A revolution is upon us. An aggressive, but not violent, underground style is making its way into the mainstream music scene, evolving and shaping our culture. Electronic music is taking over.

Since the invention of synthesizers in 1970, electronic music has been gaining popularity. In the past decade there have been tremendous advancements in technology, allowing most muscians to make songs just by using their laptop. Music software is now extremely powerful, enabling artists to make music without a lot of hardware.

This is changing the music industry. You no longer need to invest money into instruments, recording studio time or distribution costs. The Internet provides an open platform for artists to share the music they create. Websites like Souncloud.com allow anybody to post their music, electronic or not.

Giant record companies no longer dominate the music industry. The playing field has leveled out, music creation liberalized. New concepts and practices are forming around music production, and if a musician is good enough, he or she will get noticed. It's as simple as that. Posting songs to public websites allow for the people to decide if it is good, not a single producer or record company.

The term "electronic music" is very broad in the sense that it encompasses many different genres such as techno, trance, progressive, house, drum and bass, and dubstep. There are also many subgenres which makes electronic music even more diverse.

Evidence of the rising popularity and diversity of electronic music can be found in the latest Britney Spears song, "Hold It Against Me." Halfway through the song it drops into dubstep. Say what? A Britney Spears song that veers off the mainstream, popular culture track? How could this be? Well folks, even the queen of pop is pushing the electronic scene into mainstream. Whether this is a good or bad thing still remains to be seen. The fact that electro is still "underground" is a big turn on for most people.

Many metal bands such as Abandon All Ships use electronic synths. Listed under the genre section on their Myspace, its says: "Hardcore / Rock / Techno." It seems pretty strange that hardcore band would use techno in their music. However, it just shows the broad level of acceptance of electronic music into other musical stylings.

Our parents went through a rock revolution in the 60s and 70s, and now our generation is going through an electronic revolution. Instead of Woodstock, we have Ultra. Instead of Led Zeppelin, we have Deadmau5. It may be hard for some to hear claiming that, "it takes no skill creating music on a computer," and whether this is true or not, it does not effect the rapid rate in which the electronic scene is growing.

Buffalo is starting to catch on. New on Chippewa, nightclub Noir hosts "Dubstep Thursdays," providing an outlet for students to get their dosage of dancing to hard electro. World-renowned Dj Tiesto is coming to Buffalo on April 10th. It is amazing that Pure nightclub is able to host him because he usually sells out stadiums. Also, the Communist Party hosted at Soundlab is another extremely popular and growing electronic music attraction.

The age of electro is still in its early stage with so much left to explore and discover. Electronic music is not going anywhere. Here is something to think about: Remember when your parents showed you their old records? Maybe when we are our parent's age, we will show our children what a guitar is. What is the future of instruments if everything can be replicated on a computer?