Electro Swing

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Electro Swing (also known as swing house) is a musical genre that combines the influence of vintage or modern Swing and Jazz mixed with House, Hip Hop, and Electronic Dance Music. Successful examples of the genre create a modern and dance-floor focused sound that is more readily accessible to the modern ear, but that also retains the energetic excitement of live brass and early swing recordings. Electro Swing groups typically include singers, musicians playing traditional jazz instruments (e.g. trumpet, trombone, clarinet, saxophone) and at least one DJ. Groups have been known to employ filtering and other audio effects to make their music sound "vintage" -- as though they were being played on old 78 rpm lacquer records or broadcast over 1930s radio.

Electro Swing is not limited to performances by bands; sampling and remix artists like Sim Gretina have appeared who recast contemporary music as Electro Swing.

While still something of a niche genre, Electro Swing shows signs of breaking out into the mainstream. "We No Speak Americano", a single by the Australian Electro Swing act Yolanda Be Cool was a major hit in Australia and Europe in 2010, and achieved considerable success in the United States. And the album Robot Face (stylized <|°_°|>), by the French band Caravan Palace placed #3 on the Billboard Magazine US "Top Dance/Electronic Albums" chart in 2015.

Notable Electro Swing Artists Include:
Examples of Electro Swing include:
Tropes used in Electro Swing include:
  • The Chanteuse/Glamorous Wartime Singer:Female vocalists on Electro Swing bands tend to style themselves along the line of these tropes.
  • Cover Version: It's a very common thing in Electro Swing to sample or cover old songs from the Jazz and early Big Band era. "Minnie the Moocher" in particular has been very Covered Up
  • Ear Worm: Given that the genre is the combination of two genres prone to create catchy tunes, this is expected.
  • Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly: Because combining Jazz and EDM seems to be ludicrous to people not acquainted with this genre.
  • Retraux: As noted above, acts frequently use audio filters to give their music a "vintage" sound.