Electronic Rock Music Guide: 5 Influential Electronic Rock Artists

Electronic rock music is a form of popular music that combines traditional rock instruments like guitar, bass, drums, and lead vocals with electronic instruments like synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines. Also known as electro rock, it traces its roots to the late 1960s but has evolved over many decades to encompass types of psychedelic rock, industrial rock, new wave, heavy metal, synthpop, electronica, and EDM.

The electronic rock movement has included chart-topping bands like Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Linkin Park, Moby, Panic! At the Disco, and Radiohead. Other electronic rock bands—while less known to mainstream audiences—have thrived in the alternative rock scene. Such groups include LCD Soundsystem, Ratatat, Innerpartysystem, Starset, and Celldweller.

Like nearly all electronic music genres, electronic rock music traces its roots to the late 1960s when electronic instruments entered the marketplace.

• The 1960s: German artists like Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk (leaders of the krautrock movement) showcased the prominent role that synthesizers could play in rock and pop music. American psychedelic rock groups like Silver Apples and Beaver & Krause used early analog synths to create atmospheric soundscapes.
• The 1970s: By the late 1970s, a slew of electronic music groups captured the attention of pop audiences, including Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), Gary Numan, and A Flock of Seagulls.
• The 1980s: In the 1980s, electronic drum machines, samplers, and synthesizers helped shape the sound of mainstream music from hip-hop to new wave to electropop. In some cases, artists would end up abandoning rock instruments altogether, particularly in dance styles like Detroit techno, Chicago house, and breakbeat.
• The 1990s and beyond: Following the eighties, some electronic rock musicians showed dual commitment to both electronic and traditional instrumentation. Such groups, ranging from nineties stars Nine Inch Nails and Filter to twenty-first-century stars like Imagine Dragons, Pendulum, and Panic! At the Disco have wooed both electronic music and rock music artists by embracing both sides of electro rock.

Music critics have grouped a number of subgenres around the hub of electronic rock. These subgenres include:

• New rave: New rave is a largely British music scene that combines the pulsing beats and drug culture of electronic music raves with the rock music that came from the UK's Madchester scene in the late 1980s.
• Industrial rock: Industrial rock fuses the saturated electric guitars of punk rock and heavy metal with the pulsing drum machines of club music. Nine Inch Nails and Ministry remain titans of industrial rock.
• Synthpop: Many of the mainstream pop acts of the 1980s—including Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, Eurhythmics, the Thompson Twins, and New Order—are remembered today as synthpop bands. These groups were inspired by both the hook-filled pop of the late 1960s and the technology options of the 1980s.
• Electroclash: Electroclash music shares many traits with synthpop, but it leads with a techno and electronic perspective rather than a pop-rock perspective. Fischerspooner, I-F, and Miss Kittin & The Hacker helped shape the sound of electroclash in the early 2000s. Today's electroclash shares traits with dubstep, EDM, and breakbeat hardcore.
• Post-rock: Post-rock is an indie rock subgenre that eschews blues-based melodies and common beats for a sound more inspired by jazz, electronic music, and the avant-garde. Many post-rock outfits play purely instrumental music with no lead vocalist. Chicago groups like Tortoise and Sam Prekop have helped lead the movement, but prominent post-rockers operate out of cities like New York, Los Angeles, Louisville, and Austin.

The electronic rock scene produced many artistic and commercial success stories.

1. 1. Kraftwerk: German krautrock pioneers snapped up electronic synthesizers as they were coming to market and almost immediately began making compelling electronic music. Early Kraftwerk records feature instruments like organ, guitar, bass guitar, drums, and percussion, but later offerings leaned heavily toward synths.
2. 2. New Order: Synthpop and new wave titans New Order got their start when a prior band, Joy Division, disbanded following singer Ian Curtis's death. New Order was led by a guitarist, Bernard Butler, but their defining sound came from the keyboards of Gillian Gilbert and Peter Hook.
3. 3. Nine Inch Nails: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Nine Inch Nails enticed hard rock and metal fans with a heavy sound that featured big guitars but also synths and drum machines. The formula worked, and Nine Inch Nails became one of the big crossover stars of the 1990s.
4. 4. MGMT: Founded by Wesleyan University students Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, MGMT draws inspiration from disco, indie rock, and early eighties synthpop. Hits like "Kids" and "Electric Feel" propelled them past the indie radio scene and onto prominent radio stations and playlists.
5. 5. Panic! At the Disco: Formed in Las Vegas, Panic! At the Disco sold millions of records in the early 2000s, and they did so by embracing emo pop, psychedelic rock, and dance-punk grooves—often all in the same song. Records Death of a Bachelor and Pray for the Wicked have each topped the American Billboard charts, making the group one of electro rock’s biggest success stories.

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