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Electro DJ Sets

Explore the best Electro performances with full tracklists

Electronic & retro

What is Electro?

Drum-machine-led electronic music descended from early-80s NYC and Detroit.

Electro is a pre-house, pre-techno electronic genre that emerged in the early 1980s, fusing the syncopated drum-machine programming of Kraftwerk with the funk and hip-hop of New York's early-1980s scene. Afrika Bambaataa's 1982 "Planet Rock" is the genre's foundational text. Electro tracks are typically built around the Roland TR-808 with broken-beat (not four-on-the-floor) drum patterns, vocoded vocals, and bright synth leads. Tempos run 110–130 BPM. The genre faded commercially by the late 1980s as house and techno took over, but persisted through Drexciya and Underground Resistance in Detroit. A 2000s revival ("electroclash" via DJ Hell, Tiga, and Felix Da Housecat) brought the form back; today's electro lives through CPU Records, Helena Hauff, and DJ Stingray.

Tempo
110–130 BPM
Origin
New York City / Detroit, early 1980s

Signature Electro artists

Notable Electro record labels

  • CPU Records
  • Clone Records
  • International Deejay Gigolo

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