{
  "slug": "electro",
  "name": "Electro",
  "aliases": [
    "electro-funk",
    "electro funk",
    "breakdance music",
    "808 music"
  ],
  "description": "Funk played by a Roland TR-808 instead of a band, invented in New York in 1982 when Kraftwerk records reached Bronx block parties. Robotic, hard-panned and built for cardboard on pavement.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "New York City",
    "year": 1982
  },
  "lineage": [
    {
      "genre": "funk",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/funk/",
      "inherited": "The parts, reassigned. Electro keeps funk's syncopation and its emphasis on the bass figure, then hands every one of those parts to a machine that cannot get tired and will not swing unless told to."
    },
    {
      "genre": "krautrock",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/krautrock/",
      "inherited": "The source material, taken literally. Planet Rock is Trans-Europe Express played over Numbers, which is less an influence than an act of appropriation — and it is the moment European machine music becomes Black American dance music."
    }
  ],
  "bpm": {
    "min": 110,
    "max": 130
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-29",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/electro/",
  "trackCount": 9,
  "curatedBy": [],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "afrika-bambaataa-and-the-soulsonic-force--planet-rock",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/afrika-bambaataa-and-the-soulsonic-force--planet-rock/",
      "title": "Planet Rock",
      "artist": "Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/afrika-bambaataa-and-the-soulsonic-force/",
      "year": 1982,
      "label": "Tommy Boy",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Two Kraftwerk records, an 808 and a Bronx sound system. The single most generative record in this entire corpus: techno, electro, Miami bass and most of what followed all point back at it.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Afrika%20Bambaataa%20%26%20The%20Soulsonic%20Force%20Planet%20Rock",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=SqS8X-5aIns",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "kraftwerk--numbers",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/kraftwerk--numbers/",
      "title": "Numbers",
      "artist": "Kraftwerk",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/kraftwerk/",
      "year": 1981,
      "label": "Kling Klang",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Düsseldorf makes a rhythm track with no melody and no warmth, and American teenagers hear the funkiest thing on the radio. Nobody involved predicted this and everybody benefited.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Kraftwerk%20Numbers",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=jSsj3fTHtps",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "grandmaster-flash-and-the-furious-five--the-message",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/grandmaster-flash-and-the-furious-five--the-message/",
      "title": "The Message",
      "artist": "Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/grandmaster-flash-and-the-furious-five/",
      "year": 1982,
      "label": "Sugar Hill",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Not electro exactly, but made on the same machines in the same year and it changed what a rap record was permitted to be about. The synth bassline is the sound of the format arriving.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Grandmaster%20Flash%20%26%20The%20Furious%20Five%20The%20Message",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=jwo8-IUzOuc",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "hashim--al-naafiysh-the-soul",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/hashim--al-naafiysh-the-soul/",
      "title": "Al-Naafiysh (The Soul)",
      "artist": "Hashim",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/hashim/",
      "year": 1983,
      "label": "Cutting",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Four sounds, no vocal, and an unshakeable riff. The most efficient record on this list, and the one every subsequent electro producer has quietly measured themselves against.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Hashim%20Al-Naafiysh%20(The%20Soul)",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=i46sF1PcqL8",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "planet-patrol--play-at-your-own-risk",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/planet-patrol--play-at-your-own-risk/",
      "title": "Play at Your Own Risk",
      "artist": "Planet Patrol",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/planet-patrol/",
      "year": 1982,
      "label": "Tommy Boy",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Vocoded doo-wop harmony over Arthur Baker's drum programming. The human and the machine in open negotiation, which is the genre's central subject whether it admits it or not.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Planet%20Patrol%20Play%20at%20Your%20Own%20Risk",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=w13OJJkWyo0",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "trackKey": "herbie-hancock--rockit",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/herbie-hancock--rockit/",
      "title": "Rockit",
      "artist": "Herbie Hancock",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/herbie-hancock/",
      "year": 1983,
      "label": "Columbia",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A jazz pianist wins a Grammy for a record whose lead instrument is Grand Mixer DXT's hands on a turntable. Scratching entered the mainstream through this door.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "twice-over",
          "name": "Twice Over",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/twice-over/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Herbie%20Hancock%20Rockit",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=GHhD4PD75zY",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "trackKey": "the-egyptian-lover--egypt-egypt",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/the-egyptian-lover--egypt-egypt/",
      "title": "Egypt, Egypt",
      "artist": "The Egyptian Lover",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-egyptian-lover/",
      "year": 1984,
      "label": "Egyptian Empire",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Los Angeles takes the template and makes it sleazier and more spacious. The 808 handclap on this record is the one every West Coast producer spent the next decade chasing.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/The%20Egyptian%20Lover%20Egypt%2C%20Egypt",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3vZTk7603U",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 8,
      "trackKey": "newcleus--jam-on-it",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/newcleus--jam-on-it/",
      "title": "Jam On It",
      "artist": "Newcleus",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/newcleus/",
      "year": 1984,
      "label": "Sunnyview",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Sped-up chipmunk vocals and a bassline of total seriousness. Ridiculous and indestructible, and still the record that clears the most reluctant floor.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Newcleus%20Jam%20On%20It",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1Qdcl4ja1Y",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 9,
      "trackKey": "strafe--set-it-off",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/strafe--set-it-off/",
      "title": "Set It Off",
      "artist": "Strafe",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/strafe/",
      "year": 1984,
      "label": "Jus Born",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The bridge to Chicago: a New York electro record that Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles played as though it were house, because functionally it already was.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-chicago-in-the-room",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — In the Room",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-chicago-in-the-room/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Strafe%20Set%20It%20Off",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=z8wokfoyHf4",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}