As rock ‘n’ roll bands began to explore the possibilities of electronic music, they helped create the experimental rock subgenre called “electronic rock.
Electronic Rock: What Is It?
Rock elements, including guitar, bass, drums, and lead vocals, are combined with electronic instruments such as synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines to create electronic rock music. It began in the late 1960s as electro-rock, but has since evolved to include psychedelic rock, industrial rock, new wave, heavy metal, synthpop, electronica, and electronic dance music.
Chart-topping acts include Depeche Mode, Nine-Inch Nails, Linkin Park, Moby, and Panic! . At The Disco have all been part of the electronic rock trend. Several electronic rock acts have thrived in the alternative music scene despite being less well known to the public. These bands include Celldweller, Ratatat, Innerpartysystem, LCD Soundsystem, and Ratatat.
An Overview of Electronic Rock
Electronic rock music began in the late 1960s as electronic instruments became more common. This is also true of most other types of electronic music.
- The 1960s: saw the significant role that synthesizers might play in rock and pop music, as shown by German performers like Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk (pioneers of the krautrock genre). Early analog synthesizers were employed by American psychedelic rock bands like Silver Apples and Beaver & Krause to produce ethereal soundscapes.
- The 1970s: By the late 1970s, a number of electronic music bands, such as Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), Gary Numan, and A Flock of Seagulls, had attracted the interest of mass audiences.
- The 1980s: From hip-hop to new wave to electro-pop, electronic drum machines, samplers, and synthesizers helped influence the sound of popular music throughout this time. Sometimes musicians will completely give up playing rock instruments, especially in dance genres like Detroit techno, Chicago house, and breakbeat.
- After the 1980s: numerous electronic rock performers showed a dual dedication to both electronic and conventional instruments throughout the 1990s and beyond. These bands, which range from Nine-Inch Nails and Filter of the 1990s to Imagine Dragons, Pendulum, and Panic!. At the Disco of the 21st century, stars are born. At the Disco has drawn musicians who play both rock and electronic music by embracing all parts of electro-rock.
Five Electronic Rock Sub-genres
Numerous subgenres have been grouped around the core of electronic rock by music critics. Among these subgenres are:
- A big part of the UK’s music scene, called “new rave“, mixes the throbbing rhythms and drug culture of electronic music raves with the rock music that came out of the UK’s Madchester movement in the late 1980s.
- Industrial rock combines the overdriven electric guitars of heavy metal and punk rock with the throbbing drum machines of club music. The Ministry and Nine-Inch Nails are still the kings of industrial rock.
- The term “synthpop” refers to many 1980s popular pop performers, including Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, Eurhythmics, the Thompson Twins, and New Order. Both the technical choices of the 1980s and the hook-filled music of the late 1960s served as inspiration for these bands.
- Synthpop-like in many ways, electroclash music takes the lead with a techno and electronic viewpoint rather than a pop-rock one. In the early 2000s, Miss Kittin & The Hacker, I-F, and Fischerspooner all contributed to the electroclash sound. The electroclash of today has elements of dubstep, EDM, and extreme breakbeat.
- Post-rock: A subgenre of indie rock, post-rock avoids blues-based melodies and conventional rhythms in favor of a jazz, electronic, and avant-garde-inspired sound. Many post-rock bands don’t have a lead singer and instead perform instrumental music. Tortoise and Sam Prekop from Chicago helped start the post-rock trend, although other well-known bands come from New York, Los Angeles, Louisville, and Austin.
5 Notable Electronic Rock Artists and Bands
Numerous creative and financial successes can be attributed to the electronic rock movement.
- German krautrock pioneers: Kraftwerk bought electronic synthesizers as soon as they were available and almost immediately started producing fascinating electronic music. Early Kraftwerk recordings include sounds from the organ, bass guitar, guitar, drums, and percussion, while subsequent works greatly favored synthesizers.
- New Order: The pioneers of synthpop and new wave, Joy Division, broke up after Ian Curtis’s passing, giving birth to New Order. Bernard Butler, a guitarist, served as the band’s leader, while Gillian Gilbert and Peter Hook’s keyboards were what gave New Order its distinctive sound.
- Nine-Inch Nails: Nine-Inch Nails attracted hard rock and metal listeners in the late 1980s and early 1990s with a powerful sound that included large guitars as well as synthesizers and drum machines. Nine-Inch Nails became one of the major crossover performers of the 1990s because of the formula’s success.
- MGMT: This band, which was started by Wesleyan University students Andrew VanWygarden and Ben Goldwasser, is influenced by disco, indie rock, and synthpop from the early 1980s. They were driven beyond the indie radio scene and into well-known radio stations and playlists with hits like “Kids” and “Electric Feel”.
- Panic!: “Panic!” was founded in Las Vegas. At the disco, who often combined dance-punk, psychedelic rock, and emo pop rhythms into a single song, sold millions of CDs in the early 2000s. The trio is one of electro-rock’s greatest success stories thanks to the records Death of a Bachelor and Pray for the Wicked, which both peaked at the top of the American Billboard charts.
