Origin of the term "Electro".

[AÉ303]

So to pick up where we left of with the "Electro Elitism" thread...where in your opinion/experience did the term "Electro" come from?

For many of you it may be irrelevant, but to someone like me who is a long time contributor to the furthering of what is usually termed "Electro", but more properly described as "Electro Bass", i take a lot of heart into this subject because there is so much confusion these days about what is, and what is not Electro. Particularly since the rise of styles like Electro House, Electro Clash, etc, many people in our scene have taken up arms to try and prove that they are the "real" Electro. :-/

Personally, i have not been a part of this movement, because the word existed before 80s Electro Funk, which really only became known as Electro because of the label Streetsounds. Many people in the 70s referred to Electronic music as Electro, and would argue that artists like Jean-Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, and Kraftwerk are Electro.

From my research, and personal conclusion to the subject, Electro is all forms of Electronic music, and anything else is a sub genre. Not to say everything should be called "Electro----", but nonetheless, the idea that one sub-genre can claim the term Electro as its own, is rather selfish and misguided.

As for the origin...well, to me it seems to have come from the fact that before anyone could conceive there would be a complete genre of music known as Electro-nic music, it was called Electro-Acoustic. Kind of a basic idea really, but maybe i am wrong.

Your thoughts?

[A E J O T Z]

Before electronic music exploded and diverged into different pop styles there was no need for an official name. It was "electronic music" before the Moog was introduced. Then "synthesizer music" was the focus for awhile.

Synth musicians were all lumped together in most people's view: Mort Garson, W. Carlos, Tomita, Hot Butter, Max Crook, Kraftwerk, Synergy, even when they had little in common.

But when it took off it was an exponential musical segregation. There are more genres and subgenres of electronic music than of any other kind of music (or any kind of cultural phenomenon, if I'm not mistaken). Every new club hit becomes a sub-genre the minute others try to emulate the hit's style.

The advantage to genre names is if you want to go to LastFM or Pandora and listen to a certain kind of music. I love early melodic original hand-played synth music, but it doesn't have a genre name so I get all the artists mentioned above and even some 80s stuff if I search for "retro synth".

I don't remember hearing or seeing the term "electro" until automated electronic dance music became popular (ie: untz untz untz untz).

The main thing required to define a genre is consensus. Enough people have to give a damn. That's why there's only a handful of synth genres and a gazillion dance genres. You don't have to be musically sophisticated to dance to a caveman beat.