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For clarification, Electronic Music is the generation of sounds via the use of electric signals, as opposed to music played through an electrical supply. Therefore, a guitar being played through an amplifier does not count as Electronic Music. Ironically, most electronic instruments today go to great lengths to imitate the “natural” sounds of piano, wind or string instruments and authenticity is a major part of the marketing of keyboards. This enables any reasonable piano player to produce the sounds of a whole orchestra without having to go through the difficult process of learning how to actually play any other instrument. It all started in the late 1800’s when various inventors started wrestling with the challenge of making electronic signals sound better than a mains hum. It took over a hundred years for anyone to come up with something that the entertained masses would accept but many attempts were made with varying degrees of success. Nothing of any note happened until after the First World War when the Theramin was invented by a gentleman named Leon Theramin, which was the first in a very long line of odd looking electronic instruments particularly, and also uniquely, as this one works without touching it. “Tunes” are created by moving your hands across it, the first “dance while you play” instrument, if you will. Amazingly, it’s still in use today by many current main stream artists. However, the Theramin is widely regarded as the instrument that gave birth to Electronic music. The following 40-50 years saw a variety of strange looking scientist types parading bizarre looking electronic “instruments” all presumably hoping to create a sound significantly different to the one their colleagues had just invented. This was a distinctly vain hope which led to electronic music being restricted to classical composers who wanted to produce newer sounds than that of their far superior predecessors like Mozart, Beethoven or Bach, to name but three. Through the 1950’s things progressed slightly and electronic music could be heard in the form of spaceship sounds in science fiction movies. The sixties arrived and as with so many other things, it changed everything, in 1968 Wendy Carlos released her album “Switched on Bach” playing good old fashioned classical tunes using a Moog synthesizer, which had been invented by a gentleman named Dr Robert Moog. The album was a hit and soon many of the hip bands of the moment wanted to use a Moog and/or a Theremin. This included, but was in no way limited to; The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Doors. Even the BBC even got in on the act with the theme music to Doctor Who which was the first successfully popular electronic theme tune. Kraftwerk were the band largely attributed with revolutionising the sound and appeal of electronic music and they brought it to the masses during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. But it’s over the last 20 years that electronic music has really found its audience. To the extent which it appears in so much of today’s music that the definition of the genre is almost blurred. The brashness and whiny nature of the 1980’s electronic sound has now largely mellowed and become almost imperceptible in a large part of today’s electronic dance music scene. Whether artist’s such a The Pet Shop Boys would get away with their brand these days is another question, but for sure these unique music makers are responsible for driving the electronic scene on to more advanced levels. Artists like Fatboy Slim and Moby have mastered the art of combining natural and electronic sounds to create popular music that many would not even recognise as “electronic”. However, such is the diversity of today’s music scene that one can still tune into Kraftwerk, Autechre or Aphex Twin if whines, whistles and pulses are your thing. Jen Michelle Jarre the French king of the keyboards also popularized this style of music and brought it before the masses in conjuction with spectacular events often including huge firework displays. Electronic music now enjoys an affection by many age groups thanks to artist’s such as Jen Michelle. Somehow I cannot imaging music without electronics. Even most symphony orchestra’s use electronics in some form. Yes, electronic music is definitely here to stay and will probably move to another platform. I for one, can’t wait to see where electronic music progress’s to next. |