Electronica

Template:Short description Template:About {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox music genre with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| alt | caption | cultural_origins | current_year | current_year_override | current_year_title | derivatives | etymology | footnotes | fusiongenres | image | image_size | instruments | local_scenes | name | native_name | native_name_lang | other_names | other_topics | regional_scenes | stylistic_origins | subgenrelist | subgenres |showblankpositional=1}} Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing<ref name="primer">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="bogdanov"/> and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom.<ref name="bogdanov" /> In the United States, the term is mostly used to refer to electronic music generally.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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,<ref name="bogdanov" /> 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.<ref name="attritionrecollection">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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 and trip hop.<ref name="bogdanov" />

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.<ref name="wired-method">"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, Template:ISBN</ref>

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<ref name="billboard1" /> and Australian singer Dannii Minogue with her 1997 album Girl,<ref>Girl (Dannii Minogue album)</ref> 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".<ref name="technoculture2">"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, Template:ISBN</ref>

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 (DJ Keoki), Sims, and City of Angels (the Crystal Method) for playing a significant role in discovering and marketing artists who became popularized in the electronica scene.<ref name="billboard" />

Madonna and Björk are saidTemplate:By whom to be responsible for electronica's thrust into mainstream culture, with their albums Ray of Light (Madonna),<ref name="billboard1">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Post and Homogenic (Björk).

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, regardless of whether it was curated by indie labels catering to the "underground" nightclub and rave scenes,<ref name="billboard">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="MIT">Template:Cite journal</ref> or licensed by major labels and marketed to mainstream audiences as a commercially viable alternative to alternative rock music.<ref name="NYmag">Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref name="latin1">"In 2000, [Brazilian vocalist Bebel] 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, Template:ISBN</ref><ref name="youth1">"founded in 1997,...under the slogan 'Musical Insurgency Across All Borders', for six years [Manhattan nightclub] Mutiny was an international hub of the south Asian electronica music scene. Bringing together artists from different parts of the south Asia diaspora, the club was host to a roster of British Asian musicians and DJs..." Page 165, Youth Media , Bill Osgerby, Routledge, 2004, Template:ISBN</ref>

Characteristics and definition

Electronica benefited from industry advancements in music technology, especially electronic musical instruments, synthesizers, music sequencers, drum machines, 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.<ref name="direct2">"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, Template:ISBN</ref> This led to a period of creative experimentation and the development of new forms, some of which became known as electronica.<ref name="holmes5">"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, Template:ISBN</ref><ref name="wired-BT">"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, Template:ISBN</ref> Wide ranges of influences, both sonic and compositional, are combined in electronica recordings.<ref name="technoculture1">" 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, Template:ISBN</ref>

Electronica includes a wide variety of musical acts and styles, linked by a penchant for overtly electronic production;<ref name="direct1">"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, Template:ISBN</ref> 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 appeal.<ref name="bogdanov" /> 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 chillout areas.<ref name="AMG">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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).<ref name="bogdanov" />

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<ref name="taylor">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) Template:Webarchive</ref>—and later for other technological and business products such as computers and financial services.Template:Citation needed Then in 2011, Hyundai Veloster, in association with the Grammys, produced a project that became known as Re:Generation.<ref name="RE:GENERATION">Ed. The Grammys.Hyundai Veloster, The Recording Academy, GreenLight Media & Marketing, Art Takes Over (ATO), & RSA Films, n.d. Web. 24 May 2013. <http://regenerationmusicproject.com/>.</ref>

See also

• List of electronic music genres

References

Literature

• James Cummins. 2008. Ambrosia: About a Culture – An Investigation of Electronica Music and Party Culture. Toronto, ON: Clark-Nova Books. Template:ISBN

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