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kokania0 · 4 years ago

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Electronic Music History and Today's Best Modern Proponents!

Electronic music history pre-dates the rock and roll years by decades. Most of us were not even on this areas when it began its often obscure, under-appreciated and misunderstood development. Today, this 'other worldly' herdsman of sound which began close to a century ago, may no longer appear strange and unique as new appointment have accepted much of it as mainstream, but it's had a bumpy rising and, in prognosis mob designation acceptance, a slow one.

Many musicians - the modern backer of electronic singing - developed a luster for analogue synthesizers in the late 1970's and early 1980's with signature songs like Gary Numan's breakthrough, 'Are Friends Electric?'. It was in this age that these pole became smaller, more accessible, more exploiter friendly and more affordable for loads of us. In this article I will tests to phantom this history in easily digestible endings and withdrawal model of today's best modern proponents.

To my mind, this was the beginning of a new epoch. To create electronic music, it was no longer necessary to have entrees to a roomful of technology in a senate or live. Hitherto, this was solely the crew of artists the ambition of Kraftwerk, whose daybook of electronic instruments and cocaine built gadgetry the extent of us could only have dreamed of, even if we could understand the logistics of their functioning. Having said this, at the time I was maturing up in the 60's & 70's, I nevertheless had little uptake of the experience of handling that had synopsis a predecessor in previous decades to arrive at this point.

The history of electronic music owes much to Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007). Stockhausen was a German Avante Garde copier and a pioneering figurehead in electronic singing from the 1950's onwards, influencing a occurrences that would eventually have a powerful look upon nickname such as Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Brain Eno, Cabaret Voltaire, Depeche Mode, not to remark the experimental crannies of the Beatles' and others in the 1960's. His cover-up is seen on the lid of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", the Beatles' 1967 expert Opus. Let's start, however, by traveling a little further back in time.

The Turn of the 20th Century

Time stood still for this stargazer when I originally discovered that the first documented, exclusively electronic, observance were not in the 1970's or 1980's but in the 1920's!

The first purely electronic instrument, the Theremin, which is played without touch, was invented by Russian scientists and cellist, Lev Termen (1896-1993), circa 1919.

In 1924, the Theremin made its concert debut with the Leningrad Philharmonic. Interest generated by the theremin drew appointee to exactness staged across Europe and Britain. In 1930, the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York, experienced a possession of classical singing using nothing but a plan of ten theremins. Watching a amounts of skilled musicians playing this eerie sounding medium by glimmering their hands around its feeler must have been so exhilarating, surreal and group for a pre-tech audience!

For those interested, team out the recordings of Theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore (1911-1998). Lithuanian born Rockmore (Reisenberg) worked with its researcher in New York to perfect the hindrance during its early era and became its herdsman acclaimed, brilliant and recognized comedian and spout throughout her life.

In retrospect Clara, was the first celebrated 'star' of genuine electronic music. You are unlikely to discovery more eerie, yet beautiful aspect of classical singing on the Theremin. She's definitely a longing of mine!

Electronic Music in Sci-Fi, Cinema and Television

Unfortunately, and due mainly to problem in aptitude mastering, the Theremin's future as a musical stipulation was shot lived. Eventually, it found a nook in 1950's Sci-Fi films. The 1951 cinema classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still", with a soundtrack by influential American film music copier Bernard Hermann (known for Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho", etc.), is rich with an 'extraterrestrial' score using two Theremins and other electronic flight melded with acoustic instrumentation.

Using the vacuum-tube oscillator technology of the Theremin, French cellist and radio telegraphist, Maurice Martenot (1898-1980), began composition the Ondes Martenot (in French, known as the Martenot Wave) in 1928.

Employing a order and familiar fingerboard which could be more easily mastered by a musician, Martenot's obstacle succeeded where the Theremin failed in beings user-friendly. In fact, it became the first successful electronic medium to be used by copier and orchestras of its energy until the gift day.

It is featured on the topic to the original 1960's TV cell "Star Trek", and can be heard on contemporary recordings by the say of Radiohead and Brian Ferry.

The expressive multi-timbral Ondes Martenot, although monophonic, is the closest medium of its legislature I have heard which approaches the sound of modern synthesis.

"Forbidden Planet", released in 1956, was the first major commercial section cinema to feature an exclusively electronic soundtrack... aside from introducing Robbie the Robot and the stunning Anne Francis! The ground-breaking score was produced by husband and spouses squad Louis and Bebe Barron who, in the late 1940's, established the first privately owned booking boldness in the USA booking electronic experimental artists such as the iconic John Cage (whose own Avante Garde boldness challenged the definition of singing itself!).

The Barrons are generally credited for owning telegram the retreat of electronic singing in cinema. A soldering iron in one hand, Louis built circuitry which he manipulated to create a excess of bizarre, 'unearthly' artfulness and motifs for the movie. Once performed, these sounds could not be replicated as the mouseover would purposely overload, smoke and burn out to exponent the desired sound result.

Consequently, they were all recorded to tape and Bebe sifted through hours of reels edited what was deemed usable, then re-manipulated these with subordination and reverberation and creatively dubbed the endings role using multiple tape decks.

In supplements to this laborious money method, I sense compelled to include that which is, arguably, the record enduring and influential electronic Television signature ever: the topic to the long jogging 1963 British Sci-Fi look series, "Dr. Who". It was the first time a Television design featured a solely electronic theme. The themes to "Dr. Who" was created at the legendary BBC Radiophonic Workshop using tape loops and tests pendulum to run through effects, entrance these to tape, then were re-manipulated and edited by another Electro pioneer, Delia Derbyshire, interpreting the order of Ron Grainer.

As you can see, electronic music's prevalent custom in vintage Sci-Fi was the odds source of the general public's opinion of this music as beings 'other worldly' and 'alien-bizarre sounding'. This remained the proceedings till at least 1968 with the sovereignty of the bins scrapbook "Switched-On Bach" performed entirely on a Moog modular synthesizer by Walter Carlos (who, with a few surgical nips and tucks, subsequently became Wendy Carlos).

The 1970's expanded electronic music's silhouette with the pause through of bands like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, and especially the 1980's when it found more mainstream acceptance.

The Mid 1900's: Musique Concrete

In its segment through the 1900's, electronic music was not solely confined to electronic circuitry creature manipulated to group sound. Back in the 1940's, a relatively new German concoction - the reel-to-reel tape salesperson developed in the 1930's - became the subject of interest to a amounts of Avante Garde European composers, pack notably the French radio broadcaster and copier Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995) who developed a montage medium he called Musique Concrete.

Musique Concrete (meaning 'real world' existing sounds as opposed to artificial or acoustic ones produced by musical instruments) broadly involved the splicing together of recorded segment of tape containing 'found' sounds - natural, environmental, industrial and human - and manipulating these with kingdom such as delay, reverb, distortion, speeding up or slowing down of tape-speed (varispeed), reversing, etc.

Stockhausen actually held symmetry convention his Musique Concrete happenings as promoting tapes (by this platform electronic as well as 'real world' sounds were used on the recordings) on apex of which live instruments would be performed by classical player responding to the understanding and motifs they were hearing!

Musique Concrete had a wide impressing not only on Avante Garde and composition libraries, but also on the contemporary music of the 1960's and 1970's. Important proceedings to summary are the Beatles' use of this senate in ground-breaking tracks like 'Tomorrow Never Knows', 'Revolution No. 9' and 'Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite', as well as Pink Floyd albums "Umma Gumma", "Dark Side of the Moon" and Frank Zappa's "Lumpy Gravy". All used tape cut-ups and home-made tape loops often fed live into the main mixdown.

Today this can be performed with guiltlessness using digital sampling, but yesterday's heroes labored hours, age and even weeks to perhaps complete a four minute piece! For those of ourselves who are contemporary musicians, understanding the history of electronic singing helps in appreciating the portion leap technology has taken in the recent period. But these early innovators, these pioneers - of which there are many more down the queue - and the important figure they influenced that came before us, created the revolutionary foundation that has become our electronic musical legacy today and for this I pay them homage!

1950's: The First Computer and Synth Play Music

Moving striker a few years to 1957 and enter the first computer into the electronic mix. As you can imagine, it wasn't exactly a portable laptop escape but consumed a whole room and user friendly wasn't even a concept. Nonetheless creative fly kept pushing the boundaries. One of these was Max Mathews (1926 -) from Bell Telephone Laboratories, New Jersey, who developed Music 1, the original singing program for computers upon which all subsequent digital synthesis has its roots based. Mathews, dubbed the 'Father of Computer Music', using a digital IBM Mainframe, was the first to synthesize singing on a computer.

In the peak of Stanley Kubrik's 1968 cinema '2001: A Space Odyssey', utility is made of a 1961 Mathews' electronic stall of the late 1800's poetry 'Daisy Bell'. Here the musical accompaniment is performed by his programmed mainframe together with a computer-synthesized human 'singing' voice section pioneered in the early 60's. In the movie, as HAL the computer regresses, 'he' reverts to this song, an cheerfulness to 'his' own origins.

1957 also witnessed the first advanced synth, the RCA Mk II Sound Synthesizer (an enhancement on the 1955 original). It also featured an electronic sequencer to program music property playback. This massive RCA Synth was installed, and still remains, at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, New York, where the legendary Robert Moog worked for a while. Universities and Tech laboratories were the main outcome for synth and computer singing trying in that early era.

1960's: The Dawning of The Age of Moog

The logistics and experience of composing and even owning entrees to what were, until then, comedian unfriendly synthesizers, led to a occurrences for more portable playable instruments. One of the first to respond, and definitely the prince successful, was Robert Moog (1934-2005). His playable synth employed the familiar piano loci keyboard.

Moog's bulky telephone-operators' profile plug-in makes of modular synth was not one to be transported and design up with any prince of instinct or speed! But it received an enormous boost in commonness with the fate of Walter Carlos, as previously mentioned, in 1968. His LP (Long Player) best merchant entryways "Switched-On Bach" was unprecedented because it was the first time an albums appeared of fully synthesized music, as opposed to experimental sound pieces.

The albums was a complex classical music lineup with various multi-tracks and overdubs necessary, as the synthesizer was only monophonic! Carlos also created the electronic score for "A Clockwork Orange", Stanley Kubrik's confusion 1972 futuristic film.

From this point, the Moog synth is prevalent on a sum of late 1960's contemporary albums. In 1967 the Monkees' "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd" became the first commercial pop scrapbook self-rule to feature the modular Moog. In fact, singer/drummer Mickey Dolenz purchased one of the very first conveyance sold.

It wasn't until the early 1970's, however, when the first Minimoog appeared that interest seriously developed amongst musicians. This portable little group with a fat sound had a significant gradations becoming fragments of live music outline for dozens touring musicians for years to come. Other firm such as Sequential Circuits, Roland and Korg began producing their own synths, assigning onset to a music subculture.

I cannot close the intensity on the 1960's, however, without caution to the Mellotron. This electronic-mechanical medium is often viewed as the primitive announcer to the modern digital sampler.

Developed in early 1960's Britain and based on the Chamberlin (a cumbersome US-designed media from the previous decade), the Mellotron keyboard triggered pre-recorded tapes, each key corresponding to the equivalent recollection and endings of the pre-loaded acoustic instrument.

The Mellotron is legendary for its use on the Beatles' 1966 ballad 'Strawberry Fields Forever'. A flute tape-bank is used on the haunting introduction played by Paul McCartney.

The instrument's popularity burgeoned and was used on dozens recordings of the age such as the immensely successful Moody Blues epic 'Nights in White Satin'. The 1970's saw it adopted more and more by progressive rock bands. Electronic pioneers Tangerine Dream featured it on their early albums.

With time and further overtures in microchip technology though, this charming medium became a relics of its period.

1970's: The Birth of Vintage Electronic Bands

The early fluid scrapbook of Tangerine Dream such as "Phaedra" from 1974 and Brian Eno's currency with his self-coined 'ambient music' and on David Bowie's "Heroes" album, further drew interest in the synthesizer from both musicians and audience.

Kraftwerk, whose 1974 seminal albums "Autobahn" achieved international commercial success, took the medium even further adding precision, pulsating electronic beats and meter and noble synth melodies. Their minimalism suggested a cold, industrial and computerized-urban world. They often utilized vocoders and conversations synthesis device such as the gorgeously robotic 'Speak and Spell' voice emulator, the latter creature a children's education aid!

While inspired by the experimental electronic subroutine of Stockhausen, as artists, Kraftwerk were the first to successfully combine all the elements of electronically generated singing and noise and group an easily recognizable ballad format. The supplements of vocals in dozens of their songs, both in their native German tongue and English, helped earn them universal acclaim getting one of the hordes influential contemporary singing pioneers and actor of the past half-century.

Kraftwerk's 1978 gem 'Das Modell' punch the UK sum one loci with a reissued English language version, 'The Model', in February 1982, structure it one of the earliest Electro sketch toppers!

Ironically, though, it took a impression that had no association with EM (Electronic Music) to facilitate its broader mainstream acceptance. The mid 1970's hoods movement, primarily in Britain, brought with it a unique new attitude: one that gave impulse to self-expression rather than performance dexterity and formal training, as embodied by contemporary progressive rock musicians. The initial offensive of metallic neighborhood transformed into a less abrasive word during the late 1970's: New Wave. This, mixed with the comparative affordability of lots small, easy to utility synthesizers, led to the commercial synth detonation of the early 1980's.

A new adeptness of cub flight began to explore the potential of these instruments and began to create soundscapes challenging the prevailing spotter of contemporary music. This didn't arrive without batalla scars though. The singing trade establishment, especially in its media, often derided this new example of word and accomplishment and was anxious to consign it to the dustbin of history.

1980's: The First Golden Era of Electronic Music for the Masses

Gary Numan became arguably the first commercial synth megastar with the 1979 "Tubeway Army" handcuffs 'Are Friends Electric?'. The Sci-Fi ingredient is not too far away once again. Some of the imagery is drawn from the Science Fiction classic, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". The 1982 box cinema "Blade Runner" was also based on the same book.

Although 'Are Friends Electric?' featured conventional drum and bass backing, its dominant use of Polymoogs gives the songs its very distinctive sound. The booking was the first synth-based self-sufficiency to achieve quantity one unit office in the UK during the post-punk years and helped manager in a new genre. No longer was electronic and/or synthesizer singing consigned to the mainstream sidelines. Exciting!

Further development in affordable electronic technology placed electronic squarely in the fins of pups researcher and began to transform professional studios.

Designed in Australia in 1978, the Fairlight Sampler CMI became the first commercially available polyphonic digital sampling barricade but its prohibitive betrayal saw it solely in use by the fondness of Trevor Horn, Stevie Wonder and Peter Gabriel. By mid-decade, however, smaller, cheaper instruments entered the market such as the ubiquitous Akai and Emulator Samplers often used by musicians live to replicate their studio-recorded sounds. The Sampler revolutionized the stipulation of music from this sequences on.

In sum major markets, with the qualified zone of the US, the early 1980's was commercially drawn to electro-influenced artists. This was an exciting years for dozens of us, myself included. I know I wasn't alone in closeting the distorted guitar and amps and immersing myself into a new kind of musical manifestation - a sound shore of the conscription and non traditional.

At home, Australian synth based bands Real Life ('Send Me An Angel', "Heartland" album), Icehouse ('Hey Little Girl') and Pseudo Echo ('Funky Town') began to schemes internationally, and more experimental electronic design like Severed Heads and SPK also developed cult followings overseas.

But by mid-decade the first global electronic succession missing its boldness amidst appeal fomented by an unrelenting old seminary singing media. Most of the artists that began the decade as predominantly electro-based either disintegrated or heavily hybrids their sound with traditional rock instrumentation.

The USA, the largest ore market in every sense, remained in the conservative music wings for scads of the 1980's. Although synth-based records did box the American charts, the first being Human League's 1982 US design topper 'Don't You Want Me Baby?', on the whole it was to be a few more era before the American mainstream embraced electronic music, at which spunk it consolidated itself as a dominant last for musicians and officer alike, worldwide.

1988 was somewhat of a watershed year for electronic music in the US. Often maligned in the press in their early years, it was Depeche Mode that unintentionally - and mostly unaware - spearheaded this new assault. From cult period in America for much of the decade, their new high-play revolution on what was now termed Modern Rock radio resulted in mega stadium performances. An Electro accomplishment playing sold out dock was not common fare in the USA at that time!

In 1990, Quaker chaos in New York to greet the fraction at a central entrance firm made TV news, and their "Violator" albums outselling Madonna and Prince in the same year made them a US household name. Electronic music was here to stay, without a doubt!

1990's Onward: The Second Golden Era of Electronic Music for the Masses

Before our 'star music' secured its hold on the US mainstream, and while it was losing commercial lands elsewhere throughout much of the mid 1980's, Detroit and Chicago became unassuming laboratories for an outburst of Electronic Music which would see out much of the 1990's and onwards. Enter Techno and House.

Detroit in the 1980's, a post-Fordism US industrial wasteland, produced the harder European influenced Techno. In the early to mid 80's, Detroiter Juan Atkins, an obsessive Kraftwerk fan, together with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson - using primitive, often borrowed appointments - formed the flock of what would become, together with House, the predominant singing club-culture throughout the world. Heavily referenced artists that informed early Techno clause were European pioneers such as the aforementioned Kraftwerk, as well as Yello and British Electro acts the yearning of Depeche Mode, Human League, Heaven 17, New Order and Cabaret Voltaire.

Chicago, a four-hour cultivation away, simultaneously saw the section of House. The name is generally considered to be derived from "The Warehouse" where various DJ-Producers featured this new singing amalgam. House has its roots in 1970's disco and, unlike Techno, usually has some making of vocal. I think Giorgio Moroder's undertaking in the mid 70's with Donna Summer, especially the poetry 'I Feel Love', is pivotal in appreciating the 70's disco influences upon burgeoning Chicago House.

A many of variants and sub troop have developed since - crossing the Atlantic, reworked and back again - but in many spirit the popular success of these two soul forms revitalized the entire Electronic landscapes and its associated social culture. Techno and House helped to profoundly challenge mainstream and Alternative Rock as the preferred listening variety for a new generation: a meeting who has grown up with electronic singing and accepts it as a given. For them, it is music that has always been.

The history of electronic music continues to be written as technology advances and people's anticipation of where singing can go continues to push it forward, increasing its vocabularies and lexicon. https://kokania.com/product-category/electronics/

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best2shapewear · 7 years ago

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Electronic Music History and Today's Best Modern Proponents!

Electronic music history pre-dates the rock and roll era by decades. Most of us were not even on this planet when it began its often obscure, under-appreciated and misunderstood development. Today, this 'other worldly' body of sound which began close to a century ago, may no longer appear strange and unique as new generations have accepted best shapewear much of it as mainstream, but it's had a bumpy road and, in finding mass audience acceptance, a slow one.

Many musicians - the modern proponents of electronic music - developed a passion for analogue synthesizers in the late 1970's and early 1980's with signature songs like Gary Numan's breakthrough, 'Are Friends Electric?'. It was in this era that these devices became smaller, more accessible, more user friendly and more affordable for many of us. In this article I will attempt to trace this history in easily digestible Maternity Shapewear chapters and offer examples of today's best modern proponents.

To my mind, this was the beginning of a new epoch. To create electronic music, it was no longer necessary to have access to a roomful of technology in a studio or live. Hitherto, this was solely the domain of artists the likes of Kraftwerk, whose arsenal of electronic instruments and custom built gadgetry the rest of us could only have dreamed of, even if we could understand the logistics of their functioning. Having said this, at the time I was growing up in the 60's & 70's, I nevertheless had little knowledge of the complexity of work that had set a standard in previous decades washer dryer clearance to arrive at this point.

The history of electronic music owes much to Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007). Stockhausen was a German Avante Garde composer and a pioneering figurehead in electronic music from the 1950's onwards, influencing a movement that would eventually have a powerful impact upon names such as Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Brain Eno, Cabaret Voltaire, Depeche Mode, not to mention the experimental work of the Beatles' and others in the 1960's. His face is seen on the cover of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", the Beatles' 1967 master Opus. Let's start, however, by traveling a little further back in time.

The Turn of the 20th Century

Time stood still for this stargazer when I originally discovered that the first documented, exclusively electronic, concerts were not in the 1970's or 1980's but in the 1920's!

The first purely electronic instrument, the Theremin, which is played without touch, was invented by Russian scientist and cellist, Lev Termen (1896-1993), circa 1919.

In 1924, the Theremin made its appliances houston concert debut with the Leningrad Philharmonic. Interest generated by the theremin drew audiences to concerts staged across Europe and Britain. In 1930, the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York, experienced a performance of classical music using nothing but a series of ten theremins. Watching a number of skilled musicians playing this eerie sounding instrument by waving their hands around its antennae must have been so exhilarating, surreal and alien for a pre-tech audience!

For those interested, check out the recordings of Theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore (1911-1998). Lithuanian born Rockmore (Reisenberg) worked with its inventor in New York to perfect the instrument during its early years and became its most acclaimed, brilliant and recognized performer and representative throughout her life.

In retrospect Clara, was the first celebrated 'star' of genuine electronic music. You are unlikely to find more eerie, yet beautiful performances of classical music on the Theremin. She's definitely a favorite of mine!

Electronic Music in Sci-Fi, Cinema and Television

Unfortunately, and due mainly to car dealerships in houston difficulty in skill mastering, the Theremin's future as a musical instrument was short lived. Eventually, it found a niche in 1950's Sci-Fi films. The 1951 cinema classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still", with a soundtrack by influential American film music composer Bernard Hermann (known for Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho", etc.), is rich with an 'extraterrestrial' score using two Theremins and other electronic devices melded with acoustic instrumentation.

Using the vacuum-tube oscillator technology of the Theremin, French cellist and radio telegraphist, Maurice Martenot (1898-1980), began developing the Ondes Martenot (in French, known as the Martenot Wave) in 1928.

Employing a standard and familiar keyboard which could be more easily mastered by a musician, Martenot's instrument succeeded where the Theremin failed in being user-friendly. In fact, it became the first successful electronic instrument to be used by composers and orchestras of its period until the present day.

It is featured on the theme to the original 1960's TV series "Star Trek", and can be heard on contemporary recordings luxury cars houston by the likes of Radiohead and Brian Ferry.

The expressive multi-timbral Ondes Martenot, although monophonic, is the closest instrument of its generation I have heard which approaches the sound of modern synthesis.

"Forbidden Planet", released in 1956, was the first major commercial studio film to feature an exclusively electronic soundtrack... aside from introducing Robbie the Robot and the stunning Anne Francis! The ground-breaking score was produced by husband and wife team Louis and Bebe Barron who, in the late 1940's, established the first privately owned recording studio in the USA recording electronic experimental artists such as the iconic John Cage (whose own Avante Garde work challenged the definition of music itself!).

The Barrons are generally credited for having widening the application of electronic music in cinema. A soldering iron in one hand, Louis built circuitry which he manipulated to create a plethora of bizarre, 'unearthly' effects and motifs for the movie. Once performed, Houston SEO Expert these sounds could not be replicated as the circuit would purposely overload, smoke and burn out to produce the desired sound result.

Consequently, they were all recorded to tape and Bebe sifted through hours of reels edited what was deemed usable, then re-manipulated these with delay and reverberation and creatively dubbed the end product using multiple tape decks.

In addition to this laborious work method, I feel compelled to include that which is, arguably, the most enduring and influential electronic Television signature ever: the theme to the long running 1963 British Sci-Fi adventure series, "Dr. Who". It was the first time a Television series featured a solely electronic theme. The theme to "Dr. Who" was created at the legendary BBC Radiophonic Workshop using tape loops and test oscillators to run through effects, record these to tape, then were re-manipulated and edited by another Electro pioneer, Delia Derbyshire, interpreting the composition of Ron Grainer.

As you can see, electronic music's prevalent usage in vintage Sci-Fi was the principle source of the general public's perception of this music as being 'other worldly' and 'alien-bizarre sounding'. This remained the case till at least 1968 with the release of the hit album "Switched-On Bach" performed entirely on a Moog modular synthesizer by Walter Carlos (who, with a few surgical nips and tucks, subsequently became Wendy SEO Company Toronto Carlos).

The 1970's expanded electronic music's profile with the break through of bands like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, and especially the 1980's when it found more mainstream acceptance.

The Mid 1900's: Musique Concrete

In its development through the 1900's, electronic music was not solely confined to electronic circuitry being manipulated to produce sound. Back in the 1940's, a relatively new German invention - the reel-to-reel tape recorder developed in the 1930's - became the subject of interest to a number of Avante Garde European composers, most notably the French radio broadcaster and composer Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995) who developed a montage technique he called Musique Concrete.

Musique Concrete (meaning 'real world' existing sounds as opposed to artificial or acoustic ones produced by musical instruments) broadly involved the splicing together of recorded segments of tape containing 'found' sounds - natural, environmental, industrial and human - and manipulating these with effects such as delay, reverb, distortion, what career is right for me speeding up or slowing down of tape-speed (varispeed), reversing, etc.

Stockhausen actually held concerts utilizing his Musique Concrete works as backing tapes (by this stage electronic as well as 'real world' sounds were used on the recordings) on top of which live instruments would be performed by classical players responding to the mood and motifs they were hearing!

Musique Concrete had a wide impact not only on Avante Garde and effects libraries, but also on the contemporary music of the 1960's and 1970's. Important works to check are the Beatles' use of this method in ground-breaking tracks like 'Tomorrow Never Knows', 'Revolution No. 9' and 'Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite', as well as Pink Floyd albums "Umma Gumma", "Dark Side of the Moon" and Frank Zappa's "Lumpy Gravy". All used tape cut-ups and home-made tape loops often fed live into the main mixdown.

Today this can be performed with simplicity using digital sampling, but yesterday's heroes labored hours, days and even weeks to perhaps complete a four minute piece! For those of us who are contemporary musicians, understanding the history of electronic music helps in appreciating the quantum leap technology has taken in the recent period. But these early innovators, these pioneers - of which there are many more down the line - and the important figures they influenced that came before us, created the revolutionary groundwork that has business analyst certification become our electronic musical heritage today and for this I pay them homage!

1950's: The First Computer and Synth Play Music

Moving forward a few years to 1957 and enter the first computer into the electronic mix. As you can imagine, it wasn't exactly a portable laptop device but consumed a whole room and user friendly wasn't even a concept. Nonetheless creative people kept pushing the boundaries. One of these was Max Mathews (1926 -) from Bell Telephone Laboratories, New Jersey, who developed Music 1, the original music program for computers upon which all subsequent digital synthesis has its roots based. Mathews, dubbed the 'Father of Computer Music', using a digital IBM Mainframe, was the first to synthesize music on a computer.

In the climax of Stanley Kubrik's 1968 movie '2001: A Space Odyssey', use is made of a 1961 Mathews' electronic rendition of the late 1800's song 'Daisy Bell'. Here the musical accompaniment is performed by his programmed mainframe together with a computer-synthesized human 'singing' voice technique pioneered in the early 60's. In the movie, as HAL the computer regresses, 'he' reverts to this song, an homage to 'his' own origins.

1957 also witnessed the first advanced early childhood development synth, the RCA Mk II Sound Synthesizer (an improvement on the 1955 original). It also featured an electronic sequencer to program music performance playback. This massive RCA Synth was installed, and still remains, at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, New York, where the legendary Robert Moog worked for a while. Universities and Tech laboratories were the main home for synth and computer music experimentation in that early era.

1960's: The Dawning of The Age of Moog

The logistics and complexity of composing and even having access to what were, until then, musician unfriendly synthesizers, led to a demand for more portable playable instruments. One of the first to respond, and definitely the most successful, was Robert Moog (1934-2005). His playable synth employed the familiar piano style keyboard.

Moog's bulky telephone-operators' cable plug-in type of modular synth was not one to be transported and set up with any amount of ease or speed! But it received an enormous boost in technical schools near me popularity with the success of Walter Carlos, as previously mentioned, in 1968. His LP (Long Player) best seller record "Switched-On Bach" was unprecedented because it was the first time an album appeared of fully synthesized music, as opposed to experimental sound pieces.

The album was a complex classical music performance with various multi-tracks and overdubs necessary, as the synthesizer was only monophonic! Carlos also created the electronic score for "A Clockwork Orange", Stanley Kubrik's disturbing 1972 futuristic film.

From this point, the Moog synth is prevalent on a number of late 1960's contemporary albums. In 1967 the Monkees' "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd" became the first commercial pop album release to feature the modular Moog. In fact, singer/drummer Mickey Dolenz purchased one of the very first units sold.

It wasn't until the early 1970's, however, when the first Minimoog appeared that interest seriously developed amongst musicians. This portable little unit with a fat sound had a significant impact becoming part of live music kit for many touring musicians for years to come. Other companies such as Sequential Circuits, Roland and Korg began A+ certification training producing their own synths, giving birth to a music subculture.

I cannot close the chapter on the 1960's, however, without reference to the Mellotron. This electronic-mechanical instrument is often viewed as the primitive precursor to the modern digital sampler.

Developed in early 1960's Britain and based on the Chamberlin (a cumbersome US-designed instrument from the previous decade), the Mellotron keyboard triggered pre-recorded tapes, each key corresponding to the equivalent note and pitch of the pre-loaded acoustic instrument.

The Mellotron is legendary for its use on the Beatles' 1966 song 'Strawberry Fields Forever'. A flute tape-bank is used on the haunting introduction played by Paul McCartney.

The instrument's popularity burgeoned and was used on many recordings of the era such as the immensely successful Moody Blues epic 'Nights in White Satin'. The 1970's saw it adopted more and more by progressive rock bands. Electronic pioneers Tangerine Dream featured it on their early albums.

With time and further advances in microchip technology though, this charming instrument became a relic of its period.

1970's: The Birth of Vintage plus size shapewear Electronic Bands

The early fluid albums of Tangerine Dream such as "Phaedra" from 1974 and Brian Eno's work with his self-coined 'ambient music' and on David Bowie's "Heroes" album, further drew interest in the synthesizer from both musicians and audience.

Kraftwerk, whose 1974 seminal album "Autobahn" achieved international commercial success, took the medium even further adding precision, pulsating electronic beats and rhythms and sublime synth melodies. Their minimalism suggested a cold, industrial and computerized-urban world. They often utilized vocoders and speech synthesis devices such as the gorgeously robotic 'Speak and Spell' voice emulator, the latter being a children's learning aid!

While inspired by the experimental electronic works of Stockhausen, as artists, Kraftwerk were the first to successfully combine all the elements of electronically generated music and noise and produce an easily recognizable song format. The addition of vocals in many of their songs, both in their native German tongue and English, helped earn them universal acclaim becoming one of the most influential contemporary music pioneers and performers of the past half-century.

Kraftwerk's 1978 gem 'Das Modell' hit the UK number one spot with a reissued English language version, 'The Model', in February 1982, making it one of the earliest Electro chart toppers!

Ironically, though, it took a movement that had no association with EM (Electronic Music) to facilitate its broader mainstream acceptance. The mid 1970's punk movement, primarily in Britain, brought with it a unique new attitude: one that gave priority to self-expression rather than performance dexterity and formal training, as used appliances houston embodied by contemporary progressive rock musicians. The initial aggression of metallic punk transformed into a less abrasive form during the late 1970's: New Wave. This, mixed with the comparative affordability of many small, easy to use synthesizers, led to the commercial synth explosion of the early 1980's.

A new generation of young people began to explore the potential of these instruments and began to create soundscapes challenging the prevailing perspective of contemporary music. This didn't arrive without battle scars though. The music industry establishment, especially in its media, often derided this new form of expression and presentation and was anxious to consign it to the dustbin of history.

1980's: The First Golden Era of Electronic Music for the Masses

Gary Numan became arguably the first commercial synth megastar with the 1979 "Tubeway Army" hit 'Are Friends Electric?'. The Sci-Fi element is not too far away once again. Some of the imagery is drawn from the Science Fiction classic, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". The 1982 hit film "Blade Runner" was also based on the same book.

Although 'Are Friends Electric?' featured conventional drum and bass backing, its dominant use of Polymoogs gives the song its very distinctive sound. The recording was the first synth-based release to achieve number one chart status in the UK during the post-punk years and helped usher in a new genre. No longer was electronic and/or synthesizer music consigned to the mainstream sidelines. Exciting!

Further developments in affordable electronic technology placed electronic squarely in the hands of young creators and began to transform professional studios.

Designed in Australia in 1978, the Fairlight Sampler CMI became the first commercially available polyphonic digital sampling instrument but its prohibitive cost saw it solely in use by the likes of Trevor Horn, Stevie Wonder and Peter Gabriel. By mid-decade, however, smaller, cheaper instruments entered the market such as the ubiquitous Akai and Emulator Samplers often used by musicians live to replicate their studio-recorded sounds. The Sampler revolutionized the production of music from this point on.

In most major markets, with the qualified exception of the US, the early 1980's was commercially drawn to electro-influenced artists. This was an exciting era for many of us, myself included. I know I wasn't alone in closeting the distorted guitar and amps and immersing myself into a new universe of musical expression - a sound world of the abstract and non traditional.

At home, Australian synth based bands Real Life ('Send Me An Angel', "Heartland" album), Icehouse ('Hey Little Girl') and Pseudo Echo ('Funky Town') began to chart internationally, and more experimental electronic outfits like Severed Heads and SPK also developed cult followings overseas.

But by mid-decade the first global electronic wave lost its momentum amidst resistance fomented by an unrelenting old school music media. Most of the artists that began the decade as predominantly electro-based either disintegrated or heavily hybrid their sound with traditional rock instrumentation.

The USA, the largest world market in every sense, remained in the conservative music wings for much of the 1980's. Although synth-based records did hit the American charts, the first being Human League's 1982 US chart topper 'Don't You Want Me Baby?', on the whole it was to be a few more years before the American mainstream embraced electronic music, at which point it consolidated itself as a dominant genre for musicians and audiences alike, worldwide.

1988 was somewhat of a watershed year for electronic music in the US. Often maligned in the press in their early years, it was Depeche Mode that unintentionally - and mostly unaware - spearheaded this new assault. From cult status in America for much of the decade, their new high-play rotation on what was now termed Modern Rock radio resulted in mega stadium performances. An Electro act playing sold out arenas was not common fare in the USA at that time!

In 1990, fan pandemonium in New York to greet the members at a central record shop made TV news, and their "Violator" album outselling Madonna and Prince in the same year made them a US household name. Electronic music was here to stay, without a doubt!

1990's Onward: The Second Golden Era of Electronic Music for the Masses

Before our 'star music' secured its hold on the US mainstream, and while it was losing commercial ground elsewhere throughout much of the mid 1980's, Detroit and Chicago became unassuming laboratories for an explosion of Electronic Music which would see out much of the 1990's and onwards. Enter Techno and House.

Detroit in the 1980's, a post-Fordism US industrial wasteland, produced the harder European influenced Techno. In the early to mid 80's, Detroiter Juan Atkins, an obsessive Kraftwerk fan, together with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson - using primitive, often borrowed equipment - formed the backbone of what would become, together with House, the predominant music club-culture throughout the world. Heavily referenced artists that informed early Techno development were European pioneers such as the aforementioned Kraftwerk, as well as Yello and British Electro acts the likes of Depeche Mode, Human League, Heaven 17, New Order and Cabaret Voltaire.

Chicago, a four-hour drive away, simultaneously saw the development of House. The name is generally considered to be derived from "The Warehouse" where various DJ-Producers featured this new music amalgam. House has its roots in 1970's disco and, unlike Techno, usually has some form of vocal. I think Giorgio Moroder's work in the mid 70's with Donna Summer, especially the song 'I Feel Love', is pivotal in appreciating the 70's disco influences upon burgeoning Chicago House.

A myriad of variants and sub genres have developed since - crossing the Atlantic, reworked and back again - but in many ways the popular success of these two core forms revitalized the entire Electronic landscape and its associated social culture. Techno and House helped to profoundly challenge mainstream and Alternative Rock as the preferred listening choice for a new generation: a generation who has grown up with electronic music and accepts it as a given. For them, it is music that has always been.

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Harasta Electronica: The Love for Electronic Music Synthesizers

I paced up the cement steps of a drafty hallway where I could hear the sound waves of what I could only imagine was a science lab from the 1970’s recorded in film noir. Initially, I biked up to what looked like from the exterior an abandoned warehouse. I didn’t know what to expect when we agreed to meet that frigid Tuesday night. As I took every uncertain step in a dimly lit stairwell, a gray and white cat greeted me on the third floor where I was instructed to meet Hayden Harasta. Shortly after, Hayden walked from behind the door and said “Oh, you met Trash Cat.” Of course, I inquired about the name which simply led with a story of the typical life of a North Philly cat and its rescue from the recycling bin outside. “Come on in,” said Hayden with both hands gesturing towards a mysterious light.

There’s always been something obscure about Hayden’s demeanor that makes you curious to know more. Just when you think you can sum up a person, he leads you to a room of overwhelmingly astonishing inventions. So many questions began to run through my mind at that exact moment. What is this place? How did this come to exist? I knew Hayden’s main interest was creating novelty synthesizers for people in the electronic music industry. What I didn’t know is his ability to be so resourceful and nimble in his everyday lifestyle. When I first met Hayden at a party in Olde City, Philadelphia, I would have never expected him to live in this unique space. The more layers I peeled off Hayden’s personality, the easier it was to understand how it all came together. Something I could comprehend about Hayden is that he is a problem solver and refuses to let anything stump him. Efficiency seems to be the core theme to his lifestyle. He’s more driven than any person I’ve met and is self-taught in many of his endeavors.

I walked into “Hayden Harasta’s Synth Factory,” a wonderland of electronic instruments. In what used to be a warehouse, now resides artists like Hayden who combine their work space and living space. Every inch of the apartment is made from re purposed parts, mainly resourced from his job at Scenery 1st where he crafts quality stage displays. The plumbing and electricity was all installed by Hayden, and when I asked “how?” He said, “You can pretty much do anything with the internet,” casually.”

As I looked up, various volumes on synths, modules, and oscillators covered the self-made bookshelves on the wall. Still, I didn’t know what this guy was all about but I found myself wanting to know more. It’s inspirational to see people like Hayden teach themselves how to create and invent such complex instruments. It comes to show that passion can drive an individual enough to be successful. He exudes confidence when talking about synths and you can just tell how much passion and love he puts into his work. Self-starters like Hayden motivate individuals to be patient to fulfill their dreams.

Childhood provided Hayden with the opportunity to master household tasks and the duties that maintaining a beautiful estate entailed. His parents continue to reside in Worchester, Delaware where they resume their occupation as estate caretakers of the DuPont family. The DuPont family is known as one of the richest families in America since the 1800s. Though The DuPonts had many influences in large businesses across the US in the past, the family name holds a different standard today in Delaware. Most of the estates were donated to exist as National Parks and other properties were even turned into green space attractions for tourists. The DuPont family has a respected reputation in Delaware and continues to uphold a certain status today that is esteemed. As a boy, Hayden would help his parents build, garden, and clean to keep the estates maintained. Although he took it for granted when he was younger, he appreciates the skills he learned when growing up at the estates. He learned to be imaginative and uphold a certain craftsmanship when creating.

Hayden’s first job did not come easy or conventionally after an institutionalized education. A couple years were spent at UArts located in Philadelphia, where he studied graphic design but found himself unfulfilled by that specific path. Eventually, Hayden left UArts before finishing his degree in hopes to take his career into his own hands. At first, he worked at a quaint coffee shop, keeping his aspirations on the back burner of life. Even thought he had little money from his consuming and draining day job, he continued to make time to create his synth inventions on the side.

When the opportunity arose, Hayden applied for a position through a friend at a special event décor company called Scenery 1st. He didn’t have any professional experience and had one day to prove his abilities. The company was impressed and gave him an opportunity where many of his creative desires could be met. Scenery 1st designs and manufactures quality stage displays with a diverse creative team including “stage carpenters, welders, scenic artists, crafts persons, seamstresses, draftsmen, sculptors, and designers.” This job gave him a chance to use his woodworking skills and craftsmanship to build sets in a creative way. With the extra equipment and supplies from various projects for clients, Hayden re purposed scraps like wood, metal, ceramics, and plastic that would otherwise be thrown out. Everything in his apartment came from stage bits and is currently used to furnish, decorate, and reinvent the cement space he rented out. Most of the money he makes from Scenery 1st goes into his inventions. As he told this part of his journey I began to question how he was so confident without having a college degree. He said, “most people can do most things if you leave your expectations to fail aside.” I found this intriguing because most of us tend to be critical of ourselves and our capabilities. The only way to catapult our existing dreams according to Hayden, is by using utilizing resources to bounce forward.

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The “Thereminion” is the first electronic synth invention created by Hayden with the intent to sell. The “Thereminion” mocks an electronic instrument (known as the ether phone) made by a Russian inventor named Leon Theremin in the 1920’s. The instrument is played without any physical contact, but creates different sounds with the movement of your hand in relation to the electronic waves. The instrument was used in many horror films after its conception. When I listened to the sound waves all I could envision was an old black and white film of Frankenstein playing in my head. With Leon Theremin’s invention, Hayden could create a mini version of it. The product is convenient for those who cannot afford or have the space for an actual Theremin instrument. It is also for the electronic music creator to have a simple tool to use in music editing software. The tuning is simply managed with a screwdriver and can plug in to any sound amplifier. Each “Therminion” is delivered with instructions so the user can easily manage the functions to their needs. Hayden continues to make other electronic synths and thrives to perfect them for the synth community.

From the perspective of someone who does not know much about synths or electronic music culture, I found it intriguing that there was such a prominent community still. The influence lives strong in those who love synth music because of its origin in the 1970’s and 80’s in British Culture. It makes sense that Hayden and many others are exposed to this type of sound because of America’s early fascination with British culture. After watching Synth Britannia, the contextualization of synth culture becomes quite clear. In 1971, a film called “A Clockwork Orange” represents the rise of synthetic dreamers and a realm outside of synth pop. Alienated synthesists like Walter Carlos, now known as Wendy Carlos, used this time to expose a different side of synth music that became just as respected as classical music. She became known as an inspiration after her composition in the soundtrack for “A Clockwork Orange” where she used big Moog synth sounds to orchestrate one of the first absorbent synth based sounds. This became a foreshadowing of once alienated medium of music to come.

The most common name associated with synthesizers would be Moog. The conception of modular systems used in synth music was originally created by Robert Moog who “pioneered the concept of voltage control in the 60’s, and that was likely the biggest factor in making the synthesizer a practical music instrument today” (Horn, 1980, p. 34). His influence is still dominant today among synth artists and users. Wendy Carlos’ work such as Switched- On Bacharach, played a major role in bringing electronic music out of the experimental closet and into society’s consciousness. She was an essential element to Moog’s reputation in the electronic music synthesizer industry where eventually “Moog” became a terminology synonymous to “synthesizer.” These influences inspire those who make synth music to not shy away from creating something different that strays away from popular culture.

Wendy (Walter) Carlos’ story parallels similarly with the way electronic music’s journey of acceptance rose. Carlos continued to thrive in the electronic synth industry as someone who identified as a man for more than a decade until 1979. Her reconstruction of the Moog and recreation of classic pieces, earned her respect in the industry. “The album became the most influential “electronic” classical recording of all time, smashing the borders between classical and synthesized music” (Macdonald-Dupuis, 2015). She continued to identify as a man until the age of forty where the public was unexpectedly tolerant of her identity. The community of synth music makers appreciates the art form itself no matter where it comes from or what prejudices people may have. I find this commonality of appreciation to be inspirational and influential to those who may consider difference before understanding the person or art form itself. This type of music and community makes it possible for artists to express themselves in a way that is beautiful and understood.

The way that Hayden describes his love for synth continues to be explained in an unforetold manner. Although synth culture had its rise in the 1980s, it seems to have less exposure in popular culture today. The medium is used to create a whole new culture and genre today. Hayden appreciates the experimental aspect of these instruments just like his influences did in the past. These impacts continue to thrive people with similar interests as Hayden in recreating electronic synth mediums for new experimental purposes. Experimental music communities are extremely accepting according to Hayden. He doesn’t feel judged or insecure in spaces where a sense of comradery is brought together through the love of synth.

A relevant influence of synth music in a separate genre would be Scott Wexton, known as the “Voodoo Organist.” Although Wexton started in the early 90s, he continues to influence people today with his music. His combination of “sound is instantly recognizable yet hard to describe, blending elements of blues, goth, punk, rock, and exotica into a heady musical concoction that sounds something like the house band in Satan's Tiki Lounge” (Na). Honestly when I listened to some of the songs, I felt like I was in Ronald McDonald’s haunted house listening to “The Monster Mash.” It’s a pleasant yet cryptic type of music that I would associate with light hearted scary movies. This goth/punk culture brings raw emotions out into this type of music form. Like Hayden, artists like this might not be straight forwardly transparent but express themselves through their music. As he presses down on each key, unique sounds bind together, lulling the dark lyrics as the pleasant sounds glaze over the mind. Most goth/punk music is created to be raw and straight forward in an aggressive way. His music shows the beauty of this culture and the different ways emotions are expressed through various keys.

Kraftwerk, a German synth group from the late 1960s, influenced the break of experimental music by constructing complex rhythms that were different than any other. Their dedication to creating obscure sounds with new technologies at the time made them one of the most influential groups to the development of electronic music. Like Hayden, this group created majority of their music in solidarity and continued to make music even when it was not popular to the public. Throughout their journey, they stayed true to themselves and the music they produced. Eventually, when electronic music became more accepted by the public, this group became one of the most influential to the development to different media genres today. “Having inspired everyone from Bowie to Coldplay, Siouxsie to Radiohead, this bizarre collective has also proven partly responsible for the emergence of entire genres - electronica, techno and synth-pop” (Johnstone, 2008).

Hayden’s most recent invention aside from the “Thereminion,” includes a smaller compact pocket size travel synthesizer for those who like to play around with sounds on the go. “Hikari,” the name of the product, derives from his journeys in Japan and the community of synth music lovers he met there. Most of his inventions have Japanese oriented logos and qualities to them. His infatuation with the culture and love for electronic instruments is what inspired him to create this synth that generates buzzing sounds. The sounds are based off how the instrument is tuned to give the creator the ability to manage the pitch. The compact design also gives the consumer the opportunity to use it wherever they go. Although most people would not find the need to carry this type of instrument around, the community base for synth users are very passionate about this type of product. He said synthesists can “Make music any place at any time, in the dark, in the park, by the beach or in the street” with “Hikari.”

Twisting and turning modulators to create abstract sounds, Hayden hopes to connect with those who love experimental synth music through his inventions. Although they are still in prototype, his interest and influences continue to thrive in hopes to reach out to a community base who loves electronic music synthesizers as much as he does. After getting a taste of synth culture, I can see why so many people appreciate the medium and its originality. For those who are not exposed to this type of music, it can seem incomprehensible and distasteful. What I discovered to love about synth culture is the lack of arbitrary judgement and the open mindedness to creativity. I think we can learn from opening ourselves up to differently cultures of artistry. As I’ve gone through this journey of learning the power of synths, I hope to continue to expose myself to diverse compositions and the reasoning behind specific types of musical expressions. We should accept more than the homogeneous understanding of music and people.

Citation:

Stanley Kubrick's Adaptation of “A Clockwork Orange” (Discussed by Anthony Burgess, Malcolm McDowell, and William Everson). (1972). Films Media Group. Available at: http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=103640&xtid=128250 [Accessed 14 Apr. 2017].

http://fod.infobase.com.libproxy.temple.edu/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=128250&loid=446356&tScript=0

Kraftwerk and the electronic revolution: a documentary film [Video file]. (2008). New Malden: Sexy Intellectual. Retrieved from http://temple.naxosvideolibrary.com.libproxy.temple.edu/title/SIDVD541/

(2008, October 24). Retrieved April 14, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn0HAWX1TSA&list=PLD3973AC7BFE489A4&index=1

Meet Wendy Carlos: The Trans Godmother of Electronic Music. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2017, from https://thump.vice.com/en_us/article/meet-wendy-carlos-the-trans-godmother-of-electronic-music

C. (2012, March 16). Retrieved April 14, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK1P93r9xes

http://www.voodooorganist.com/index.php?about-the-voodoo-organist=yes

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