h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Electronica - A1084529
Author: Andrew 2.5 TE Now returned from his long absence of fighting dragons and battling wizards, he settles quietly in hootoo - U196357

my entry on electronic music. i dunno if you guy's'll like it, but ok...

i'd like to bump this up so the scouts can see it tomrow

Hi Andrew,

This has the potential to be a very good entry, but there are a couple of points that I think are worth mentioning.

First off, the opening:

<>

This seems to conflate 'Electronica' with 'Electronic' music - and even if it doesn't quite do that I think you need to be very careful to distinguish between the two. Electronic music goes way back to the fifties and earlier, and includes artists like Tangerine Dream, Wendy Carlos, Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre. As far as I am aware 'Electronica' is more a subset of this genre - one that focuses on dance music. If I am right then I think this needs to be made clearer.

Next:

<>

By what standard? Sales? Fanbase? Number of recording artists? I mean, take 'Classical' music for instance. That's pretty popular too.

And, when you analyse the music down into sub-genres I think it would be good to name a group that epitomises each one.

Good luck with it

"Disco only lasted three years, and in 1973, disco went off the radar"

Really? I thought disco was very prominent on the radar around the time that Saturday Night Fever came out in '77. Everyone wanted to Dance like John Travolta, dance venues bought up lit floors like crazy, and the sales of white suits went through the roof.


Scout

actually, saturday night fever came out after disco was out. the costume designers had to hunt for those suits at bargain places, garage sales, and flea markets. after the movie, disco made a slight comeback, but not much of one.

There's no mention of Kraftwerk here. Or current American R'n'B / hip hop. Or electroclash. Or much other than dance music. I know you could spend pages and pages going through all the varieites of electronic music.

As a link between 60's Motown and the 70's you could mention Stevie Wonder whose early 70's albums are filled with synths.

And I wouldn't say disco is the earliest form of electronica. "Serious" composers like Stockhausen were making funny noises with electronic instruments years before. And what about Rolf Harris and his stylophone!

This is a well written article but with quite a few sweeping generalisations. But apart from that I enjoyed it. It might be best to stress in the title that the article is primarily about dance music.

deemikay

Interesting entry!

I'd have to agree with the comment that the distinction between 'electronic' music and 'electronica' is not made entirely clear, and you do tend to exaggerate somewhat.

Regarding gaps, you also haven't mentioned genres like trip hop and downbeat - where do they fit in? Or do they fit in at all?

One thing that isn't quite right - you say that:

"Rave DJ’s were the first to evolve the technique known as scratching, which was introduced in the late 80’s at the Disco MIx Championship, or DMC."

Rave DJs weren't the first to evolve scratching, it was the hip hop DJs of the 'boogie down Bronx' in the seventies (most people cite Grand Wizard Theodore).

Scratching was only introduced to the DMC in 1986 by DJ Cheese, who went on to win the DMC that year. Henceforth the DMC became a hip hop/scratch battle.


This is unnecessarily pedantic but DMC stands for 'Disco Mix Club' not 'Disco Mix Championship'.


Other than that, I like the entry a lot - it's clear and to the point.

Gubernatrix

what about derrick may and the creation of house music? what about the 80s and their synths? duran duran> human league? what about jean michelle jarre? synths? breakbeats? aphex twin and his white noise mishmashes? theres pages to be written on this!


thing is, its too big a topic to do. anyway, electronica isnt disco. really, electronica is an amboient genre. it doesnt strictly include muxic peopke actually dance to, like house or trance. its more like trip hop, like dj shadow, or ambient synths.

you could do a whole essay on raves, and on the myriad branches of house...and all. its too huge a topic. good stab though

See? I told you that scouts and other such commenting researchers would come

Getting back to scratching.... in what way is that "electronica"? Personally, I wouldn't say that it's "electronic" music in itself. It can be used in that type of music, but only in the same way as a guitar say. And that doesn't make it electronic.

But anyway, that's just me being silly. I'm off to rake out Selected Ambient Works by Aphex Twin.... you've got me in the mood now.

deemikay

You'd not be a fan then? I couldn't find it anyway... I've moved onto the Isley Brothers instead.

deemikay

"actually, saturday night fever came out after disco was out."

Maybe disco had died in the clubs by then, but that was when disco was at its most popular. You need to make that distinction in the entry between underground and mainstream.

damn, how could i forget stockhausen?



most of the mistakes i made in this are from a book i bought about turntabling, and i don't the history is quite right.

i'll have those fixed in a jiffy.

on the distinction between electronica and electronic music, how would i go about fixing that?

oh, and the missing genres are not there because i couldn't think of any thing to write for them, so i figured someone from PR could help.

if i were to put examples of each genre, i'd rather other people decide who exactly is the best artist. i'm not very into straight techno, and trip hop and hip hop are completely unknown to me

where exactly does aphex twin fit?

If I were writing this I'd probably try and work around the genre list by forgetting about it (laziness is great ). There are sooo many and new ones start up every microsecond. (It seems to me that people aren't allowed to one-offs and original in techno/electronica/dance/whatever thesedays and have to be slipped into a new genre straight away... which is a shame.) And someone will always argue with your definitions, as you can see it's happened already in this thread.

So, just mention that there are many types and decide on some focus for the article such as "foundations of modern dance music" or "history of electronic music" or "Modern electronica" or something like that.

And then there are non-dance bands who fit electronic aspects into their sound (Radiohead and The Flaming Lips last album spring to mind). I think you need to decide what type of music this article is actually about.

Good luck

deemikay

PS I wish everyone would forget Stockhausen... Rolf Harris drunk in charge of a stylophone is more my cup of tea

i suggest splitting the entry up. maybe do a basic one with an overview of 'electronic music' - dont call it electronica, for that is a subgenre unto itself, with subgenres inside it - and then you can do a different one on turntablismetc. ill be happy to fill in your electronic music gaps, if you like, but it needs more history...

>>>on the distinction between electronica and electronic music, how would i go about fixing that?

I was never under the impression that the phrase 'electronic music' referred to an actual musical genre. I just thought it meant 'music produced electronically', whether it's a synthesiser, an electric guitar or whatever.

Your definition of electronica as "interplay of acoustic, analog and digital rythms, beats, and instruments" sounds fair enough - it's a bit difficult to define. But you go on to apply it to all sorts of things.

For instance, you say "Electronica began in the early 70’s as disco". Surely disco began in the early 70s as disco.

I've read other articles and definitions of electronica before, and their authors seem to include not just house, techno and jungle but hip hop, disco, funk and rare grooves. In other words, any kind of modern music that isn't straight pop or rock.

I'm not particularly happy with that kind of definition - call me old-fashioned but I think that disco is disco, funk is funk and hip hop is hip hop.

Just because talented artists (such as Coldcut or DJ Shadow) may use elements of disco, funk, hip hop, techno, ambient, whatever in their music, it doesn't mean that all these genres can get co-opted into a new genre. They remain roots and influences, but it's Coldcut that creates electronica, not James Brown (who is, as we all know, a soul man).

Just my

Anyway, it's a damn tricky subject!

Gubernatrix

Donna Summer, 'Love to Love You Baby', released 1976. With music by Giorgio Moroder (and no study of Electronica is compete without even a cursory mention of him), that one song launched a style of disco that depended upon the simple 'diddlediddle-diddlediddle' motif for years to come in tracks such as 'You Think You'e a Man' by Divine, 'Sunshine After the Rain' by Berri and loads more.

Rose Royce were recording from 1976 until at least 1979, 'Carwash' peaked in the charts January '77, while 'Is It Love You're After' 9which contained that 'Dededededah dededededah dah (boo-boo boo-boo' bit that S-Express ripped off for 'Theme from S-Express') came out in 1979.

The fact that Ottowan's 'D.I.S.C.O.' wasn't released until 1980 should possibly give you a hint that the claim that disco died in 1973 is well short of the mark and kind of ignores the facts.

But enough of that, this is about Electronica. I'd suggest that there's a distinction bewteen electronica and simply electronic music. Electronica's a little more serious, a little more 'for art's sake' than because buying a synthesiser's cheaper than three guitars and a drumkit.

In the UK, Electronica means Tubeway Army and Gary Numan, The Human League, Soft Cell, Vince Clarke (in his various guises) and Kraftwerk. Probably The Pet Shop Boys too, though they came about four years later. Nowadays we can also reference European bands such as Royksopp and producers like Mirwais, William Orbit and Richard X. A lot of these artists took inspiration from the BBC Radiophonic workshop, which had been creating electronic music since the late-1950s. They were respinsible for a lot of the atmospheric noises and special sound effects heard in most BBC sci-fi shows until the late 1980s, and created the sound that viewers associate with Doctor Who as well as the theme tunes for shows such as 'John Craven's Newsround ('Diddydiddydadum - DIDDYDIDDYdadum!') and 'Ask the Family' (which I'm not going to try to recreate here, but if anyone wants to hear it, let me know and I'll bring it along to the Meet-up next week ).

Just a few ideas to mull over.

How could I forget Moroder!?! A good argument to be made that modern dance music started with I Feel Love.... argue away if you like.

And good to mention the Radiophonic Workshop. I remember being very impressed when I found out that the sound the Tardis makes in Doctor Who is nothing more complex than a key being run up and down one of the bass strings in a piano. That's what I demand of modern musicians: more experimentation like that! Ooo... the Flaming Lips got there already.

deemikay