It’s time for another edition of Now That’s What I Call Boogie!, PTB’s weekly music playlist. This week: electronic music.

Back in the day, electronic music was simply defined as music made with electronic instruments (think electric guitar or Hammond organ). The tricky part about the theme today is that “electronic” music is now really just a broad classification encompassing many distinct sub-genres. There’s synth pop, dance, ambient, electropop, New Wave, and numerous others.

Of course, the separations between genres today are often ambiguous. For instance, I certainly couldn’t tell you the difference between psych folk and freak folk, labels applied to bands as varied as Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, The Mountain Goats, and Bon Iver.

However, in the case of electronic music, I think the differences in genres are far more noticeable. Take a listen to some of the examples below and see what you think.

SYNTH POP

Kill for Love – Chromatics – Kill for Love (Italians Do It Better)

NEW WAVE

L.E.S. Artistes – Santigold – Santogold (Downtown)

DANCE

Lights & Music – Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours (Modular)

ELECTROPOP

Boy From School – Hot Chip – The Warning (EMI)

TRIP HOP

Strict Machine – Goldfrapp – Black Cherry (Mute)

DANCE-PUNK

All My Friends – LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (DFA/Capitol)

EXPERIMENTAL

Celestica – Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles II (Fiction)

DREAM POP/AMBIENT

We Own the Sky – M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (Naïve)

 

Gotta love it. That’s it for this week of NTWICB!, but be sure to check out next week’s edition. As always, feel free to request a song or theme for a future edition by going to our Contact page or tweeting @PTB9.