Electronica, commonly called techno, is more or less a form of electronic/computer based dance music that is popular with younger crowds. It comes in many forms including trance, acid jazz, jungle, trip-hop, drum and bass, house, and countless other sub genres. It is more or less an evolution of 70s disco, but can arguably be traced all the way to the early 1900s. Its not known who exactly started electronica, but several DJs and artists from Detriot, Germany, France, and the UK have helped evolve the music form since the late 60s and early 70s when it first appeared to larger amounts of listeners.

A mostly media-made term for encompassing all forms of electronic music, as individual forms of electronic music aren't popular enough for record stores to devote full sections to. Generally, it will be found next to an equally small "dance" section that carries the more danceable stuff, while electronica section carries more listening music.

In the UK and europe the word electronica usually refers to a specific sub genre of electronic music
(Like the word techno which is often mistaken to mean all electronic music). Electronica is normally considered more intelligent than dance music. The music is about using technology to create unusual sounds, melodies and heavily processed drums (often in patterns where the same bar is never repeated requiring painstaking programming) These elements are crafted into an intricate and some times emotive piece of music. The results are usually closer ambient or experimental music than they are to dance music.

electronica is often elitist and the scene can come with some pretence. but there are some great electronica tracks out there.

A word the media came up with to refer to all forms of Electronic Music. Electronica is not a music genre. For more information, see Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music. Google it.

A genre of music which is mainly created by the use of computer systems and other electronic devices. Includes many differnt styles such as Techno, Trance, Breakbeats, NRG, Melodic, etc.

contrary to the ignorant public that only likes the godawful top 40 and rap-pop stuff, electronica is not synonamous with electronic music. there are multiple genres of electronic music (like there are genres of rock) such as trance, house, techno, jungle, hardcore etc. electronica is a genre of electronic music that encompasses "listenable" subgenres like downtempo and IDM.

Electronica does not exist. Not as a genre or a description. It was coined by the North American music press to refer to the second wave of electronic music's explosion in the late 90s, and exists purely as a marketing buzzword, not any actual quantifiable branch of music (the first wave of electronic music, incidentally, they called 'techno', and, having driven the word into the ground beyond all sense of meaning, they couldn't keep using it if they wished to re-market the music). Daft Punk, Fatboy Slim, Prodigy's 'Fat of the Land', Chemical Brothers and other big-time stars of that period were all called "electronica" at one point or another, but the person who really popularized it in the public consciousness was Madonna and her shallow, William Orbit-produced piss-poor attempt at appropriating trance music as something she invented (Ray of Light). She used that word all the damn time in interviews. God I hate her. So yeah: There is no such thing as electronica. -Ishkur