Electronic Music Gathering Much Wider Audience

Electronic music slowly has been building its audience since the blips and beeps of the band Kraftwerk created strangely engrossing pop.

In recent years, buoyed by the popularity of all-night raves, the music has expanded to various subcategories, from the atmospheric, chill-out instrumentals of the new genre ambient to the powerful drive of digital hard-core.

But it was a single statement from MTV officials last fall that the channel would be increasing electronic sounds - that led the music industry headlong into thinking of electronic music as a way out of its sales malaise.

Hype followed quickly; scores of publications cited electronica as the next big thing on the basis of just two singles whose videos were in heavy rotation - both from albums that have yet to be released.

Both clips have a look of familiarity to them, even as they portend a whole new wave. “Setting Sun” by the Chemical Brothers uses the vocals of Noel Gallagher of Oasis. Prodigy, a group dropped by Elektra two years ago, revived its commercial prospects when it hired an outrageous-looking guy named Keith Flint (red or green hair in puffy angel wings, heavy eye makeup and nose rings) to put a face to its aggressive sound.

Prodigy’s “Firestarter” started a fire of electro excitement (although some found the front man scarcely more innovative than a pudgy and pierced Adam Ant, whose New Romantic movement earlier had proved more hype than happening).

Still, Madonna, who earlier had professed being left cold by techno, won a bidding war for Prodigy for her label Maverick, at a reported $5 million. The group’s album is due out May 20. The Chemical Brothers’ album “Dig Your Own Hole” won’t be out until April 8 on the Astralwerks/Caroline label, but it already has earned a four-star lead review in Rolling Stone.

In the meantime, established rockers are using the clatter of electronic sound - dubbed everything from jungle to drum-and-bass - to enhance new releases. It’s all over David Bowie’s “The Earthling” album; Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins go techno on the “Lost Highway” soundtrack; even a rocker as august as Eric Clapton earlier this month collaborated on an album of instrumental electronic music under the pseudonym X-sample.

“People just want something new,” says Josh Wink, a Philadelphia DJ, founder of Ovum Records and artist for Columbia. Wink’s comments came during a panel discussion at the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas, where more than 5,000 registrants took in music from about 700 acts earlier this month. And in a town with a tradition in roots music, lots of interest was shown to electronica, in theory and practice.

Astralwerks founder Brian Long is probably like a lot of independent-label heads in complaining about MTV’s tight play list. Now, he says, “MTV has actually led the charge here. And the Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers were the lights leading the charge.”

The movement for Long, who since has been hired as a talent scout for Geffen Records, “gives me a chance to expose people to the fact that there’s life beyond Bush.”

At the same time, electronic music is not like rock has been.

“It’s not about albums,” says Raymond Roker, who has chronicled the rise of electronica in his magazine Urb. “It’s a movement that’s built itself on singles; it built itself on clubs.”

Fitting electronica into pop molds is a mistake, says Long. “It’s more analogous to free jazz than pop.”

Likewise, the videos for electronic music, dripping with computer graphics, are different from rock videos in that the artists frequently are not pictured.

The videos pop up on “Amp,” an MTV show that is broadcast late on weekends and may move to prime time next month.

“This show has been really hard to do,” says Amy Finnerty who programs “Amp.” It’s such a new field - as it relates to music videos - there aren’t enough clips to choose from. “I haven’t turned down one thing yet,” she says. “And I’m looking for more.”

What took so long for electronic music to be noticed by the mainstream?

“Electronic music is a scene that’s 20 years old,” says Moby, the artist and remixer. It’s been systematically ignored by mainstream media, he says, possibly because its roots are in gay, Hispanic or black cultures. The term techno itself was applied to electronic dance music developed in Detroit in the early ‘80s and nurtured at all-night raves in England at the end of that decade.

Moby has been disillusioned with the dance scene for a few years now, which led him to rediscover ‘80s metal. He dropped the most bizarre nugget of information that day during the panel talk: He’s in preliminary talks with Axl Rose about producing the next Guns N’ Roses album.

It all sounds like 20 years ago, when rock bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Kinks began recording disco songs to stay on the charts. (It keeps happening: the Stones are said to be working with the Dust Brothers on their new album). But arguments about the musical direction of Guns N’ Roses already have prompted lead guitarist Slash to quit.

Rose is “writing with loops and experimenting with electronics,” Moby says. “Strangely enough, they’re doing it better than everybody.”

Yet, he says, a dilution of electronic music through use by bigname rock bands need not stop the music from thriving at the club level. Indeed, Moby’s latest record, “Animal Rights,” is getting airplay for its turn to rock, even as he continues to release underground dance records under names such as Voodoo Child.

The acceptance of electronic music depends in part on live performance. In the past, techno artists were sometimes indistinguishable from sound technicians. As music blasted at gigs, audiences were left to wonder: Was this background music playing as the roadies set up, or was this the actual show?