1. The development of electronic music style
since the 1970’s

2.  This presentation serve as an overview to the
way that electronic music styles have evolved
since the 1970’s, and in the following
presentations I will be showing how they have
been incorporated into other music genres
and I will also be providing artists that are
synonymous with the genres.
 Audio and video examples will be provided
sperateley

3.  I am using Kraftwerk as a starting point to
my presenation as to my knowledge
Kraftwerk weren’t the first to experiment
with sound in the way that they did but they
were the first ensemble to use theses kind of
synthesized sounds within mainstream
music. Throughout the early 1970’s and 80’s
Kraftwerk’s sound was revolutionary though
compared to modern artists they sound
simplistic and somewhat dull. Despite this
throughout their career, Kraftwerk
continuously pushed the boundaries of
technology and audio by using techniques
and self made instruments such as a custom
made vocoder which was used on their
albums ‘Ralf und Florian’ and ‘Autobahn’.

4.  The early 1980’s brought House Music
which originated in Chicago, USA (hence the
name ‘Chicago House’). It was initially
popularized within Chicago in 1984 however
in 1985 it started to pan out and take the
world by storm, popularizing in cities such
as Detriot, New York City, Boston, it even
became popular in the UK in cities such as
London and Manchester.
 House music tends to share a large amount
of characteristics with the 70’s Disco genre
in the sense that it has similar drum
patterns and a lot of emphasis on bass. The
typical drum beat of house music consists
of a four to the floor (4/4) kick with off beat
closed hi-hats and a snare or a clap which
tends to play on every second kick. This
also tends to be a typical disco beat
however house music tends to focus more
on using drum machines and synthesized
hit samples instead of live drummers.
A good example of early house music
would be ‘Inner City – Good Life’.

5.  As with house music, Electro also emerged around the 1980’s and was once
again directly influenced by the use of the ‘Roland TR-808’ drum machine.
Also along with house, electro stems from 70’s disco however classic/early
electro tends to use more funk sampling than house music does.
 There are a number of difference between the two genres however, one of
which being the way that the drum beats are structured. Where house music
tends to hollow a standard 4/4 kick beat, electro tends to focus more on
syncopated kicks and snares which can be related more with breakbeat
genres than disco.
A good example of early electro music
would be the track ‘Riot in Lagos’ from the
1980 album ‘B-2 Unit by Ryuchi
Samamoto’.

6.  Drum and Bass (DnB) originated in the UK
around about the 1990’s. Like electro
genres drum and bass heavily consists of
syncopated/broken beats however with
drum and bass they are sped up to a
much higher tempo.
 Drum and bass is thought to have
stemmed from the UK rave scene and
garage genres which also heavily consist
of syncopated beats. Drum and bass was
originally popular as a form of
underground music mostly played on
pirate radio stations and at underground
raves.
 Orignally drum and bass was quite a
minimal form of music as mostly focused
on percussive elements however as the
music became more experimental more
elements such as dub basslines and vocal
sample were introduced as it evolved into
the modern fast paced, bass heavy genre
that can commonly be heard as a
mainstream genre today.
A good example of modern bass
heavy drum and bass would be
‘Tachycardia – Seamless’.

7.  Dubstep is a bass heavy form of electronic music that is a
favourite with bedroom producers everywhere for its
somewhat simplistic production techniques and its modern
mainstream credibility.
 Dubstep originated in South East London, England and it
emerged in the late 1990’s. It is heavily related with styles
such as dub and reggae for bass elements and breakbeat and
2-step garage for the percussive side to genre. Hence the
page title (dub+2-step=Dubstep).
 Despite the obvious focus on syncopated beats, original
Dubstep had a lot emphasis on sine wave sub-bass with the
use of detuned saw wave chord stabs which can be related to
British underground garage /rave scene.
 Though it’s origins are firmly based in the UK, Dubstep gained
a lot of mainstream influence in the USA with artists such as
Skrillex (PO‘Dubsteps Poster Boy’ who can be somewhat held
responsible for the ridiculous commercialisation of the genre
and who also appears to be modern precedent of every
Dubstep, or general EDM track created,PO), who fused the
standard conventions of Dubstep with sounds such as
‘Formant’ and ‘Neuro’ bass to give the genre and overall
aggressive tone.
The track more modern track ‘Retourne’ by
the artist ‘Jaql’ (pronounced ‘Jackal’) can be
used an example of a more original Dubstep
sound.

8.  This should conclude this section of the basis
of electronic music genres as I will cover
more in the presentation for:
Section 3: Hybrid and Subgenres