Electro Swing is an electronic dance music genre and associated visual aesthetic that fuses the influence of vintage or modern swing and jazz with house and hip-hop. Successful iterations of the genre create a sound focused on the modern dance floor while retaining the energetic excitement of early swing recordings. While its musical origins date back to early 1990s experiments in Europe and the United States, it reached widespread digital popularity in the late 2000s and 2010s.

Aesthetically, Electro Swing centers on an atmosphere of positivity and joy, often romanticizing the 1920s through the 1950s by adding a modern touch to the "old-fashioned" vibe. The community often highlights that swing music is a form of jazz deeply rooted in Black culture. The aesthetic is considered incomplete without its musical element, as the visuals are designed to evoke the same uplifting sensation as the tracks.

The origins of electro swing trace back to the early 1990s with the revival of vintage swing music. Early experimentation, such as the 1994 single " Doop " by the Dutch group of the same name and Mr. Scruff's 1999 track " Get a Move On! ", were initially considered part of the nu-jazz movement. This early prototype combined house and jazz elements before fading toward the end of the 1990s.

In the mid-2000s, EDM artists resumed experiments with swing sounds, supported by labels like Freshly Squeezed and Wagram. The French band Caravan Palace furthered the genre in 2008 by mixing house with hot-club style jazz. The genre achieved mainstream global popularity in 2010 with Yolanda Be Cool's " We No Speak Americano ," which topped charts in the UK and Australia. By 2013, Parov Stelar's " Booty Swing " brought the genre to wide American audiences through its use in commercial advertisements. The 2010s also saw the rise of subgenres like swing 'n' bass and swing hop, while the aesthetic expanded into indie animation and internet fandoms (e.g., Bendy and the Ink Machine fan songs).

The visual aesthetic of Electro Swing is characterized by a 2010s internet-based interpretation of the 1920s, characterized as "anachronism stew". It frequently features speakeasies and flapper girls coexisting with robots and neon highlights. A major pillar of the aesthetic is the " Rubber Hose " animation revival popularized in the 2010s by titles like Bendy and the Ink Machine and Cuphead . These visuals utilize heavy ink lines, grainy film overlays, and "bouncy" character movements synced to syncopated beats.

Graphic design within the scene often incorporates flat vector art and anthropomorphic characters (such as pandas) in vintage attire. Typical settings include stylized old buildings, stages, and dance floors. Color palettes usually center on sepia, grayscale, or black and white, contrasted with electric blue or magenta neon accents.

Electro Swing music relies on a mix of traditional 4/4 "four-on-the-floor" beats or hip-hop samples. Tracks typically focus on a single, buoyant phrase or "hook" from a vintage recording to serve as a backbone. Live performances often feature a DJ supported by musicians playing traditional jazz instruments, including trumpet, trombone, clarinet, and saxophone.