Electro
Electro (also sometimes known as electro funk or electro boogie) is an electronic music style born in the early 1980s in the USA and associated with early hip hop, having its roots in funk/p-funk, New York boogie as well as German and Japanese electronic pop music.
Contrary to other electronic music styles like techno or house, electro is based on the backbeat: a 4/4 time with accents on the 2 and 4 and a syncopated instead of a four-to-the-floor bass drum typically associated with electronic dance music. These so-to-say electronically emulated breakbeats were usually made with the Roland TR-808 drum machine. Electro tracks are mostly instrumental or feature distorted vocals using vocoder or talk box effects, in the early days also rap vocals.
As stated before, the genre emerged from different styles in the post disco era of the 1970s. Funk musicians experimented with electronic synthesizers and talk boxes and boogie came up in New York City. German electronic band Kraftwerk experimented with funk rhythms resulting in tracks like »Trans-Europe Express« (1977)« and especially »Numbers« (1981). In 1980, Japanese electronic band Yellow Magic Orchestra first used the Roland TR-808 and member Ryuichi Sakamoto released an early example of electro with »Riot in Lagos«.
Electro got really kicked off in 1982 with the release of »Planet Rock« by Afrika Bambaataa. Actually a rip-off of »Trans-Europe Express« and »Numbers« by Kraftwerk, this track laid the genre's blueprint, received gold status in the US and highly influenced hip hop and electronic dance music. One year later, vocal samples from »Planet Rock« ended up on another famous electro hit: »Rockit« by jazz veteran Herbie Hancock. 1983 was also the year of birth of genre milestone »Al- Naafiysh (The Soul)« by Hashim.
The 1990s saw a renaissance of electro with artists like AUX 88, Underground Resistance or DMX Krew, Dave Clarke and Anthony Rother in Europe, where it actually became part of the techno scene.
Electro had a huge influence on the hip hop and breakdance scene as well as on Detroit techno.
