Electro's science-fiction imagery expresses an afrofuturist vision of Black technological futures

Electro’s futurist imagery was not merely decorative: it expressed an afrofuturist vision in which Black artists imagined themselves inhabiting technologically advanced futures. Warp 9’s 1983 single ‘Light Years Away’ exemplifies the sci-fi, afrofuturist aspect of electro — its refrain ‘space is the place for the human race’ pays homage to Sun Ra’s 1974 film Space Is the Place, while its synth lines and sound effects, ‘born of a science-fiction revival,’ draw on sci-fi, computer games and cartoons. The genre also drew on the futurism of Alvin Toffler, martial-arts films and video-game music. This connects electro’s machine aesthetic to a broader cultural tradition of using technology to imagine liberation.

Examples

Warp 9 — Light Years Away (1983), refrain homaging Sun Ra’s Space Is the Place (1974); the sci-fi/video-game synth palette of early electro generally.

Assessment

Explain what afrofuturism is and how it manifests in early electro, citing one track and the specific cultural reference it invokes.