Genre: A Lesson for Newbies - Electronica part 1.

Everyone's heard the term "techno", perhaps even "trance", or "electro", "house", etc. But do you know which is which? Perhaps? Well, in case you wanted know the difference, here is a several part series of undetermined length to try to help explain this to you.

First off, techno is commonly used to describe the larger umbrella of sub-genre within the realm known as "electronic dance music" aka EDM. Electronic music was pioneered in the 70's by several groups, with Kraftwerk from Germany being one of the main groups to emerge from this early era of "electro".

Here is their classic, The Robots.

Yet, the term "techno" was not coined until a little while later in Detroit. A youth movement that centered around DJs and parties was vibrant in Detroit in the mid to late 80's. It was in this culture that classic "popping" soundtracks were born, such as Cybotron's "Clear".

Sound familar? Maybe? In any case, you should recognize the part that's been sampled in more recent mainstream songs, such as Missy Elliott's Lose Control

Something that people may not know about techno is that it was influenced by not just electro-pop groups such as Kraftwerk, but also had strong soul, disco, and funk influences. In fact, many in the predominant crowds that incubated techno were not Caucasian, which is somewhat of a reversal in at least the image of the demographic of techno today.

... To be continued.