If a song has elements of electronic dance genres (House, EBM, Trance, Techno) is it necessarily disqualified from the Synthpop genre?
By no means! Although synthpop itself did not necessarily start out as dancefloor music, some of the later dncefloor styles have integrated themselves in the genre. That’s the beauty of synthpop, it can draw on a lot of sources for influence. A good pounding dance rhythm doesn’t exclude the song, as long as it still has the pop trimmings of a distinct melody and vocals, and the heavy electronics that help define the genre. A classic example of this is New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle”, which is pure 4-on-the-floor techno, but it still has the melody and vocals that keep it within the realm of pop music.
