, The Latin Beat: The Rhythms and Roots of Latin Music from Bossa Nova to Salsa and Beyond, Ed Morales, Da Capo Press, 2003, ]["founded in 1997,...under the slogan 'Musical Insurgency Across All Borders', for six years Manhattan Mutiny was an international hub of the south Asian electronica music scene. Bringing together artists from different parts of the South Asian diaspora, the club was host to a roster of British Asian musicians and DJs..." Page 165, Youth Media , Bill Osgerby, Routledge, 2004, ]
Characteristics and definition
Electronica benefited from industry advancements in
music technology, especially electronic musical instruments, synthesizers,
,
, and digital audio workstations. As the technology developed, it became possible for individuals or smaller groups to produce electronic songs and recordings in smaller studios, even in project studios. At the same time, computers facilitated the use of music samples and loops as construction kits for sonic compositions.
["This loop slicing technique is common to the electronica genre and allows a live drum feel with added flexibility and variation." Page 380, DirectX Audio Exposed: Interactive Audio Development, Todd Fay, Wordware Publishing, 2003, ] This led to a period of creative experimentation and the development of new forms, some of which became known as electronica.
["Electronically produced music is part of the mainstream of popular culture. Musical concepts that were once considered radical - the use of environmental sounds, ambient music, turntable music, digital sampling, computer music, the electronic modification of acoustic sounds, and music made from fragments of speech-have now been subsumed by many kinds of popular music. Record store genres including new age, rap, hip-hop, electronica, techno, jazz, and popular song all rely heavily on production values and techniques that originated with classic electronic music." Page 1, Electronic and Experimental Music: Pioneers in Technology and Composition, Thomas B. Holmes, Routledge Music/Songbooks, 2002, ]["Electronica and punk have a definite similarity: They both totally prescribe to a DIY aesthetic. We both tried to work within the constructs of the traditional music business, but the system didn't get us - so we found a way to do it for ourselves, before it became affordable.", quote from artist BT, page 45, Wired: Musicians' Home Studios : Tools & Techniques of the Musical Mavericks, Megan Perry, Backbeat Books Music/Songbooks 2004, ] Wide ranges of influences, both sonic and compositional, are combined in electronica recordings.
[" For example, composers often render more than one version of their own compositions. This practice is not unique to the mod scene, of course, and occurs commonly in dance club music and related forms (such as ambient, jungle, etc.—all broadly designated 'electronica')." Page 48, Music and Technoculture, Rene T. A. Lysloff, Tandem Library Books, 2003, ]
Electronica includes a wide variety of musical acts and styles, linked by a penchant for overtly electronic production;["Electronica lives and dies by its grooves, fat synthesizer patches, and fliter sweeps.". Page 376, DirectX Audio Exposed: Interactive Audio Development, Todd Fay, Wordware Publishing, 2003, ] a range which includes more popular acts such as Björk, Madonna, Goldfrapp and IDM artists such as Autechre, and Aphex Twin.
Regional differences
The North American mainstream music industry uses the term as an umbrella category to refer any dance-based electronic music styles with a potential for
Pop music appeal.
However, United States–based
AllMusic still categorizes electronica as a top-level genre, stating that it includes danceable grooves, as well as music for headphones and
Chill-out music areas.
In other parts of the world, especially in the UK, electronica is also a broad term, but is associated with non-dance-oriented music, including relatively experimental styles of listening electronic music. It partly overlaps what is known chiefly outside the UK as intelligent dance music (IDM).
Included in contemporary media
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, electronica was increasingly used as background scores for television advertisements, initially for automobiles. It was also used for various video games, including the
Wipeout series, for which the soundtrack was composed of many popular electronica tracks that helped create more interest in this type of music
[ The Changing Shape of the Culture Industry; or, How Did Electronica Music Get into Television Commercials?, Timothy D. Taylor, University of California, Los Angeles, Television & New Media, Vol. 8, No. 3, 235-258 (2007) ]—and later for other technological and business products such as computers and financial services. Then in 2011,
Hyundai Veloster, in association with
the Grammys, produced a project that became known as Re:Generation.
[Ed. The Grammys.Hyundai Veloster, The Recording Academy, Hulu, Art Takes Over (ATO), & RSA Films, n.d. Web. 24 May 2013. .]
See also
-
List of electronic music genres
Literature
-
James Cummins. 2008. Ambrosia: About a Culture – An Investigation of Electronica Music and Party Culture. Toronto, ON: Clark-Nova Books.
