What is retro music?

Retro, during the 1980’s, referred to a new genre of music, particularly dance music, popular in the U.S. at the time and originally termed New Wave music which was in part an outgrowth of the Punk rock genre of the late 1970s and early ‘80s and Psychedelic genre of the late 1960’s and 70’s. Many of the songs and albums termed retro at the time came about during great advancement in the development of generating music electronically (that is, with computers and electronic equipment - or Electronic music - rather than with either traditional or electromechanical instruments) and the popularization of this type of music in the mainstream. Ideas as to how broad and inclusive the Retro category of music is vary; nonetheless, not all music - not even all dance music - from the decades of the 1980s were considered Retro music. Now, in fact, retro music is only that of which came out of the retro era. The retro era today is considered the time frame between 1966, the Beatles’ release of “Rain” and “Tomorrow Never Knows,” and 1977, when California became the final state to outlaw LSD. This psychedelic style of music is still widely listened to today.