Talk:Electro (music)/Archives/2015

Zapp

This article leaves out probably the next most important group in Electro after Kraftwerk (who invented it, and barely get a look in.) If we're, for whatever silly reason, pretending that Electro and Electro FUNK are the same thing, you can not ommit Roger Troutman and his brothers. Can someone more skilled at maintaining NPOV than me fix this please. I'd only butcher it with passion for the roots of Electro. 58.108.225.51 (talk) 07:47, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

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Contemporary Electro

I think that the newer Electro, with acts such as Dopplereffekt, Arpanet, Anthony Rother, etc. should be completely disassociated with Hip Hop. Electro has evolved to a point where it has very little to do with Hip Hop and should therefore not be classified under it. --Miasmicnormalcy (talk) 01:19, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

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Pronunciation & Music Definition

electro, e·lec·tro [ i léktro ], electro-funk, e·lec·tro-funk [ i léktro-fungk ]

noun

1. music, Same as electronic music.

2. Electro (music), Electro (also known as Electro-Funk or Electro funk) is an electronic style of hip-hop culture movement that is directly influenced by Kraftwerk, Jazz-Funk and Funk records (unlike earlier rap records that were closer to disco). Records in the Music genre are unabashed about their use of electronic and artificial sounds, taking this technological fetish almost into science fiction with many records about space travel and futuristic dystopias. Timing range is 100 to over 130 beats per minute(BPM). Electro is a derivative of the '[ Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer, Roland SVC-350 Vocoder, and Roland VP-330 Vocoder Plus ]' Drum machines & Vocoder's Speech Synthesizer. Electro's sound is distinctively synthetic, instrumental, electronic and experimental. Additionally, the 808 drum machines pounding beats and pure sounds were heavily used in Rap, Disco and Funk music. It was very popular in New York City during the late 1970s and early 1980s. With also the revival in the late 1990s.

—DJFLEX-mk2 13:11, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Roland Vocoders SVC-350 and VP-330 are among the most wanted analog items today. Despite being in the middle price range in the time of their beginning, they could easily compete with much more expensive units, mostly because of their simple and functional concept, together with the distinguished Roland sound and affordable quality.

By no wonder, the same is valid today. Among the hundreds of digital voice processors and DSP software plug-ins, this analog machines stand as a true ideal of how the warm and pleasant vocoder should sound. The vocoder that will not strike you by being too garish, that will not become boring by being too metallic, while still doing what you expect it to do.

Roland SVC-350 Vocoder is a versatile rack-mount model, with input for the outside carrier signal (the best are well chosen sustained synth sounds), and professional XLR balanced microphone or line input for the modulation signal. 11-band graphic control will enable better sonic control of the modulated sound. Few well chosen controls will lead you fast to the sound you want, be it soft harmonization of your vocal parts or speech, or more robust and prominent robotic sounds. So you won't be endlessly tweaking the knobs wondering how they did that nice vocoder sounds on your old records! You'll be playing it in a minutes, concentrating on your music creation. Released Date: from 1979 to 1980

Roland VP-330 Vocoder Plus is a keyboard version of the vocoder, being in a class of its own. It provides the well known sound of Roland "hybrid" synths as the carrier signal: the synth strings of the same quality as on the best dedicated electric-strings keyboards, and an excellent human-voice sound. These sounds can be used alone, or mixed together, to provide the carrier for the vocoder modulation, or can be used by itself, making the VP-330 a versatile three-section analog instrument that you will love. Released Date: 1979**

—DJFLEX-mk2 13:11, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

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• Started in late 1977 - ELECTRO (music), Electro (also known as Electro-Funk or Electro Funk) it is an electronic style music before the hip-hop culture though it is much more part of the hip-hop culture in America as well in Europe!!! Not to be confused with New School European style Electronica Music, or the New School Electro: like Electro-Clash, ElectroCore and Electro-Industrial. That uses New Drum Machines & Vocoder's Speech Synthesizer after 1990, being that TECHNO MUSIC & HARD HOUSE was influenced by early groups of Electro-Funk, and Miami Bass Groups Using the Roland TR-808 & Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer/Drum Machines.

At some point in the past, Electro Funk music influenced new style of Electronica Music of today. And yes we can't forget our New Brother's and Sister's of today, for pushing the new style of Electronic music. It's best said to just listen to all form of Electronic Music being Past, Present or Future. And you can See how it all connect's together.

THIS IS WHAT FUTURE MUSIC IS ABOUT!

—DJFLEX-mk2 07:16, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

• This definition and the current article fail to disambiguate, link, or otherwise deal with the other Electro: c.f. de:Electro_(Sammelbezeichnung), Electro-industrial

—RVJ 00:36, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

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Electro funk?

I'm very confused over this term. First I thought the term electro was used for the type of electronica music mentioned in this article, e.g. Cybotron and Afrika Bambaataa. I then assumed that electro funk was used for funk/soul artists using mostly electronica instruments, such as D Train or Zapp, that is, music with a feeling more similar to funk/soul than electronica, but utilizing electronica instruments. But this article (and many others) state that electro and electro funk are the same. How can two such different styles of music go under the same style name? Are there any sub-styles that can be used to separate them? - Wintran 00:25, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

I think electro funk was the term used mostly when the music first came out with artist's such as Herbie Hancock, Bambataa, etc. Mabye there should be more of a distinction in the article, to explain the different subgenres of electro. For example there is also Electro/Techno Bass for artist's like Dynamix II, Anthony Rother, etc. Then there is electro-pop/clash, but that does have it's own article. - Milk 02:12, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

Electro indeed has subgenres besides electro-funk, like electro-disco and electro-wave. Those have their specific subgenres as well. As to the confusion around electro funk not sure if this is correct, but i think one should make a distinction between electro funk - funk music made with electronic instruments, and electro-funk - electro music made with funk influences Spartak01 23:46, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

What this article calls "electro funk" is what we (Oakland, CA) used to call "freestyle" - not as in 'freestyle rapping' but as in freestyle, a specific genre of 80's rap with synth sounds etc.; but there is seperate article that defines "freestyle the musical genre" as something else. I think that "electro" as that term is commonly used encompasses too many things to be defined by "electro funk." That should be moved to the History section, and the definition area should discuss the possible meanings and subgenres that "electro" may refer to. Also, "electro" is such an umbrella term that making Afrika Bambaataa its quintessential sound is misleading. Xa 17:59, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Did you even read the article? The section that mentions Bambaataa +is+ the history section, and Planet Rock is only mentioned in a historical context. Are we reading the same article here? Eli lilly 22:21, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

changed article to include other genres besides electro-funk

As the current article only mentioned electro as a derivation of 'electro-funk' this only tells part of what the genre entails. I hope other people may find the time to correct possible spelling errors that i missed, to improve the writing and to include further info about the music. I will add more info and corrections later on as well. Your feedback concerning the changes i made to the article are appreciated. - Spartak01 03:23, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

There is only one in my mind

Moroder, Soccio? = Italo Disco. Human League, Depeche Mode? = New Wave Synthpop. The inclusion of artists or the idea that these are in any way similar to electro past present and future only leads to artists like Ladytron and tiga being dubbed Electro. The reason I would keep these past artists out is to prevent the ambiguation of the term electro.

Most people I know that listen to electro specifically refer to electrofunk past present and future.

In what way is your circle of acquaintances authoritive to the subject? I could state otherwise but it is irrelevant to the discussion. Kraftwerk already back in '78 acknowledged in an interview with VPRO magazine (NL) they were partly inspired by Giorgio Moroder, something that is clearly audible in songs like Spacelab. It is the appropriation of electro to only mean electro-funk i object to and does injustice to it's actual history. There are thousands of releases, tape, vinyl, flexi from the early eighties & late seventies that prove most people you know perhaps arent wrong, but certainly refer to, and know only part of it's story. - Spartak01

youre the only person I know throughout cyberspace, that has even suggested such an idea. you can say that electro had elements from other artists but I dont know anyone anywhere besides you that considers moroder close to electro as most of us know it.

and thats what wiki is about, democritization of knowledge and youre in the minority. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.212.77.183 (talk • contribs)

• Actually, Spartak01 is right. Moroder's album From here to eternity had the Spacelab sound 2 years before the Man Machine album. IMO the most Italo about Moroder is his last name, he worked out of Germany and released his most groundbreaking material nearly a decade before the Italo disco wave. I agree with our unsigned friend however, that I think electro as short for electroclash - 2000s synth pop - is something (not entirely) different, synth pop is a better name for that since it's a genre with far less restrictions on rhythm than electrofunk. We need to make clear the common heritage and the way it's branched since, we cannot just eradicate Moroder and others from history to over-simplify the connections.

PS. Whoever you are, check out Man Parrish's first album, with electro tracks like Man Made intermixed with new wave pop songs like Together Again. How's that for a connection? Arru 12:10, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

• it is I mrt1212. I think that a lot of moroder's work is aparent in italo disco than in electro. its still very much more human than a lot of electrofunk, in theme and expression. from here to eternity is closer to disco than electro as an example.

The much larger issue that I had though was this idea of there being subgeneres of electro that predated or was cocurrernt the big impact of electro in the early 80s being solely placed on moroder's shoulders. id say theres influence but by that token he influenced all of electronic music just by being the first.

p.s. heatstroke is such a highly underrated track its unbelievable. man parrish apexed on that.

Reverting edits by Spartak01

I just reverted the edits by user user:Spartak01 because

early eighties US artists did not reference Constructivism and De Stijl but Kraftwerk

electro-funk, electro-disco and electro-wave are not the three main genres of electro

etc...

Reverted edits:

The music is strongly inspired by the modern synthetic instruments used and the futurist aspects of society, with many references found in both the music itself and label artwork to early 20th century modern art movements like Futurism, Constructivism, Dada, De Stijl (Bauhaus), and even more recent movements like Fluxus. Those references were very visible in the work of Kraftwerk, who are generally considered to be the originaters of the genre. The electro genre can be subdivided into three main subgenres, electro-funk, electro-disco and electro-wave. Those three subgenres reflect the three main musical styles that were of importance to electro music; funk, disco and New Wave / punk. The square, unpolished funk grooves, the repetitive and stripped down nature of disco music and the provocative, DIY attitude of punk music are quintessential to electro music. Depending on the subgenre, however, the importance of the one over the other differs.

a few points:

-only eighties US artists are authoritive?

-inspiration on an artistic level is not limited to other artists. People can be inspired by ideas, themes etc. as well. Furthermore, if you take a look at the cover art of Die Mensch-Maschine not only is the style of it a clear reference to the Bauhaus aesthetic, it is stated as such explicitly as well. Kraftwerk was certainly not the only band to make use of such aesthetic (and also thematic) references, but surely the one most widely known. - Spartak01

Merging Electro hop

Isn't electro hop just the west coast name for the same thing? Arru 16:09, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

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• No comments, no nothing. Merging electro hop into this article. The following material was completely removed:

West Coast

• L.A. Dream Team
• Bobby Jimmy and the Critters
• Reggie Griffin and TechnoFunk
• Knights of the Turntable
• Uncle Jamm's Army
• King Tee
• The Unknown DJ
• 7A3
• D.E.F.
• Posse of Two

The artists above have either been deleted or are referred to in their articles as primarily West coast acts. The description of electro hop matched the description already given in this article. World Class Wreckin' Cru and Chris "The Glove" Taylor were included in this article. Egyptian Lover and Arabian Prince were mentioned previously. Please add any of the above artists to the Electro list if you are familiar with them. Arru 16:18, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Division of Electro based on waves

I think Electro should be divided into "Waves" like in the Techno section. 1st. wave Kraftwerk 2nd Wave Afrika Bambaataa, 3rd wave Drexcia/Dropplereffekt 4th wave Ladytron Miss Kittin and The Hacker ect ect. Within each wave we have the sub-genres wide associated with the wave during that time.

• I think Ladytron are not "electrofunk" artists really, they are electroclash that is often (erroneously IMO) shortened to "electro" nowadays. As for the waves thing, it would help if this is a common, citable way of dividing electro eras. I think a better solution is to make the relation to all the sub-genres such as Detroit, Freestyle and Bass more explicit. Arru 12:40, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

how many times?

ladytron, miss kitten, the hacker arent electro holmes. electroclash. lets keep the two seperate so that emaciated white children from new york aren't confused with rugged black men from detroit in the music they make.

Let's Get our facts straight

You guys, people have been using "electro" (short for electronic") even before the 70s, the same with "progressive" and "left field" as well. "Techno" was also used pre-Kraftwerk days, short for "technology".

Electro-funk - birthed by Afrika Bambaataa's 1982 "Planet Rock" to which freestyle (Latin hip hop)and Miami Bass arose from. The music is really supposed to be futuristic (not going retro like "electroclash), incoporating the hip hop breakbeat birthed in the early 70s which can include rapping. Electroclash is just some ignorant term as much as the punk rock music of today.

Krafterk were influenced by a number of artists/genres. etc. from funk to psychedelia to avant-garde classical, etc. To say they were the ones that brought the synths to the forefront is an injustice to people like Wendy Carlos, Pete Townshend, Stevie Wonder, etc.

Electro-funk really revitalized the hip hop culture (breakdancing, etc.) as the first movies were being made as well. It started the careers of people like Run DMC and virtually every hip hop head jumped into its beats - from Grandmaster Flash to Fab 5 Freddy to 2 Live Crew to Shannon. Those were really exciting times if you lived back then - and if you have a grand collection of 45s like me from that period, you're in luck.

EBM??

I have to disagree with the comment about EBM at the end of this article:

"The newfound popularity has influenced other electronic dance music genres such as EBM, as well as mainstream hiphop."

While classic early/mid 80's EBM was certainly influenced by Electro/Electro-Funk. Todays modern EBM artists are hardly influenced by it at all.--FACT50 09:19, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Edits

I have to contest to White Rose Movement being included in the Electro article. They are a Post-Punk revival band. Also if you are going to have Chromeo in this list. Then you should also include Zapp and Roger, and Cameo, as those are Chromeo's two biggest influences. Neither of which really qualify as Electro. Electro-Funk (with a heavy emphasis on the Funk) yes.--FACT50 09:27, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Electro and vindictive people

I'd like to point out that the list of electro artists is hardly complete. It used to be more complete but it seems many artists were removed by a vindictive user. The current electro scene is full of bickering, snivelling people who can't bring themselves to work together, ultimately destroying it for everyone. Record sales are proving that across the board.

blah —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Electroman2 (talk • contribs) 19:30, 24 January 2007 (UTC).

Why do people keep removing legitimate Electro Artists?

{{Editprotected}}

Please add the artists Morphogenetic, Sbles3plex, and Dark Vektor. If you don't know who they are look them up on Discogs. Starriebird 22:09, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Not done. There's already way too many; I am going to trim out all the acts without articles. Proto ► 20:15, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

All right, as long as you have some sort of logical method for removing artists. The way it existed before did not seem fair. It looked like someone was editing out everyone but their own personal favorites. Starriebird 20:22, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

breakdance picture

Can somebody post a different picture to illustrate breakdancing? Hip hop gets appropriated enough without white Germans being used to symbolize breakdancing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.12.220.244 (talk • contribs)

Plus one on this. Germans seriously need to low dem ambitions on EDM. -- 195.50.1.122 (talk) 14:01, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

External Links

The external link states the 100 most popular electrofunk songs. That list is far from defining electrofunk. There are many songs on that list that are not electrofunk or even electro. Many of those on the list are simply rap. Just because a rap track was released between 1980 - 1990 does not make it electro. That list reads like a wedding DJs playlist. I suggest remove it.

It's most likely spam anyways, it looks just like the links to lists I keep removing from other music articles. Eli lilly 00:27, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk is experimental electronic/synthpop band. If you cite it, cite also Bruce Haack, and finally Raymond Scott's Manhattan Project as early examples of electro. They are called experimental for a reason - a man can hear quite a lot of genres that could not be there and then in that sound. Do you know some freaks cite 'Radioactivity' a first Dubstep track? That's a crap, much like the conception of 'Kraftwerk's invention' of techno and electro. -- 195.50.1.122 (talk) 14:01, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Your statement is utter nonsense!

a.) Please stop that pointless name dropping. Bruce Haack (early), Raymond Scott etc. don`t have any connection to electro at all - their music sounds completely different. In opposite to Kraftwerk: Some of their music DOES sound like electro. More than that: It IS electro. Simple as that! Not to mention the sub-cultural influence: I doubt that - for example - Afrika Bambaataa has ever heard about Bruce Haack in the late seventies /early eighties. But he knew Kraftwerk very well and pushed their records on his parties (quote Bambaataa) "like hell" (and took Kraftwerk`s beats to create his hit "Planet Rock").

but the funniest thing is:

b.) You have written that Kraftwerk were an experimental band. Hello? Yes of course Kraftwerk were an experimental band - and the result of their experiments was music that became the source of a genre like electro. This is exactley the reason why they should be mentioned in this article as innovators.

BTW: Who the hell has told you that electro has no synthpop influences?--Sushi Leone (talk) 13:13, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Electro boogie, electro funk

I didn't realize this until someone re-added it today, but apparently electro-boogie is a synonym for electro / electro-funk.

• Google Books search for electro-boogie
• Google Books search for electro-funk

Of course, many more sources for both terms can probably be found through Lexis-Nexis, ProQuest, etc.; college students with access through your libraries, please feel free to do some digging and citing. —mjb (talk) 00:50, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Electro of today

This article needs a passus on the music currently (as of 2007/08) called electro. I'm thinking of the Kitsuné-esque electro rock mainly originating from France and Australia with bands/artists like Digitalism, SebastiAn, Miami Horror, Bag Raiders to name a few. I personally don't call it electro since elctro to me is Model 500, Cybotron, Aux88, but the producers and fans of "electro rock" call it just electro. Sebisthlm (talk) 09:38, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

The artists you've listed are "electro house", a completely different sub-genre of house music. Unfortunately, and confusingly, many people today refer to it as simply "electro", completely blurring the lines between the two. 67.10.98.72 (talk) 18:47, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

This brings up a good point though. We need to start delineating this type of "Electro" from "Electro House" which is the type of music that contemporary use of the word "Electro" tends to mean. Fatrb38 (talk) 03:20, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

What about ?

What about Jean Michel Jarre ? incredible this article doesn't put one little word on it

and what about Moroder ? and what about Cerrone ? and today, what about Daft Punk, Cassius, Mister Oizo, all these artists ? they've created all that but nobody talks about them ? How ?

Midnight Star

The first paragraph of this article states, "Electro (electrofunk, electro-boogie) is a genre of electronic music directly influenced by the use of TR-808 and funk records. Records in the genre typically have electronic sounds and some vocals are delivered in a deadpan, mechanical manner, often through a vocoder or other electronic distortion." In the early 80's, Midnight Star was one of the most successful Electro-funk groups, and virtually defined the above-mentioned description, with hits like "Freak-a-Zoid", "No Parking On the Dance Floor" and "Operator". Still, strangely enough, some people insist on removing their entry under the artists in this article. STOP IT. Nightmareishere (talk) 07:48, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Rearranging articles

I think this article should be moved to electrofunk, and electro music should be turned into a disambiguation page between electrofunk, electroclash, and electro house, as all of those (especially electrofunk and currently electro house) have been commonly referred to as simply "electro". Right now, if somebody is told that a group is electro and checks Wikipedia to see what that means, they'll probably be very confused, as it's most likely that the group is electro house and this article is describing a very different kind of music. — Gwalla | Talk 21:07, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

US bias

In the box there is "Cultural Origins = US". This is bullshit. There was not one point Electro music was there - it was a development. And Kraftwerk alone is often seen as Electro also. And it was not Kraftwerk alone. So the cultural orings like not only in the US but also in Germany -- and maybe in some other countries also, which I don't because I am no expert- but I am expert enough to know that the contributions of Germany were as important for Electro music then the ones of the US. -- Only because on or two sources focus on the US you cant take that as given. There are other soureces which claims other things. --- So the "cultural origin" should be expended or deleted! You only have to listen to Planet Rock of Afrika Bambaataa and Trance Europe Express on youtube to recognzie that "Plant Rock" can never be a more important "turning point" than Trance Europe Express - even if there are some US biased soured which tell it so!! Knarf-bz (talk) 11:12, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, a lot of people seem to be very unhappy with the quality of this article. I mean the argumentation: ELECTRO = ELECTRO-FUNK = A SUB-GENRE OF HIP-HOP. This is - at best - a half truth. --Sushi Leone (talk) 13:32, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

There is an obvious culture clash (U.S. / Europe) in defining terms & practices

1. Decide if Electro is going to mean "Electronic music" or "Electro-funk"

2. Make a distinction between the usage of an instrument v.s the form that usage takes.

Example: (music genre, instrument arrangement, band theme)

Kraftwerk = (new wave/punk/pop genre, all electric instrument arrangement, Future theme)

Parliament = (Funk genre, partial electric instrument arrangement, space theme)

david bowe(space oddity) = (Progressive rock genre,partial electric instrument arrangement, space theme)

Africa bambaataa = (Hip hop genre, all electric instrument arrangement, electro-funk theme)

chicago House = (Hip hop/Disco genre, all electric instrument arrangement, Dance theme)

Detroit techno = (House/funk/techno genre, all electric instrument arrangement no lyrics, future theme

3. The genre of music played, instrumentation, and theme might overlap at different times but that doesn't make two groups the same. It seems people are trying to lump different genres of music together just because they share common instrumentation arrangement which makes no sense. Just because both David bowie and parliment used a "partial electric instrument arrangement" and space theme doesn't make them the same style of music. Like wise just because Kraftwerk a (new wave/punk/pop) band used an "all electric instrument arrangement" doesn't mean it automatically becomes synonymous with "Detroit Techno" (House/funk/techno) or Africa bambaataa(hip hop).

4. Hip Hop(electro-funk/house/techno) is partially caricaturized by the act of sampling break beats(with the exception of maybe techno) ...not whos' break beat you sample. To say that Kraftwerk has more significance then simply being used as one of many samples or at the most being one of the first to use an "all electric instrument arrangement" is misleading.

5. If electro is going to mean "Electronic music" or specifically "partial or whole electric instrument arrangement" then the credit focus should go to the engineers of the synthesizers not the players of them. Because when they hit the market loads of different producers got there hands on and used them before anything called electro had arrived on the scene. Basically people made what ever style of music they were making before except they used synth instead of traditional instruments ...similar to early use of the electric guitar.

If we want to make an article about "early adopters" or "adoption over time" of "electric instrument arrangements" independent of the musical styles(new wave, rock, funk, hip hop, punk, etc.) that incorporated those "electric instrument arrangements" then that's a different story.

6. If electro is going to be a genre of music I think it should be electro-funk, techno, (possibly house) and then their many derivations. If it means something other then simply "electronic music"(electric instrument arrangements) in Europe then we might need a disambiguation page.