Electro is an artistic musical form in the wide world of electronic music culture. With few exceptions, the definition of the electro sound is the use of drum machines as the base of a track for broken, syncopated rhythms. Adopted by many electro enthusiasts, the Roland TR-808 is a legendary drum machine created in 1980 with a recognizable sound; it is still used and cherished today. The instrumentation is generally all-electronic highly emphasized by sound design experimentations with funk-style simulated bass lines, sequenced or arpeggiated synthetic riffs and unheard sound effects, all created with synthesizers. Heavy use of effects such as reverbs, delays, chorus or phasers together with original electronic pads create a rich and simultaneously cold sound that emphasizes the common science fiction theme of the lyrics or instrumental expressions. Not all electro features rapping; vocals processed through a vocoder is a common element and try to imitate cybernetic/robotic locutions or simple speech machine formulations. Also, instrumental tracks are more prominent than in related genres of electronic music and hip hop music.

Concept albums are common in electro with Kraftwerk pioneering entire albums in technological or futuristic themes such as robots, computers or nuclear sciences. Other examples even include Star Trek tributes, references and topics about cybernetics, physics or interstellar travel inside electro projects such as I Borg, the Borganizm EP from Cybernet Systems, Il. Ek.Tro's track V-ger or Pascal F.E.O.S.'s GPL (Electro cut remix) (Gold Pressed Latinum). Many artists are entirely devoted to various sci-fi subjects of this kind.