If you are wondering where the sci-fi comes in, look no further than the beginnings of hip-hop music, a time when everyone grooved to "electro" or "electroboogie."
Tricia Rose links the rise of electroboogie to urban black economic survival; because of the closing factories and dwindling blue-collar jobs in the early 1980s, people began to understand that they would have to master technology if they wanted to continue putting food on the table (Dery 213).
Whatever the reason for its explosive popularity, DJ Afrika Bambaataa definitely struck a nerve. Afrika Bambaataa was the top DJ in New York City in 1980, and he made his recording debut shortly thereafter with two groups, Cosmic Force and Soul Sonic Force. Inspired by German synthesizer group Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express," Bambaataa laid down a track he titled "Planet Rock." "A silly robotic funk of huge beats, video-game bleeps, and synthesizer boogie," Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" was the huge hit of 1982 (Blashill 140). The record was huge not just for Bambaataa as a DJ; "Planet Rock," along with his "Looking for the Perfect Beat" with Soul Sonic Force, launched hip-hop culture into the mainstream consciousness.
Electro music--with songs titled "Space is the Place" and "Space Cowboy"--was futuristic and funky, and its artists and fans took a genuine pleasure in the sounds emitted by computers. However, electroboogie was also deeply "romantic and utopian"; part of the Afrofuturist tradition, "electro foretold a future of harmony between blacks and whites, but also between man and his nastiest machines" (Blashill 140). Electro was the soundtrack for many a breakdance competition, in which "[they] used their bodies to mimic 'transformers' and other futuristic robots in symbolic street battles" (Rose 34). Electro inspired young and future hip-hop stars as well as old-school Afrofuturists like George Clinton, who launched his own electroboogie groove with "Atomic Dog" (Blashill 140). Graffiti artists Futura 2000 and Fab Five Freddy cut their own electro tunes (Blashill 140). Electro seeped its way into R & B and pop music, Latin hip-hop, and the Miami bass scene that spawned 2 Live Crew (Blashill 141). Electro laid the blueprint for much of current dance music like techno, and its influence continues to be felt in hip-hop with artists like Dr. Octagon, who takes a cue from Sun Ra when he asserts his otherwordly origins ("'Earth people, I was born on Jupiter!'") (Blashill 141).
Blashill, Pat. "Who Put the Bleep in the Boom-Chi-Bleep?" Details. December 1996: 140-142.
Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1994.