I never fully understood what "electronic music" means: all music created by electrical circuits?
So, Beatles used the mellotron: is it to be considered electronic music? The same for Genesis, Morricone or even reggaeton: they all use electronic instruments. Is electronic music connected to a style? What kind of style? There are soul ballads played completely by electronic instruments, modern Arabic music is heavily electronic, Indian music too.

When I read that a song has that #electronic tag what should I expect to hear?

I'm confused...

 

I'm not sure this distinction is relevant these days, but it used to be that electronic music was: electronic sound sources and electronic treatments, in comparison to electro-acoustic which is acoustic sources with electronic treatments.

Kind a like "On the Run" by Pink Floyd could be classified as an electronic track, but "Dark Side of the Moon" is not an electronic album.

These days I guess it's "where electronic sounds/sources" are the main feature, not backing. So if the actual song has the main point of having lyrics and singing it's not electronic.

But never mind me, I'm just rambling here

 

So to be #electronic, does it have to be instrumental? Well .. this theory doesn't convince me so much
For example the Kraftwerk: What music do they play (and sing)? and Daft Punk? and Bjork? A lot of Skrillex songs have singers...

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 26, 2021

Yes.

 

Well, to me Kraftwerk is dead simple: the machines are in control, and most of the time when they sing the vocals have some pretty heavy electronic treatments. But in their own words, they're Techno Pop. Pretty much same thing for Daft Punk, except they'd be rather techno or house.

But I consider electronic to be a top-level "genre" (or in my head, a vibe instead of type of music) splintered into zillions of sub-genres.

It's not a very fertile question though, you might as well ask at what point pop music becomes something else, or what're the exact crossovers between rock, hard rock, metal and extreme metal.

 

Electronic Music is the opposite of Acoustic Music. Simply put, Electronic Music is music produced primarily with electronic instruments or tools. Under this "main" term we have dozens of genres with their respective sub-genres way too numerous to list them all. From House to Trance to Ambient... and the list goes on and on. For example, there are over 3 dozen sub-genres of House. All falling under Electronic Music. BTW, EDM is a genre of Electronic Music. Conversely, not every Electronic Music falls under EDM.

 

It was not my intention to enter into a philosophical debate, the question I ask myself when I read the #electronc tag is the same as when I see for example the #rock tag:

“Huh…what kind of music am I going to listen to now?"

Tags are absolutely relevant in music business, that’s mainly how spotify/youtube algorithm choose the music and compile a playlist. Wisely tagging a song is essential: it can be part of its success (or failure). This #electronic tag is so foggy: it can define everything and its opposite, I would definitely ban it

 

I love Psychedelic-Goa...

 

Correct. Without a genre/subgenre it is not specific enough. You can have Brian Eno or Foster 911 falling under that umbrella.

 

Fair enough.

For discovery/SEO purposes I (when I pay attention) normally see it used as a modifier, like #dub #electronic gives (well, to me at least) a pretty decent idea what you're getting into, whereas #techno #electronic is redundant.

And the ones that stick everything marginally relevant into a effin' tag cloud almost like "#techno #house #electro #electronic #live"... well those I normally just skip

 

Foster invented both electronic music and the tagging system, in fact Brian Eno was quite envious of him

 

I play an electric guitar through an amplifier, the whole process is electronic (apart from my fingers, there are no electronics there). Does that make it electronic music?

 

Seriously?

 

Yes it is, absolutely yes. I'm afraid you have to wear the Daft Punk helmet when you play

 

Nope! That makes it a guitar solo by someone who has no electronics in his fingers.

 

For me #electronic means "electronic but not dance". Dance has a million subgenres so filtering these out I would expect something between experimental / ambient but with a more pop structure. Now if they just tag #electronic and it's actually any of the well known subgenres, it's the tagger's fault.

 

Nope, it's an electric guitar, not an electronic guitar, *duh*

 

Thr amp has electronic circuitry, therefore electronic as it has semiconductors

 

My sarcasm aside (should use smilies more I suppose), to be pedantic, it would be an electroacoustic instrument, nothing stopping you from strumming it without hooking it up. And I don't think slapping piezos to an acoustic guitar magically makes it an electric/electronic instrument.

Is my voice through a mic electronic? In context, maybe through a vocoder or something.

But I'm veering very offtopic so I'll just show myself out ->

 

If it is affected by an electronic circuit, pedantry says yes