Electronica is just a subgenre of rock as much as punk or metal are. Via the proxy of modern R&B.
R&B simply set the stage for rock'n'roll to emerge. What was missing (the great drawback of rhythm'n'blues) was true creativity. Rhythm'n'blues (whether vocal or instrumental) was anchored to well-defined structures, that performers challenged only marginally. There were no significant attempts to create free-form structures, to integrate idioms of other cultures, to enlarge the orchestration to new instruments, to radically alter any of the fundamental dogmas of black-music performance. That was indeed the revolution of rock music, which will progressively introduce the traditional European values of innovation and progress into the archaic values of African personal expression.
Indeed, the majority of EDM is a reversion to the stagnation of 40s R&B and 70s Disco. In 30 years time it will seem just as embarrassing and non-artistic as these. Is there contemporary patrician electronic music? In a word, absolutely. But it's represented by avant-garde electroacoustic improvisation and experimental developments using progeria like Supercollider, not by some hack in a warehouse blasting an endless I-I-V-I progression over a disco sample.
Punk 9/10 album: Husker Du - Zen Arcade
Metal 9/10 album: Type O Negative - Deep, Slow, Hard
Hip hop and Electronica 9/10 album: [ERROR NOT FOUND]
Electronica is just a subgenre, anything else is a microgenre and of no relevance to educated music enthusiasts.
