Electropop - Definition and Overview

Electropop is a genre of synthesizer pop music which flourished during the early 1980s, although the first recordings were made in the late 1970s. Numerous bands have carried on the electropop tradition into the 1990s and 2000s. Electropop is often characterised by a cold, robotic, electronic sound, which is largely due to the limitations of the analog synthesizers used to make the music.

Electropop songs are pop songs at heart, with simple, catchy hooks and dance beats. But it differs from the later genres of electronic music it helped to inspire — techno, dub, house, Electroclash, etc. — in that strong songwriting is emphasized over simple danceability. Electropop is closely intertwined with the New Romantic movement of the early 80s, and the Synthpop and Electroclash movements of the 1990s and beyond.

Notable electropop musicians

1970s

• Human League (continued recording into 1980s, 1990s, 2000s)
• Japan (continued recording into 1980s)
• Kraftwerk (continued recording into 1980s, gap during 1990s, reappeared in 2000s)
• Gary Numan (continued recording into 1980s)
• Yellow Magic Orchestra
• New Musik (1979-1982)

1980s

• A Flock of Seagulls
• Blancmange
• Depeche Mode (continued recording into 1990s, 2000s)
• Thomas Dolby
• Duran Duran (continued recording into 1990s, 2000s)
• Erasure (continued recording into 1990s, 2000s)
• Eurythmics (continued recording into 1990s)
• John Foxx (continued recording into 1990s, 2000s)
• Heaven 17 (continued recording into 1990s)
• Howard Jones (continued recording into 1990s)
• Men Without Hats
• Modern Talking (continued recording into 1990s, 2000s)
• Bill Nelson
• New Order (continued recording into 1990s, 2000s)
• Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
• Pet Shop Boys (continued recording into 1990s, 2000s)
• Rational Youth (continued recording into 1990s)
• Soft Cell
• Tears for Fears
• Thompson Twins
• Ultravox
• Yello (continued recording into 1990s, 2000s)
• Yazoo (Yaz in the US)

1990s

• Joy Electric (continued recording into 2000s)

2000s

• Ganymede
• Gary Flanagan
• I SATELLITE
• Sista Mannen På Jorden
• Soviet
• This Fish Needs A Bike