Daniel Rothery A2 Media: Genre Research

Electropop is a style of music characterised by the use of electronically created sounds, with a synthesizer as the primary instrument.

Synthesizer:
The synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that generates electric signals wich can be converted to sound through loudspeakers or headphones. Synthesizers can generate new timbres and imitate other instruments, they can be controlled by by a variety of different devices.

In 1959-1960 Harold Bode developed a modular synthesiser and sound processor, and in 1961 developed a paper exploring the concept of self-contained portable modular synthesizer. His ideas were adopted by Donald Buchla and Robert Moog.

ELECTROPOP
Electropop first became prominent in the 1980's. It had prefigured in the 60's and 70's by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, dico and particularly the 'Krautrock' of bands like Kraftwerk. The genre arose in Japan and the UK in the post-punk era as part of the new wave movement of the late 70's to the mid 80's.
The early pioneers included the Japanese group Yellow Orchestra and the British bands Ultravox and The Human League.
In the late 80's the Pet Shop Boys adopted a sound that was very successful in the US Dance Charts, but by the end of the decade the genre had largely been abandoned,
By the end of the 00's new music and sounds had been created in the electropop genre by artistes such as Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, Owl City and La Roux.

Yellow Orchestra - Fire Cracker (1980)

Pet Shop Boys - It's a Sin
La Roux - Bulletproof

Owl City - Fireflies

TOP 10 HOT DANCE/ELECTRONIC SONGS (15th October 2014)