Electronica

Electronica is the umbrella term that gathered the leftfield electronic music of the 1990s: music made with synthesizers, samplers and drum machines for listening as much as for dancing. It covers the ambient techno of *Aphex Twin* and *Autechre*, the melodic synthesis of *Boards of Canada*, and the song-based fusions of *Björk*, *Portishead* and *Massive Attack*, alongside big beat and intelligent dance music. Coined by journalists and the music industry as British and European acts crossed into the American mainstream, the term names a moment when electronic production became the default language of progressive pop.