Electronic music

Electronic music is a loose term for music created using electronic equipment. Any sound produced by the means of an electrical signal may reasonably be called electronic, and the term is sometimes used that way -- in music where acoustic performance is the norm, even the introduction of electronic amplifiers may touch off discussions of electronic music. Jazz and folk music, for example, have gone through a good deal of argument about the topic.

But as a category of criticism and marketing, electronic music is the broad term for music that is produced exclusively by electronic components, in instruments such as synthesizers, samplers, computers and drum machines. Theoretically, the music could include any of an array of other "instruments." The earliest purely electronic instrument was the Teleharmonium or Telharmonium, developed by Thaddeus Cahill. As it weighed 7 tons and was the size of a boxcar, the first practical electronic instrument is often viewed to be the Theremin, invented by Professor Leon Theremin circa 1919 - 1920. (For more information on both the Teleharmonium and Leon Theremin, see the links at the end of this article).

In the years following World War II, Electronic music was embraced by contemporary "art" musicians, and was hailed as a way to exceed the limits of traditional instruments. Modern Electronic composition is considered to have begun in force with the development of Musique Concrete and tape recorders in 1948, only to rapidly evolve with the creation of early analog synthesizers. Some landmark compositions were authored by avant garde classical composers such as Edgar Varese, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Steve Reich. Stockhausen has worked for many years as part of Berlin's Studio for Electronic Music combining electronically generated sounds with conventional orchestras. (See Electronic art music for more information.)

At the Radiophonic Workshop, the sound special effects unit of the BBC, Ron Grainer created one of the first electronic signature tunes for television with the theme music for Doctor Who. A short OGG file sample of this can be found here.

Although Electronic Music began in the world of classical (or "art") composition, within a few years it had been adopted into popular culture with varying degrees of enthusiasm. In the 1960s, Walter Carlos (now Wendy Carlos) popularized early synthesizer music with two notable albums The Well Tempered Synthesiser and Switched On Bach, which took pieces of baroque classical music and reproduced them on Moog synthesizers.

As technology developed, and synthesizers became cheaper, more robust and portable, they were adopted by many rock bands. Examples of relatively early adopters in this field are bands like the United States of America, The Silver Apples and Pink Floyd, and although not all of their music was primarily electronic (with the notable exception of The Silver Apples), much of the resulting sound was dependant upon the synthesised element. In the 1970s, this style was mainly popularised by Kraftwerk, who used electronics and robotics to symbolise and sometime gleefully celebrate the alienation of the modern technological world; to this day their music remains uncompromisingly electronic.

In jazz, amplified acoustic instruments and synthesizers were mixed in a series of influential recordings by Weather Report. Joe Zawinul, the synthesizer player in that group, has continued to field ensembles of the same kind.

Musicians such as Brian Eno, Vangelis, Jean Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream also popularised the sound of electronic music. The film industry also began to make extensive use of electronic music in soundtracks; an example of a film whose soundtrack is heavily dependent upon this is Stanley Kubrick's film of Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange. Forbidden Planet had used an electronic score in 1956 and, once electronic sounds became a more common part of popular recordings, other science fiction films such as Blade Runner and the Alien series of movies began to depend heavily for mood and ambience upon the use of electronic music and electronically derived effects. Electronic groups were also hired to produce entire soundtracks, in the same way as other popular music stars.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s there was a great deal of innovation around the development of electronic music instruments. Analogue synthesisers largely gave way to digital synthesisers and samplers. Early samplers, like early synthesisers, were large and expensive pieces of gear-- companies like Fairlight and New England Digital sold instruments that cost upwards of $100,000. In the mid 1980s, this changed with the development of low cost samplers. From the late 1970s onward, much popular music was developed on these machines. Groups like Heaven 17, Severed Heads, The Human League, Yaz, The Art of Noise, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and New Order developed entirely new ways of making popular music by electronic means.

The natural ability for music machines to make stochastic, non-harmonic, staticky noises lead to a genre of music known as industrial music. Some artists, like Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM, and Severed Heads, took some of the adventurous innovations of Musique Concrete and applied them to mechanical dance beats. Others, such as Test Department, Einsturzende Neubauten, took this new sound at face value and created hellish electronic compositions. Meanwhile, another group (Robert Rich, :zoviet*france:, rapoon) took these harsh sounds and melded them into evocative soundscapes.

The Acid House movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s went on to further promote the development and acceptance of electronic music into the mainstream. More recently, electronic instruments have been used to create dance music with rhythms faster and more precise than previously possible with ordinary percussion, and the sound of this music has often featured electronically altered sounds and samples of traditional instruments. The falling price of suitable equipment has meant that popular music has increasingly been made electronically. Artists such as Bjork and Moby have further popularized variants of this form of music within the mainstream. In the 1990s a Turkish electronic musician Murat Ses published his electronic works which incorporated original Levantine, Central Asian, Anatolian musics in a so-called trilogy with the concept: "The Timeless and Boundariless Context of Culture and Civilization".

One of the principal sources for dissemination of information about electronic music is the magazine The Wire, a monthly publication which covers the whole scene extensively.

Genres

Contemporary Electronic music includes many different styles, such as

Drum and Bass/Breakbeat

Trip hop aka Bristol Sound

Notable artists in some genre of electronic music:

Aphex Twin (Best known for their ambient work, has done some other styles.)

Art of Trance (Trance {duh!})

Bedrock (Collaborative effort by Bedrock Records, including Sasha+Digweed. Progressive trance.)

Bjork (Bjork is one of the most inflential artists of the past decade. While she is impossible to categorize in one genre of music, her electronic art rock transmogrifies itself into what could best be described as progressive ambient.)

Brian Eno - (also together with David Byrne of Talking Heads collaborated on an early sampling album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts).

BT

Coldcut

Daft Punk (Old school garage house and funky breaks.)

Depeche Mode

Dust Brothers (breaks, big beat)

Enigma

Enya (ambient, trip hop)

Fatboy Slim aka Norman Cook (Breaks, big beat, Happy Hardcore)

Frankie Bones (Happy Hardcore, Funky breaks, Goa. Responsible for essentially starting the rave scene in North America. Came up with the word "Rave". Came up with PLUR.)

Frankie Knuckles (Invented house music. Spun at a club called "The Warehouse", for which the genre was named.)

JoCa - http://www.jocamusic.com

Jochem Paap aka Speedy J (Atmospheric)

Jungle Brothers (Jungle, Two-step, Tech-step, Breaks)

JunkieXL

Klaus Schulze

KLF - pioneers in the field of flagrant sampling

Kraftwerk (Pre-techno electronica, experimental, one of the most-sampled artists ever)

Mike Paradinas

Moby (Does just about everything) - http://www.moby.org

Murat Ses

Oliver Lieb

Orbital (Funky breaks, Tech Step, Happy Hardcore)

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Paul Lansky

Paul Oakenfold (Progressive Trance, Ibiza)

Paul Van Dyk (Progressive Trance)

Pet Shop Boys

Portishead

Prodigy (Breaks, Big beat)

DJ Q-Bert (Scratch artist, three time world champion turntablist)

Ritchie Hawtin aka Plastikman (Minimalist)

Sneaker Pimps (Mostly trip hop)

Squarepusher

Sven Vath

Tangerine Dream

The Chemical Brothers (Breaks, Big beat, Funky Breaks, breakbeat)

The Orb (trance, ambient, very influential)

The Residents

Thomas Dolby

Timo Maas (progressive trance, dark trance)

Underworld

Vangelis

Yellow Magic Orchestra aka YMO (Pre-techno electronica, melodic)

Notable record labels:

Harthouse -- http://www.harthouse.com/

Hooj Choons -- http://www.hooj-choons.co.uk/

Interstate

Mute Records

Moonshine Music

Ninja Tune -- http://www.ninjatune.net

Perfecto

Platipus -- http://www.platipus.com/

Plus8 -- http://www.plus8.com/

Positiva

Ralph America -- http://www.ralphamerica.com/

React

Warp -- http://www.warprecords.com/

Notable DJs:

Darren Emerson (Progressive trance)

Goldie (Drum and Bass (a major progenitor of the genre), Breakbeats, Acid jazz)

Grooverider

Jeff Mills

John Digweed (Progressive trance, dark trance, many collaborations with Sasha)

Judge Jules

LTJ Bukem (Much of his work is described as "ambient jungle.")

Paul Oakenfold

Sander Kleinenberg

Sasha (Progressive trance, dark trance, many collaborations with John Digweed. Pronounced "Say-sha".)

Spooky

External links:

An article on Leon Theremin
More information on the Telharmonium
A good multimedia guide to electronic music genres can be found here. Expect a long download, so if you don't have a fast connection it may not be worth it for you. You must have shockwave flash.