Stylistic origins EDMhouseswingjazzhip hop Cultural origins Early 1990s, United States and Europe | ||
Electro swing combines the influence of vintage or modern swing and jazz mixed with house, hip hop and EDM. Successful examples of the genre create a modern and dance-floor focused sound that is more readily accessible to the modern ear but that also retains the feeling of live brass and the energetic excitement of the early swing recordings.
Contents
Origins
The mid-1990s saw a succession of hip-hop influenced records that sampled vintage swing. Many of these were one-off novelties and would not at the time have been described as electro swing. "Lucas with the Lid Off" (1994) by Lucas (a.k.a Lucas Secon) is an early example which had chart success and subsequently featured on UK TV advertising (Weetabix). Others such as "Doop" by Doop (1994) was a number one hit in the UK, while Jimmy Luxury coined the term swing-hop with the song "Hi-Ball Swing" in (1999). Songs like Mr. Scruff's "Get a Move On" (1999), Jurassic 5's "Swing Set" (2000), Gry and F.M. Einheit's "Princess Crocodile" (2000), and The Real Tuesday Weld's "Bathtime in Clerkenwell" (2003) all built on this sound, each adding new elements. In the 1990s, the artists Cajmere produced multiple house hits that were greatly influenced by swing such as "U Got Me Up". Many 'lounge' and 'nu-jazz' tracks also borrowed swing music elements. This was developed and built on by artists like G-Swing, Waldeck, and Caravan Palace.
Reception
The British 'White Mink: Black Cotton' series was described by Mixmag as "Electro Swing's first landmark moment".
According to Magnetic magazine in April 2016, France, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland are some of the countries where electro swing has garnered some popularity, it has not seen popularity in the United States.
On December 9, 2015, Vice Media's electronic music channel Thump published an article by Angus Harrison with its title calling electro swing the "Worst Genre of Music in the World, Ever." A major criticism in the article included how electro swing nightclubs use the genre's combination of sounds popular in older eras with today's contemporary dance elements as a selling point, even though all other sample-based electronic styles have done the same thing. Harrison labeled electro swing as "the sonic equivalent of "ye olde fashioned barber" in East London," also strongly disliking its image consisting of vintage parts of culture from the 1930s and 1940s awkwardly put together and overly used with modern-day trends. He also described the genre as sounding like "a pulled pork sandwich shoved down a saxophone."
After publication of that article and negative reaction by its fans, Harrison followed up with another article that spoke to the genre's fun and unassuming atmosphere, as well as the wide pool of genres it draws on which are often left alone by other popular styles of electronic music, but in the end concluded "electro swing is still a bit naff."