had a dicussion with a friend of mine about electronica. is it an umbrella-name for all styles of electronic music or is it a stylr itself?

To me, electronica is a genre within electronic music. The use of electronic sounds is essential (ie elctro beats instead of drums). Not easy to explain, but if the sound is distinctive electronic (not trying to sound like another instrument), I would call it electronica.

I guess Haakon's right. I wouldn't say it's necassarily dependent on there being electro drum kits in there though. Stuff i write gets labelled Electronica. I think Electronica is, first and foremost, a synthetic production of music- That which could not be in the absence of electrical equipment.

I've started calling myself an 'Audio Scientist'. And that just about covers it for me. Sampling, Studying, manipulating and implementing sound into an environment where it will be of benefit.

well, i think that cleared the issue

This tag has always made me laugh, to me it is a name created by the MTV types in the mid 90s right around that Crystal Method, Moby, prodagy, and chemical brohers era this is just a generic marketable term coined by suits to describe techno, drum base , jungle etc, but i truly feel it is just a very commercail name for very commercial techno/electronic artist.

could be, could be. you prolly right but...
i hear the term "electronica" all the time. it must have an original meaning

intrinzik is right about where the definition came from. also, electronica is also a spanish word for electronic, I think.

Im pretty sure the definition of electronica is when the song has no set beat, Trance on the other hand has a set bass beat that pumps all the time, electronica does not, its hard to explain, but listen to some Autechre and you'll see wut im talking about.

so are you saying that Autechre is electronica??? I highly disagree with you there lol, I would call them more abstract or experimental than the "broadened" version of electronica...I believe electronica is the 'GENRE' persay, and techno, IDM, Drum n' bass, jungle, tech-step, gabbacore, happy hardcore, etc., are the subgenres. This term may change with the outer people of society that do not know much about this type of music and they may call it "techno" for which i've heard over the years.

no, autechre is definitely not electronica.

like intrinzik said, electronica was a marketing term created by record labels or music journalists in the mid 90's to describe most "big beat" sound which was really popular at the time, like Crystal Method, prodigy, and chemical brothers.

and later on, they just sweeped almost everything electronic under that "electronica" umbrella.

but there are other genre names out there that describes autechre, like IDM.