[ Music Genres - Dissecting Electropunk ]

Our chosen song - Cubicle - is very clearly an amalgamation of electronic sounds and punk rock.

Electropunk is a very wide-ranging term, an umbrella term, to define any music type that combines both the punk/rock genres and electronica/electronic music into one. It is not such a well known genre, and cannot really be classed as mainstream music, although it was popular in its time.

Punk rock today has been seen to progress into alternative rock, and traits such as individualism and DIY attitudes, youthful rebellion, anti-authoritarian ideologies and distinct clothing styles are still present. Bands such as Nirvana show this typically:

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit



Load up on guns
bring your friends
It's fun to lose and to pretend
She's over bored and self assured
Oh no, I know a dirty word

Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello

With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
A mulatto, an albino
A mosquito, my libido
Yea!

Hey!
Yea!

I'm worse at what I do best
And for this gift I feel blessed
Our little group has always been
And always will until the end

Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello

With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
A mulatto, an albino
A mosquito, my Libido
Yea!

Hey!
Yea!

And I forget just why I taste
Oh yeah, I guess it makes me smile
I found it hard, it was to find
Oh well, whatever, nevermind

Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello

With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
A mulatto, an albino
A mosquito, my libido
A denial, a denial
A denial, a denial
A denial, a denial
A denial, a denial
A denial!

This video is all performance, but in the context of a narrative. The band is playing in front of a typical american high-school audience, who are won round by their energetic music and begin to dance and mosh by the end. This clearly shows the rebellious nature of the genre, since by the end, they are dancing violently and breaking Kurt Cobains guitar. Even the name of the song describes this kind of behaviour - Smells Like Teen Spirit. The song is rumoured to be about just that - it mocks the filial attitude towards things like guns, swearing and blames their attack on the system down to "a denial". Essentially, it is telling the young to grow up and get a grip. The video is more amplification than anything else, but this doesnt mean to say that there arent elements of illustration ("entertain us", and the audience who they are playing to). The contrast is very high, and the main emphasis is on young males; females aren't really represented in this video at all. The youths are represented as rebellious and angry, but also have the capacity to be very bored and uninterested in things that aren't to their liking.

Another band who display properties of this are Hoobastank:

Hoobastank - Same Direction



Whenever I step outside, somebody claims to see the light,
It seems to me that all of us have lost our patience.
'Cause everyone thinks they're right, and nobody thinks that there just might
be more than one road to our final destination.

But I'm not ever going to know if I'm right or wrong
'cause we're all going in the same direction.
And I'm not sure which way to go
because all along we've been going in the same direction.

I'm tired of playing games, of looking for someone else to blame,
for all the holes in answers that are clearly showing,
for something to fill the space, was all the time I spent a waste?
'Cause so many choices point the same way I was going.

So why does there only have to be one correct philosophy?
I don't want to go and follow you just to end up like one of them
and why are you alwyas telling me what you want me to believe?
I'd like to think that I can go my own way and meet you in the end.

But I'm never going to know...

Again, this video clearly shows the things I have said before - it contains running away from police, it contains conspiracy and betrayal, and features both a narrative and performance but interlinked. This video contains more amplification, but even to the point where it might be contradictory. Again, only men are represented in this video, suggesting that this genre does not focus on females in their music videos at all, but focuses on only the males as they are the performers and the main target audience.

Looking at the electronic side now, bands such as Le Tigre are very central to this genre, and this genre often produces more kooky videos:

Le Tigre - Deceptacon



Who took the bomp?

Every day and night
Every day and night
I can see your disco disco dick is sucking my heart out of my mind
I'm outta time
I'm outta f*****n' time
I'm a gasoline gut with a vaseline mind, but
Wanna disco?
Wanna see me disco?
Let me hear you depoliticise my rhyme.
One! Two! Three! Four!
You got what you been asking for.
You're so policy free and you're fantasy wheels and everything you think
and everything you feel is alright, alright, alright, alright, alright.

I take you home, now watch me get you hot
You're just a parrot and you're screaming and you're shouting
More crackers please, more crackers please
You want what you want but you don't wanna be on your knees
Who does your... who does your hair?

Who took the bomp from the bompalompalomp?
Who took the ram from the ramalamadingdong?
Who took the bomp from the bompalompalomp?
Who took the ram from the ramalamadingdong?

How are you?
Fine, thank you.
How are you?
Fine, thank you.

You bought a new van the first year of your band.
You're cool and I hardly wanna say "not" because I'm so bored
that I'll be entertained even by a stupid, fucking linoleum floor, linoleum floor
Your lyrics are dumb like a linoleum floor
I'll walk on it
I'll walk all over you
Walk on it, walk on it, walk on, One, Two!

Who? Who? Who? Who?

Who took the bomp from the bompalompalomp?
Who took the ram from the ramalamadingdong?
Who took the bomp from the bompalompalomp?
Who took the ram from the ramalamadingdong?

See you later
See you later
See you later
See you later

This song is particularly strange, and the video too. The video is completely contradictory, with a tiny bit of illustration at times - "see you later". The song and video are more kooky and quirky - which adds a nice fun feeling to the song.

It is natural to assume that the combination of these genres will lead to electropunk.