Electro house is a

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

electronic dance music Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...

and a subgenre of

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

characterized by heavy bass and a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

around 125–135 beats per minute. The term has been used to describe the music of many ''DJ Mag'' Top 100 DJs, including Benny Benassi,

Skrillex Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ, record producer, musician, singer. Raised in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he began his career in 2004 as the lead vocalist of the ...

, Steve Aoki, and Deadmau5.

Characteristics

Simon Reynolds described electro house, as a style attributed to artists like

Zedd Anton Zaslavski (; born 2 September 1989), known professionally as Zedd (), is a German record producer and DJ. His stage name, Zedd, was derived from ''zed'', the Z#Name and pronunciation, English pronunciation, barring American English, for ...

Erol Alkan Erol Alkan (born 30 May 1974) is an English DJ and Record producer, producer of Turkish Cypriot descent. He grew up in Archway in North London. Career DJ and club promoter In 1993, Erol Alkan started DJing in various Indie (music), indie n ...

and Bloody Beetroots. Electro-house is typified by its heavy bass. This is often in the form of buzzing

bassline Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, Dub music, dub and electronic music, electronic, traditional music, traditional, and classical music, for the low-pitched P ...

s, such as those created with sawtooth waves and

distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...

. It is also often in the form of large

bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter usually greater than its depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. The head ...

sounds in a four-on-the-floor pattern. The

of electro house is usually between 125 and 135 beats per minute. Electro house sometimes resembles tech house, but it can contain melodic elements and electro-influenced samples and synths. In contrast, Reynolds stated the genre had "little relationship with either

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

or electro".

History

Reynolds described the sound as being influenced by ''

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

'' by

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. They achieved popularity in the late 1990s as part of the French house movement, combining house music, funk, disco, tech ...

and further developed by

Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

and Digitalism. The sound was popularized in the United States by deadmau5 and noted the style's distinct style had a "dirty bass" with "grinding and whirring sawtooth b-lines". By 2011, the word "electro" had come to be seen as an

adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...

denoting "hard electronic dance music". Early songs that have been labelled retroactively as electro house include "Dark Invader" (1996) by Arrivers and "Raw S*it" (1997) by Basement Jaxx. Mr. Oizo's " Flat Beat" (1999) has also been considered an early example of the genre. Andy Kellman of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

described " Satisfaction" (2002) by Italian DJ Benny Benassi as being a precursor to electro-house. By the mid-2000s, electro house saw an increase in popularity. In November 2006, electro house tracks " Put Your Hands Up For Detroit" by Fedde Le Grand and the D. Ramirez remix of " Yeah Yeah" by Bodyrox and Luciana held the number one and number two spots, respectively, in the UK Top 40 singles charts. Since then, electro house producers such as Feed Me,

Knife Party Knife Party are an Australian electronic music duo consisting of Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen, two members of the drum and bass band Pendulum. The duo has worked with artists such as Swedish House Mafia, Steve Aoki, MistaJam, Foreign ...

, The M Machine, Porter Robinson, Yasutaka Nakata and Dada Life have emerged.

Subgenres

Big room

In the early 2010s, a type of electro house known as big room began to develop, particularly gaining popularity through EDM-oriented events and festivals. Big room songs resemble Dutch house, often incorporating drops, minimalist percussion, regular beats, sub-bass layered kicks, simple melodies and

synth A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

-driven breakdowns. The layout of a big room track is very similar to the layout of a typical electro house song.

Complextro

Complextro is typified by glitchy, intricate

s and textures created by sharply cutting between instruments in quick succession. The term, a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the words "complex" and "electro", was coined by Porter Robinson to describe the music he was making in 2010. He has cited video game sounds, or chiptunes, as an influence on his music along with 1980s analog synth music. Other producers of the genre include

Adventure Club Adventure Club is a Canadian electronic dance music duo composed of Christian Srigley and Leighton James, based out of Montreal, Quebec. The duo began as a hardcore punk, hardcore pop punk, pop-punk band before venturing into electronic dance m ...

Kill the Noise Jacob Stanczak, known professionally as Kill the Noise, is an American DJ and record producer from Rochester, New York. His collaboration with Skrillex, Fatman Scoop and Michael Angelakos, "Recess (song), Recess", entered the UK Singles Chart at ...

, Feed Me,

, The M Machine, Madeon, Mord Fustang,

Savant Savant syndrome ( , ) is a phenomenon where someone demonstrates exceptional aptitude in one domain, such as art or mathematics, despite significant social or intellectual impairment. Those with the condition generally have a neurodevel ...

Virtual Riot Christian Valentin Brunn (Born 20 July 1994), better known by his stage name Virtual Riot, is a German electronic music producer and DJ. He has released seventeen extended plays and two studio albums, most notably his 2016 extended play ''Chemis ...

, Deadmau5 and

Wolfgang Gartner Joseph Thomas Youngman (born March 17, 1982), better known by his stage name Wolfgang Gartner, is an Americans, American DJ and music producer. Much of his music prior to 2010 was released through his own record label, Kindergarten, but he signe ...

Dutch house

Dutch house, sometimes referred to as 'Dirty Dutch', is a style of electro house that originated in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and found prominence by 2009, mainly pioneered by Vato Gonzalez,

Afrojack Nick Leonardus van de Wall (; born 9 September 1987), known professionally as Afrojack (stylized in all caps), is a Dutch DJ, record producer and remixer. In 2007, he founded the record label Wall Recordings; his debut album ''Forget the World ( ...

and DJ Chuckie. It is primarily defined by complex rhythms made from Latin-influenced drum kits, a lower emphasis on basslines and squeaky, high-pitched lead synths. Influences on the subgenre include Detroit techno,

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

and other urban styles of music.

Fidget house

Fidget house, or fidget, is "defined by snatched vocal snippets, pitch-bent dirty basslines and rave-style synth stabs over glitchy 4/4 beats." It contains influences from Chicago house, Detroit techno, Baltimore club, Kuduro and

. Purveyors of the genre include The Bloody Beetroots, AC Slater, Danger, Hervé, Jack Beats and

Switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type o ...

. The term fidget house was coined by DJs/producers Jesse Rose and Switch, "as a joke, which has now gone a little too far."

Melbourne bounce

Melbourne bounce is a subgenre of electro house originating in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia, characterized by the progression from the uptempo, horn-infused Dutch house style, tech trance synths, electro house stabs, and scouse house-influenced bass lines, sometimes also including elements of

acid house Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synt ...

or psytrance. The genre is generally characterized by a standard 128 bpm, although in some cases up to 150 bpm. The term has been used to describe the 2012 to 2016 music of some DJ/producers, including Deorro,

Joel Fletcher Joel Fletcher Allan is an Australian record producer and DJ from Melbourne, who is best known for his 2013 remix of New Zealand rapper Savage's 2005 single " Swing", which charted in Australia and in New Zealand. In 2014, Fletcher was a support ...

, Will Sparks, Vinai, and TJR. It is composed of bouncy offbeat bass, whiny vocal cut/saw lead, raucous horns, 8-bar snare fills before the drop. It often features a repetitive beat structure with some amount of build-ups and mild drops throughout. It started as a cross between elements, and underground Melbourne house/ minimal style. Melbourne bounce gained popularity around mid to late 2012 and had a steady rise from 2013. In 2014, productions of

, Will Sparks, and Uberjak'd were playing both domestically and internationally, and influencing the EDM style of Steve Aoki, TJR, and more.

Further development

Jungle terror

Jungle terror is a music genre that developed in the 2010s. It is often described as a "chaotic" mix of house with grime and drum 'n' bass rhythms. There are also animal noises as well as vocal cuts and percussions. The Dutch DJ and music producer Wiwek is named as the founder of the genre, who made the style popular in the EDM scene between 2013 and 2016.

, Diplo and KURA are also associated with the genre.

Moombahton

Moombahton came as a mixture of slowed-down Dutch house and

reggaeton Reggaeton (, ) is a modern style of popular music, popular and electronic music that originated in Panamanian reggaetón, Panama during the late 1980s, and which rose to prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s through a plethora of Puert ...

. Its identifying characteristics include "a thick, spread-out bass line; some dramatic builds; and a two-step pulse, with quick drum fills", but it has "no real rules beyond working within a 108 bpm range." A

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of "moombah" and "reggaeton", moombahton was created by DJ Dave Nada when he slowed down the tempo of the

remix of the Silvio Ecomo & Chuckie song "Moombah" to please party-goers with tastes in reggaeton. Other producers of the genre include Dillon Francis, Diplo and Munchi. ''Moombahcore'' is a style of moombahton with elements of breakcore,

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...

, techstep and newstyle hardcore. Characteristics of the genre include chopped vocals,

-influenced bass sounds and extensive build-ups. Artists who have produced moombahcore include Delta Heavy, Dillon Francis, Feed Me,

, and Noisia.

Notes and references

{{Electronica 1990s in music 2000s in music 2010s in music House music genres