Electro Music

Electro (electro-boogie, electro-funk) is a genre of electronic music directly influenced by the use of TR-808 and funk records. Records in the genre typically have electronic sounds and some vocals are delivered in a deadpan, mechanical manner, often through a vocoder or other electronic distortion.

Electro is an artistic musical form in the wide world of electronic music culture. With few exceptions, the definition of the electro sound is the use of drum machines as the rhythmic base of a track. Rhythm patterns tend to be electronic emulations of breakbeats, with syncopated kick drums, and usually a snare or clap accenting the downbeat. The definition however is somewhat ambiguous in nature due to the various use of the term.

Staccato, percussive rhythms dominate electro, with beats often provided by the Roland TR-808 drum machine. The TR-808, created in 1980, has an immediately recognizable sound, and remains popular in electro and other genres to the present day. Other electro instrumentation is generally all-electronic, favoring analog synthesis, funk-style bass lines, sequenced or arpeggiated synthetic riffs, and atonal sound effects all created with synthesizers. Heavy use of effects such as reverbs, delays, chorus or phasers along with synthetic ensemble strings or pad sounds emphasize the common sciene fiction or futuristic theme of the lyrics and/or music. Most electro is instrumental, but a common element is vocals processed through a vocoder. Additionally, speech synthesis may be used to create robotic or mechanical lyrical content. Some earlier electro features rapping, but that lyrical style has become less popular in the genre from the 1990s onward.

DJs

A disc jockey (also known as DJ or deejay) is a person who selects and plays recordd music for an audience. There are several types of disc jockeys. Radio DJs introduce and play music that is broadcast on AM, FM, shortwave, digital, or online radio stations. Club DJs select and play music in a bar, club, disco, at a rave, or even in a stadium. Hip-hop disc jockeys select and play music using multiple turntables, often to back up one or more MCs. In reggae, the disc jockey is a vocalist who raps, "toasts", or chats over pre-recorded rhythm tracks while the individual choosing and playing them is referred to as a selector. Mobile disc jockeys travel with portable sound systems and work at a variety of events.

Dj equipment may consist of:

• Sound recordings in a DJ's preferred medium (e.g., vinyl records, compact disks, computer media files, etc.);
• A combination of two devices (or sometimes one, if playback is digital) to play sound recordings, for alternating back and forth to create a continuous playback of music (e.g., record players, compact disc players, computer media players such as an MP3 player, etc.);
• A sound system for amplification or broadcasting of the recordings (e.g., portable audio system, PA system) or a radio broadcasting system;
• A DJ mixer, which is an electronic (usually 2- or 4-channel) mixer with a crossfader used to smoothly go from one song to another, using two or more playback devices;
• Headphones, used to listen to one recording while the other recording is being played to the audience; and
• Optionally, a microphone, so that the DJ can introduce songs and speak to the audience.

Other equipment could or can be added to the basic DJ setup (above), providing unique sound manipulations. Such devices include, but are not limited to:

• Electronic effect units (delay, reverb, octave, equalizer, chorus, etc). Some club DJs use a suboctave effect, which creates a very low bass sound and adds it to the mix.
• A computerised performance system, which can be used with timecode-encoded vinyl/CD content to manipulate digital files on the computer in real time.
• Multi-stylus headshells, which allow a DJ to play different grooves of the same record at the same time.
• Special Dj digital controller hardware can manipulate digital files on a PC or laptop;
• Samplers, sequencers, electronic musical keyboards (synthesizers), or drum machines.

Several techniques are used by DJs as a means to better mix and blend recorded music. These techniques primarily include the curing, equlaization, and audio mixing of two or more sound sources. The complexity and frequency of special techniques depends largely on the setting in which a DJ is working. Radio DJs are less likely to focus on music-mixing procedures than club DJs, who rely on a smooth transition between songs using a range of techniques.

Club DJ turntable techniques include beatmatching, phrasing, and slip-cueing to preserve energy on a dancefloor. Turntablismcutting, beat juggling, scratching, needle drops, phase shifting , back spinning, and more to perform the transitions and overdubs of samples in a more creative manner (although turntablism is often considered a use of the turntable as a musical instrument rather than a tool for blending recorded music). Professional DJs may use harmonic mixing to choose songs that are in compatible musical keys.