Laptronica is a form of live electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 in which laptops are used as musical instruments. The term is a portmanteau of "laptop computer" and "electronica"

Electronica

Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...

. The term gained a certain degree of currency in the 1990s and is of significance due to the use of highly powerful computation being made available to musicians in highly portable form, and therefore in live performance

Live performance

live performance may refer to:*A play or musical*A concert, a live performance before an audience*A dance performance, dance performed for an audience.*Live radio, radio broadcast without delay...

. Many sophisticated forms of sound production, manipulation and organization (which had hitherto only been available in studios or academic institutions) became available to use in live performance, largely by younger musicians influenced by and interested in developing experimental popular music forms .

See also

• Computer music
  Computer music
  Computer music is a term that was originally used within academia to describe a field of study relating to the applications of computing technology in music composition; particularly that stemming from the Western art music tradition...
  
  
• Live coding
• Laptop battle
  Laptop battle
  Laptop battles are a competitive event for an Electronic musician to match their skills against others. Competition rules limit equipment to a laptop computer and an external pointing device . Some competitions will allow external hardware, usually a single MIDI controller...
  
  
• PLOrk
  PLOrk
  The Princeton Laptop Orchestra is a Princeton University ensemble of computer based meta-instruments. It is the first ensemble of its kind in the history of computer music, both in scale and in approach.-Background:...