Electropop
| Electropop | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Late 1970s and early 1980s, primarily Europe, Japan, South Korea and United States. |
| Typical instruments | |
| Derivative forms | |
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| Fusion genres | |
| Other topics | |
Electropop is a musical genre which combines electronic music and pop music, with primary usage of synthesizers and various electronic and pop musical instruments. The genre has seen a revival of popularity and influence since the 1980s, all the way to the 2010s.
Electropop songs are electronic and pop songs at heart, often with simple, catchy hooks and simple dance beats, but differing from those of electronic dance music genres in that songwriting is emphasized over simple danceability. Electropop is characterized by a distinctive low frequency synthesizers which might variously be described as crisp, crunchy, crackly, fuzzy, warm, distorted, dirty, or dry.
Electronic synthesizers that could be used practically in a recording studio became available in the mid-1960s, around the same time as rock music began to emerge as a distinct popular musical genre. The Mellotron, an electro-mechanical, polyphonic sample-playback keyboard was overtaken by the Moog synthesizer, created by Robert Moog in 1964, which produced completely electronically generated sounds.
The portable Mini-moog, which allowed much easier use, particularly in live performance was widely adopted by progressive pop musicians such as Richard Wright of Pink Floyd and Rick Wakeman of Yes. Instrumental progressive pop was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands like Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Can and Faust to circumvent the language barrier. Their synthesizer-heavy "Krautrock", along with the work of Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music), would be a major influence on subsequent synth rock.
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