Electro Pop

A disclaimer before we get started: no guitars or Marshall stacks were harmed in the making of this playlist. True to its name, our Electro Pop Essentials list bursts at the grooves with blips and beeps, squiggles and squelches — the post-Kraftwerk product of a new wave world where machines and man coexist with nary a solo in sight, from the deviant and subversively dark realm of Gary Numan and his Tubeway Army ("Are Friends Electric?") and the Human League ("Don't You Want Me?") to the hip-club, strip-club robo-grinding of Goldfrapp ("Ooh La La") and the savvy modern electronica of Hot Chip ("Ready for the Floor").

Throw off your mental chains and open your soul to defining '80s electro pop sounds, and more, in Next Steps.

The '80s was the glory decade for electro pop — and there are few tracks more glorious, shiny, and uplifting than 1985's "Take on Me" by a-ha. We'll proffer a congratulatory handshake to anyone who can match singer Morten Harket note-for-note through the vertiginous chorus. Other era-defining classics include "Fade to Grey" from Visage — with lyrics composed by Midge Ure, who would go on to make his name with Ultravox — and the politically charged, break-dance-ready electro of Paul Hardcastle's "19." The Chemical Brothers deliver the big-beat heft of "Hey Boy Hey Girl" from 1999 while, a decade further down the line, La Roux arrives with "In for the Kill."

In Deep Cuts, we'll find the Beloved and the Shamen, to name but two sets of electro-pop visionaries.

When MTV announced its arrival with "Video Killed the Radio Star" in 1981, the Buggles did more than provide the network with an impromptu theme song. They also aired the palpitating beats at the heart of electro pop, an early-'80s alternative to the clashing chords and ear-splitting hooks of punk and metal. At the height of its popularity, electro pop could be heard all over the airwaves, and the genre pushed through to the '90s via the work of the Shamen (1991's "Move Any Mountain"), the Beloved (1993's "Sweet Harmony"), and Portishead, who branched into trip-hop with their outstanding 1994 album, Dummy, featuring the noirish, zither-backed "Sour Times."

The electro-pop scene may have reached its zenith in the late '80s, but its influence remains strong to this day, either in shamelessly appropriated samples or through pioneering bands who continue to refresh the parts guitars alone cannot reach (Cut Copy, the Presets, Midnight Juggernauts, Air, the Chemical Brothers, Hot Chip, Goldfrapp, MGMT). And it's easy to see why, as our Electro Pop selection pulsates and shimmers with every neon-tinged track. Here we salute the early music of New Order, Gary Numan, the Human League, and Depeche Mode, not to mention the finest works by the 21st century's pioneering electro-cadets, as we line up some of the best singles ever to find themselves caught between the pop charts and dance clubs.