The electro swing genre has been within my personal knowledge for quite a few years and every now and then I get into a period of non-stop electro swing playlists and pretending I know how to swing dance (FYI, there are still places that teach you). Recently, I’ve fallen into another one of these periods and it’s come to my attention that quite a few people don’t know what electro swing is.
Which isn’t a surprise because when you look up electro swing not many articles pop up, but it also is a surprise because the genre itself has an impressive amount of fantastic tracks and artists. So, I thought I’d try to add another article into the search feeds while bringing some awareness to this unique and upbeat genre of music.
Electro swing is electronic music and swing music combined, and if you start listening to it, you’ll notice that some tracks have more swing than electronic, and vice versa. Yet, the base component of this music is mimicking jazz or swing music and adding a modern twist. Caravan Palace’s, “Lone Digger” is a great example of this, especially with the sultry, sweet voice of Zoé Colotis, the lead vocalist, whose voice rings similar to Big Band Era singers.
According to an article by Brittany Jezouit on Medium, which delves deeper into this genre, electro swing “originated in the 1990s, building from the work of hip-hop artists who sampled vintage swing music.” Unfortunately, I am unsure where it’s hip-hop origins have gone, but the fact that it held a presence, in the beginning, is interesting, but not at all surprising, to say the least.
As far as artists go, Caravan Palace and Parov Stelar seem to hold the crown between themselves, while other artists like Tape Five, Swing Republic, Caro Emerald, and The Electric Swing Circus are never far behind. Of course, an artist does not need to declare themselves underneath the genre in order to produce electro swing music or similar. We can see this in songs like “Bang Bang” from Will.I.Am, who is mainly pop and hip-hop, and “Little Swing” from Aronchupa, who falls under genres like dance and electro house. These songs are also excellent examples of flexibility of music mentioned above. Both songs lean heavily on electronic and yet, it’s clear that they hold elements of swing and are inspired by it, instead of there being an even balance.
“Bang Bang,” which came in at 21 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic charts the year it was released, also shows that although it doesn’t seem to have a huge following, electro swing does have the ability to break through into mainstream popularity. No matter what your favorite genre of music is, it’s not hard to accept the one-of-a-kind, upbeat and intoxicating vibe that electro swing gives off. It’s a type of music that has grown into its own and isn’t easily forgotten. There’s never a wrong time to start or stop listening to electro swing, and that seems to give it immunity from being “overplayed” and a very long shelf life. Who knows, the 20s of this century are right around the corner, we might just get to see a (electro) swing revival.
In the meantime, here’s a few songs to hold you over:
