TOMAS BORSA
Opinions Editor

Way back in the 1950s — when milkshakes were a nickel and weddings were shotgunned — a man from Tennessee named Elvis Presley introduced the world to “rock,” an entirely new and ground-breaking form of music with an energy and flair unlike anything before it.

(Actually, he just popularized the music that black musicians had been playing for over a decade, but for the sake of argument and fluidity, bear with me).

Over the next two decades, and probably owing a whole lot to the popularization of psychedelic drugs, music travelled into territories it had never before been. Genres like punk, funk, heavy metal and disco were spawned, only for half of these to be squashed under the mighty platform boot of popular culture shortly thereafter.

It was an era of tremendous experimentation in music, as well as huge advances in technology, ultimately resulting in the first electronic, or “synthesized” music.

Kraftwerk — German for “power plant” — were arguably the first to catch on to the incredible possibilities of this emerging genre, and used an entirely electronic instrumentation which heavily influenced the synth-pop and new wave bands of the ’80s like A-ha, Depeche Mode and New Order. But pure electronic music — frequently emphasizing a compressed and bass-heavy, lyric-sparse and entirely computer-generated or synthesized sound — was still very much underground.

In the past half-decade, electronic music seems to have broken through and been embraced as a legitimate and highly-diverse genre.

By the early ’90s, the early rave scene was in full swing and European artists like Orbital, The Prodigy and Massive Attack carried techno, as it had come to be known, through a new stage in its development. Eventually, distinct subgenres emerged, including the dance-happy and disco-influenced trance, house and drum-and-bass styles, as well as more downtempo or experimental genres intended for more focused listening such as breakbeat, trip-hop and IDM.

Nevertheless, for most of the ’90s, electronic music still had a relatively limited audience in North America. With the notable exceptions of Detroit and Chicago — to which house music, in particular, owes a huge degree of its evolution — techno was the sound of Europe, the musical equivalent to a speedo, a fad to be enjoyed only for the irony of its keen attempts at being taken seriously as a musical genre.

But at last, in the past half-decade, electronic music seems to have broken through this barrier and has been embraced as a legitimate and highly-diverse genre by a wider North American audience.

Big names like Justice, Boys Noize, Daft Punk and Diplo now find themselves in high-demand as producers for indie and hip-hop artists, who only a short time ago ruled the North American airwaves themselves.

Much of the popularity of electronic music is owing to its immense accessibility, spurred on by its embrace of Internet-based file sharing. Indeed, because it is such a dynamic and rapidly-evolving genre, mixtapes and EPs are rarely even released as full albums.

Furthermore, as dance music rarely has lyrics (or at least very few in comparison to other musical genres) and rhythms are relatively predictable, cross-cultural listening barriers don’t exist as they do in other genres — unlike how English-speaking Hanson, for example, might have a hard time establishing a fan base in Urdu-speaking Pakistan.

But maybe that’s just because Hanson sucks.

Electronic music is also relatively accessible to musicians wanting to delve into the genre, as it requires minimal investment in comparison to other forms of music. A laptop, mixing software and a large library of music is all that’s really required to compose a dance-worthy, four-on-the-floor mix, and popular acts like MSTRKRFT or The Bloody Beetroots have demonstrated that one or two members are all that’s required to compose some seriously grimy tracks.

Yet another attractive feature of electronic music is the improvisational, dynamic nature of live performances, which allows musicians to play off of and engage with the crowd in a manner that isn’t possible in the choreographed worlds of rock, rap and other popular contemporary styles of music.

Electronic music will go down as our generation’s contribution in the tomes of musical evolution.

And really, it was only a matter of time. We are a fat generation raised on high sugar foods. The dance movements to electronic music rarely involve anything beyond jumping up and down and pumping your arms, for hours on end. Assuming you have legs and/or arms, you can dance to electro.

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image: Niels Davidse