Electro (short for either electro-funk or electro-boogie) is a genre of electronic dance music which first became apparent in the early 1980’s. It was directly influenced by the use of TR-808 Drum Machines, Moog Keytar synthesizers and funk sampling. The basic conventions of an Electro song would include heavy electronic sounding deprived of vocals in general, although if present, they are delivered in a deadpan manner, often through an electronic distortion such as vocoding and the use of a drum machine. This would be one of the main differences between electro and genres which were around in the late 1970’s such as Disco and boogie.
A main influence of the growth of Electro was the creation of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) which was created in 1982. MIDI is an industry standard protocol enabling electronic musical instruments, such as synthesizers and drum machines, computers and other electronic equipment (MIDI controllers, sound cards, samplers) to communicate and synchronize with one-another. Unlike previous analog devices, MIDI does not transmit an audio signal, it instead sends an event messages about pitch and intensity, control signals for parameters such as volume, vibrato and panning, cues, and clock signals to set the tempo, allowing the different musical features to build upon one another, creating more complex music and also develops the integration of different devices.
The creation of MIDI led to sub genres such as Synth Pop to grow, by which synthesizers began to dominate the pop and rock movement of the early 80’s. The early sound of Synth Pop was often described as being "eerie, sterile, and vaguely menacing” where-as some bands, such as Duran Duran adopted dance beats to produce a catchier and warmer sound. They were soon followed into the charts by large number of bands who used synthesizers to create three minute pop singles. These included New Romantics who adopted an elaborate visual style that combined elements of glam rock, science fiction and romanticism such as Spandau Ballet, A Flock of Seagulls, Culture Club, Talk Talk and the Eurythmics, sometimes using synthesizers to replace all other instruments, until the style began to fall from popularity in the mid-1980s.