The birth of electro

There is disagreement in the music world about exactly when the birth of electronic music occurred. It might have begun with the dawn of disco in the 1970s, providing the perfect backdrop to the Bee Gees’ high-pitched crooning and high-visibility suits. Or it might have been in the 1980s, when The Human League burst onto the music scene, the first band to famously deploy the use of synthesisers over guitars and drum kits, and changed our perception of music forever. What there is little disagreement about, however, is the fact that there are infinite sub-genres of the electronic musical culture.

From disco to discotheques

There was disco, in the 1970s, with it’s wide-collared suits and platform shoes, a genre declared dead every decade, which keeps on coming back, last re-incarnated in the band Steps, in the 1990s. The New Romantics in the 1980s were the real game changers, bursting onto the scene as the Beatles faded from public conciousness and men with guitars and pudding basin haircuts gave way to men with feathered hair and eyeliner, standing behind keyboards and synthesisers. The New Romantics may not be coming back, but electronic music has bounced back, and so have men in make-up – enter the Emos. My Chemical Romance became one of the biggest bands in the world with their unique mix of black eyeshadow, black hair and angry electronic music.