>>32
AFAIK, I've always thought the original word to mean radio, or radiowaves. Keitai Den*w*a means cell phone. But I I don't know how the word Denpa made the jump from being a radio to being a music genre of hyperactive electronic music with anime loli voices.
>the original word to mean radio, or radiowaves
Literally, yes. But I think the usage here comes from dokudenpa.
>doku-denpa // Literally, "poisonous electromagnetic waves."
>The term originated by a lunatic who caused the notorious Fukagawa Toori-ma Jiken (Fukagawa Street Murders) in 1981. The assailant, Kawamata Gunji, was high on illegal substances and started slashing innocent bystanders in broad daylight. Two housewives and two toddlers were killed, with many more seriously injured. Pleading insanity in court, he described that denpas (electromagnetic waves) told him to start killing people. Motion was rejected and he currently serves life without parole.
>By early 1990s, the term "electromagnetic waves" began to appear here and there among sub-cultural literature and music. Several sub-cultural elites began to coin the term "denpa-kei" to decribe people who acted strangely as if being subject to hypnosis and/or being controlled by electromagnetic waves (much like radio waves are used for remote-controlled toys).
In harsher words, crazy people.
Denpa songs are supposed to be weird (creepy for some) songs catered to, and/or made by, and/or about these kind of people, and how they're so weirdly addictive that you get "poisoned by the radiowaves". Also the term it's not used exclusively in music but also in literary works like NHK ni Youkoso, Chaos;Head, SubaHibi or Shizuku.
>music genre of hyperactive electronic music with anime loli voices
That sounds stereotypical. Some denpa songs aren't necessarily like that. A common example is 夏はマシンガン/冬もマシンガン.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRUZq_iAuvg
or
http://nicoviewer.net/nm3370897
But more than being cute or not, I think the real point is to be over-the-top and weird, musically and/or lyrically. Anyway Japanese posters might be more informed about it, it was a big thing in 2ch.
>>32
You may find this article interesting:
http://altairandvega.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/denpa-bigaku-riron-the-rise-of-the-radio-aesthetic-in-
japanese-subculture-in-the-21st-century/