Electropop (also called Technopop) is a form of electronic music that is made with synthesizers, and which first flourished from 1978 to 1981.
Electropop laid the groundwork for a mass market in chart-oriented
synthpop. Numerous bands have since carried on the electropop tradition
into the 1990s and 2000s.
Electropop is different from synthpop because it is often
characterised by a cold, robotic, electronic sound, which was largely
due to the early limitations of the analog synthesizers used to make
the music. The alienated deadpan lyrics usually have a science-fiction
edge to them, and do not use the "boy meets girl, boy loses girl" theme
that was so common among mass-market chart-topping new wave artists from about 1981 onwards.
Most electropop songs are pop songs at heart, often with simple, catchy hooks and dance beats, but differing from those of electronic dance music genres which electropop helped to inspire — techno, house, electroclash, etc. — in that strong songwriting is emphasized over simple danceability.