Electronic Rock

Rock songcraft built on synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers sitting equal to guitars. Programmed beats lock under live drums, synth pads and arpeggios trade lines with riffs, and verse-chorus structure survives the circuitry. Textures lean cinematic and widescreen rather than club-functional, the electronics serving the song's emotional swell.

Grew from late-1970s synth experiments as rock bands absorbed the studio as instrument. Depeche Mode hardened synth-pop into rock; by the 1990s Garbage, Filter and U2's Achtung-era experiments mainstreamed programmed beats under guitars. Radiohead's Kid A and 2000s acts pushed the hybrid into art-rock, cementing electronics as a core rock-band tool rather than novelty.