Rise of electronica

Electronica is a broad term for music genres built mainly on electronic instruments such as synthesizers, drum machines and computers, intended for listening, dancing or both. It grew from the electronic dance scenes of the 1980s and 1990s, which produced techno, house, ambient and drum and bass. In the early 1990s record labels and the media in the United States adopted electronica as a catch-all label to market acts such as The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Orbital and Aphex Twin, and the wave peaked in the late 1990s, when The Prodigy's album The Fat of the Land reached number one in the American charts. Many musicians rejected the label. Warp Records and similar labels cultivated more experimental styles, sometimes called intelligent dance music.

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