I think one of the main problems that keeps Electro down is the fact that there seems to be a lack of education about the history of "Electro", and Electronic music as a whole. Electro elitism is prevalent, and it rubs a lot of newcomers and would-be fans the wrong way.
People need to understand that Electro as we know it primarily became known as so because of Streetsounds, yet the word had been around since the beginning of Electronic music, which began as being called, "Electro-acoustic" music. It was not yet really a genre, but rather an experimentation of Acoustic instruments ( or at least the traditional acoustic approach of making music ), with Electronic ones, and began with Walter Carlos' ( later to be known as Wendy Carlos ) "Switched On Bach", and was followed by Tangerine Dream's "Electronic Meditation", as well as Kraftwerk's self entitled 1970 album; the last two which are a perfect representation of the era's experimentation with synthesizers and Rock music; what was then known as "Krautrock", or Progressive Rock.
Many people since that era, even in Disco, used the word Electro, and the same type of in-fighting and attempt to claim one particular style as the actual "Electro" was going on. In my opinion, trying to claim our styles as the one and only Electro will get us nowhere; especially in today's world where once again, so many styles refer to their music as Electro; and in many ways rightfully so. All Electronic music is Electro, it is where the word came from.
Our styles that we here call Electro, are more specifically "Electro Funk", Electro Bass" ( or Techno Bass ), Electro Pop, etc. One mistake other sub-genres of Electronic music make, is the fact that they don't specify what type of Electro they do. If our genre would however, it would raise eyebrows and would invite a listener to take a peek at what this type of Electro may be. Someone may love Funk, or Bass, and therefore would be inclined to get into it.
It is a bit like the idea of digital releases saturating the market and making it hard to know what's what, and what is actually good...from a subjective point of view that is. Our Electro is buried beneath countless styles that have come about over the years that now call themselves solely "Electro", and though our style is the closest and truest to the roots, it cannot shine for what it is because it does not present itself as something different than everything else around; mainly because of what people call it when promoting it. We need to realize that our styles of Electro are in fact sub-genres in and of themselves that sprung up in the '80s and '90s, and are technically all in the end Electronic music like any other.
You may hear influences of Wendy Carlos, Tangerine Dream, or Kraftwerk in our music, but it really doesn't sound like them for the most part. The interesting thing is however, that if you hear the music of the above mentioned pioneers of Electronic music, you hear all of the genres that eventually became their own thing. Electro=Electronic...what are we? that is what we need to tell the world. What we do is unique, and deserves to have its own identity.
Just some food for thought. 
Ya sabes!
