Level 3 Music Research
Electronic Music
Introduction
Electronic music is a genre that has gained significant popularity in recent years, as a range of new artists finding their fame through online services such as SoundCloud have adopted the genre and found a large following of fans keen on hearing more and more of this unique style of music. As electronic music finds its way into popular culture more and more every day, we start to see it become the norm, with bands like Daft Punk and songs like Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ using almost entirely electronic instruments in the creation of their art. In my research I aim to answer the focus question; “How has electronic music evolved as a genre over the last 100 years, and what allows it to maintain its popularity today?” I will begin with some of the earliest electronic instruments and techniques starting with the 1920s, and move through the decades to today, where we see electronic music at arguably its most popular point.
Electronic Music – 1920s
The 1920s is where the world started to see the some of the first electronic instruments created and used in popular music. Instruments such as the Theremin changed the way music was looked at forever by bringing in a new form of sound and therefore a new form of music altogether. Music using electronic instruments at this time all used an entirely traditional structure and sounded very similar to popular music being created prior to the use, but incorporated electronic music in a subtle but effective way, with the use of one or two electronic instruments in an otherwise standard song the most common.
source: https://buyplays.co/electronic-music-history-1920s-soundcloud/
Theremin
The Theremin, also called the ‘Thereminvox’ or ‘Etherophone’ was an electronic musical instrument created in 1920 in the Soviet Union by Leon Theremin. The device consists of a box and radio tubes, and it works by producing oscillations at two sound-wave frequencies, equal to the difference between their rates of vibration. Pitch is controlled by moving a hand, or sometimes a baton, toward or away from an antenna at the right rear of the box. The movement of a hand or baton alters one of the inaudible frequencies. The Theremin allows production of tone colours over a range of six octaves.
source: https://www.britannica.com/art/theremin/
Ondes Martenot
The Ondes Martenot was created in 1928 by Maurice Martenot, and has a sound very similar to the Theremin. This instrument, however, allowed much more manipulation of the timbre of the sound. The Ondes can be played either by the keyboard on the unit itself, or by sliding a ring worn on a finger in front of the keyboard.
source: https://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/01/ondes-martenot-electronic-music-theremin/
Electronic Music – 1930s
The 1930s saw a significant improvement of amplifiers, and the invention of the tape recorder. Also very significant during this time was John Cage’s composition ‘Imaginary Landscape no.1’ in 1939, which used recorded test tones played on turntables with variable speeds. The trautonium began commercial production in the early 1930s, while more and more artists adopted electronic instruments, and even began adapting music written for string instruments to be played on the Theremin. Norman McLaren experimented with graphical sound during this decade, one of the first.
source: www.indiana.edu/~emusic/elechist.htm/
Trautonium
The Trautonium is an electronic musical instrument created by Friedrich Trautwein in Berlin during the 1930s. This instrument consists of the manual and a foot controller with two switches. The instrument uses a resistive wire – a nonconductive string wound with resistive material. When pressure is applied to the string, sound is created. The location and pressure level of this pressure placed determines the volume and pitch of the note.
source: www.doepfer.de/traut/traut_e.htm/
Electronic Music – 1940s
The 1940s saw test recordings being made using stereo sound. Developments during this period were largely limited to Germany, but the innovation made its way to the United States after the end of World War II. This decade also saw the introduction of magnetic audio tape, opening up a huge range of new possibilities to artists, producers, and sound engineers. These tapes could be slowed down, sped up, or even run backwards to give an often startling effect. They could also be joined to create endless loops, able to play continually repeated patterns of pre-recorded material. Another unforeseen development was the ability to turn tape recorders into echo machines with a relatively easy modification to produce complex, controllable, quality echo and reverberation effects.
source: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/gramophone/02811-3021.3-e.html/
Electronic Music – 1950s
The 1950s was a reasonably significant time period for electronic music. Two new electronic instruments made their debut in 1957, and unlike the Theremin and Ondes Martenot, they were hard to use and required extensive programming, and also could not be played in real time. The first of these was the computer, after ‘Music 1’ and ‘Music 2’ were used by Max Mathews to create original compositions at Bell Labatories. The second was the first electronic synthesiser, called the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesiser, which used vacuum tube oscillators and included the first electronic music sequencer. This synth was designed by RCA and still resides at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Centre, the oldest centre for electronic and computer music research in the United States.
Columbia-Princeton
The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Centre, now known as the Computer Music Centre, is the oldest centre for electronic music research in the United States. It was founded by Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening in 1958, and originally worked with magnetic tape manipulation. The studio was built with the help of engineer Peter Mauzey, and became the hub for American electronic music until about 1980. Parts of the Moog synthesiser were developed at this centre by Robert Moog.
source: www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Electronic_music
Electronic Music – 1960s
The 1960s saw innovation mainly in the field of playable synthesisers. The first playable synthesiser to appear was the Buchla. Appearing in 1963, it was the product of Morton Subotnick’s effort. Subotnick and his business partner Ramon Sender, with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, hired electrical engineer Don Buchla to build a ‘black box’ for the purpose of composition. Another playable synthesiser, significantly better known, was the Moog synthesiser.
source: www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Electronic_music
Moog Synthesiser
The moog synthesiser was the first to use a piano styled keyboard, and was the brainchild of Robert Moog. In 1964, Moog invited composer Herb Deutsch to visit his studio in Trumansburg. Moog had met Deutsch the year before, and after hearing music decided to begin building electronic music modules. Moog very quickly created two prototypes of voltage controlled oscillators, and later created a voltage controlled filter. In the same year Moog was invited to the AES convention in New York City, and sold his first synthesiser modules. By the time the convention was over, Moog synthesisers had entered the larger synthesiser business.
source: https://gearpatrol.com/2015/07/07/history-of-moog-music-synthesizers/
Electronic Music – 1970s
The Mini-Moog was created in this decade; a small, affordable synthesiser that made analogue synthesis work easily affordable and available to a much wider range of artists. The first use of real time digital synthesis was seen in this era. Although electronic instruments were used in the 1960s, the 1970s saw electronic music enter the mainstream. Bands like Kraftwerk, an iconic West German band – introduced the electronic sound to a wider audience. Kraftwerk combined the popular rhythms used by Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and others with the sounds of the Moog synthesiser and vocoder. Their new sound influenced a wider variety of musicians and built the foundations needed for the electronic music scene to really take hold.
Giorgio Moroder
Giorgio Moroder, now most famous for his involvement with Daft Punk, incorporated electronic instruments to capitalize on the growing trend of disco music. Moroder collaborated with artists in the mainstream to increase the reach of electronic music, allowing it to reach new audiences. He produced tracks for Donna Summer, David Bowie, and many others. The use of synthesiser in his productions brought electronic music to the forefront of the musical mainstream.
source: https://blog.udemy.com/history-of-electronic-music/
Electronic Music – 1980s
The 1980s, commonly seen as the ‘Synth Era’ was the era of glitz, glamour, and excess in the scene of electronic music, as well as music as a whole. New styles like house music and synthpop were showing up, and the advent of MIDI technology was on the up. Many of today’s most popular genres of music are the product of 1980s synth music. House, trance, and many other genres can find their roots in this era of creation and innovation. Towards the end of the 1980s bands such as Orbital created the foundations for dance genres similar to techno, and the rising popularity of devices like the Atari ST introduced MIDI technology to a wide range of producers and artists.
source: https://blog.udemy.com/history-of-electronic-music/
Atari ST
The Atari St was a line of computers launched in 1985 with the Atari 520ST. The machines included an 8 MHz Motorola CPU and 512kb of ram. It became popular in businesses because of the excellent office applications, and more importantly amongst musicians because of its built in MIDI ports and Cubase software.
source: https://www.giantbomb.com/atari-st/3045-13/
Electronic Music – 1990s
It wasn’t until the 1990s that electronic music grew into the massive popular genre that it is today. During the 90s the distinct genres of electronic music started to emerge, from techno to hard house to experimental and ambient. The 1990s also saw the emergence of well-known genres like trance and drum and bass. The 90s marked the first time that anyone could create electronic music, the massive popularity of personal computers resulted in the creation of software like Fruity Loops (now FL Studio) aimed at home users.
source: www.playlistresearch.com/theme-electronic.htm/
Electronic Music – 2000s to Today
The past two decades in electronic music have been fruitful, with new sounds emerging constantly, and progress both ground-breaking and small. The prevalence of minimalism in sound was the biggest development in electronic music throughout the decade of the 2000s. This served as a specific distinction in various styles that slimmed down and tightened up, and it served as a general directive in the way it taught producers and listeners to hone in on specific sounds and listen deeply to each element of a piece of music.
source: https://music.avclub.com/the-best-electronic-music-of-the-00s-1798219040/
A summary of the last 100 years
Electronic music, over the last 100 years, has undergone a huge change and development period to the point where it is almost unrecognizable from the earliest pieces of electronic music in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. This proves the unique diversity of the genre, as it has evolved in a way in which none or very few other genres have been able to. This is thanks to the broadness of the genre, as well as the exciting new culture surrounding it which pushes for innovation and creativity above all else. This innovation has led to the explosion of countless subgenres splitting off from electronic music or EDM as a genre itself.
Popular Subgenres
It should be noted that while these subgenres are reasonably well known at this point, there is no defining standard for any song or artist to fit into any said subgenre, and as a result many songs and artists will drift between these categories, making music that fits into many subgenres. Some of the most popular subgenres of electronic music are:
Breakbeat
Breakbeat is a style of electronic music known for using breaks, which are often small samples from recordings of earlier funk, jazz, or R&B for the main rhythm. Most pieces in this style are instrumental.
Chiptune
Chiptune, which is also known as 8 bit music or chip music, is music made for PSG (programmable sound generator) sound chips used in older consoles, computers, and arcade gaming machines.
Downtempo
Downtempo called sometimes 'trip hop' is a genre of electronic music similar in sound to ambient electronic music, but with a greater emphasis on rhythm. This genre came in waves throughout the 1990s and was played in 'chillout rooms'.
Drum and Bass
Drum and bass, commonly abbreviated to DnB, is a genre of electronic music with origins in jungle and rave scenes in England in the early 1990s. This genre often uses fast breakbeats, 160-180bpm. It is also known for heavy bass and synthesizer use.
Dub
Dub is a subgenre of music that developed from reggae music. Pieces from this genre often consist of instrumental remixes of existing songs. This style of music is achieved by manipulating and reshaping the recordings.
Electro
Electro is a genre of both electronic music and early hip hop, which was directly influenced by the use of Roland TR-808 drum machines. Music from this genre usually use heavy electronic sounds and drum machines.
EDM
Electronic dance music, is a range of percussive electronic music types made most commonly for raves, nightclubs, and festivals. EDM is usually played by DJs who work to create seamless strings of music tracks by transitioning from one piece to the next.
Electronicore
Also known as synth-core or trancecore, electronicore is a fusion of metal music with elements of electronic music genres such as trance or dubstep. Typical instruments in this genre include electric guitar, synthesizer, and keyboard.
Hardstyle
Hardstyle is a subgenre of electronic music mixing elements from techno music and hardcore music. This subtype usually consists of a deep, hard kick drum, intense (and sometimes reversed) basslines accompanying the beat, and detuned and distorted sounds.
House
House music is electronic music created by producers and DJs characterized by 4/4 beats, and synthesized basslines. House is similar in many ways to disco music, but house is thought to be more minimalistic and electronic sounding.
IDM
Intelligent dance music is a form of electronic music that originated in the early 1990s. This was a genre influenced by developments in underground dance music and many breakbeat styles that were popular in the UK at the time.
Synth-pop
Synthesizer pop is subgenre of 'new wave music' that first became prominent in the late 1970s, and reached a peak in popularity in the 1980s. The general defining aspect for a song to be considered synth-pop is that the synthesizer is used as the dominant musical instruments.
Techno
Techno is generally repetitive instrumental music, for use in a continuous DJ set. It is commonly 4/4 and has a tempo of 120-150bpm.
Trance
Trance is a genre of electronic music developed in Germany in the 1990s. It is characterised by a tempo lying between 125 and 150bpm, and usually includes repeating melodic phrases and a track containing 1-2 'drops'.
Electronic music in 2017 is as broad and expansive as it has ever been, with new artists trying new things every single day to varying success. I will now consider some of the artists that have been significant to the genre in recent as well as past years, and look into the unique aspects of each artist.
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk are a German band in the electronic music scene, who were among the first pop acts to find success in the electronic music scene in the 1970s and are considered to be innovators and pioneers of the genre and culture.
Autobahn, released in 1974, was the first studio album from Kraftwerk to use technology such as the Minimoog and the EMS Synthi AKS. This gave the band a newer 'disciplined' sound. Autobahn peaked at number 5 in the US Billboard top 200. The album is not exclusively electronic, as violin, flute, piano, and guitar are used in combination with synthesisers. The title track, 'Autobahn', is intended to capture the feeling of driving on the Autobahn; the high speed, the landscape, the monotony, etc.
Daft Punk
Daft Punk are a French duo prevalent in the electronic music scene, formed by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bang alter in 1993. The duo has had huge success in past years with their music, by combining elements of house music, funk, techno, disco, rock and synth-pop. The duo is known for their eccentric costumes and disguises associated with their music, and are usually seen dressed in gloves and helmets in the persona of robots in most of their public appearances.
'Random Access Memories' was released on 21 May 2013, and is the fourth studio album by Daft Punk. This album is described as disco, and draws inspiration from late 1970s and early 1980s American music. This theme is seen in the music, as well as the album cover as well as any promotional material related to the album. This album limits the use of any electronic instruments, with the exception of drum machines, a custom-built synthesiser, and old style vocoders. The album received critical acclaim, becoming one of Daft Punk's most commercially successful albums. Random Access Memories topped charts in more than 25 countries, and topped the United States Billboard 200 chart. 'Get Lucky' was the most successful single of the album, and became one of the bestselling digital singles of all time. The album won Grammy awards for Album of the Year, Best Dance/Electronica Album, and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. "Get Lucky" won Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group performance.
Deadmau5
Joel Thomas Zimmerman, known most commonly by his stage name 'deadmau5' (pronounced dead mouse) is a DJ and producer who has been essential in the popularisation of electronic music in the progressive house scene. He has been the recipient of 6 Grammy nominations and has released 8 studio albums from 2005 to present.
'Random Album Title' is Zimmerman's third album, and was released in 2008. The album can be described as progressive house, electro house, ambient house, and/or trance. The album includes songs such as 'Slip', named for its hook which intentionally falls out of time with the beat and melody of the song. The success of this album saw it reach no. 31 in the UK top 75 albums chart in May.
'Album Title Goes Here' is the sixth album produced by deadmau5. The album is generally described as more experimental than any previous albums. This album can be described as progressive house, electro house, and/or ambient. A music video for one track on the album 'Professional Griefers' featured both deadmau5 and Gerard Way, and received promotion from Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
The Popularity of Electronic Music
Unlike many other genres, which fade in out and of popularity through eras and age groups, electronic music seems to have the unique ability to stay popular through the years despite changes in audience and sound. From my research I have concluded this is for three main reasons. The constant evolution of the genre, the expansiveness and breadth of the genre, and the unique culture surrounding the genre.
The evolution of electronic music is a definite reason for its continued popularity. The earliest pieces of electronic music are almost entirely different to what we hear today – but this is the same for most genres. What is unique in this aspect for electronic music is the evolution that happens in such a short timeframe. Something produced 5 years ago in the rock and roll scene is loosely similar to something produced today, for the most part, but something produced 5 years ago in the electronic music scene is noticeably different. Artists continue to experiment, innovate, and create new subgenres at an astonishing rate, while also throwing in aspects of electronic music from the 90s or 00s.
Another reason for the continued popularity of electronic music is the expansiveness and breadth of the genre. No other genre has such a huge range of subgenres like electronic music does. Even the subgenres have subgenres. This means that ‘liking electronic music’ can mean two completely different things to two different people. Couple this with the huge drive for innovation within the genre, you end up with a type of music unlike any other. Artists creating electronic music have so much to draw from that creating new music is simpler than ever, but can sound completely new and different to anything created before.
The third reason electronic music retains its popularity in today’s world is the unique culture surrounding the music. Festivals and events are on constantly where many artists involved in the genre. These events are a mix of young people, good times, and a general love for music. This creates an environment where music becomes central to people’s lives. Not only do they love the artists and the music they came for, they will most likely find something brand new that they love at these events.
Conclusion
Throughout my research into electronic music, the most prevalent feature I can see across all different eras and subgenres is the unrivalled uniqueness in the genre. It is unlike all other genres of music in that artists are constantly looking to evolve, to create something nobody has heard, and to break new ground in their art. As we move into the final years of the 2010s, it is clear to see with the rise of festivals promoting electronic music, and a new electronic music culture so intensely popular with young people that this genre is here to stay. Even more exciting is that with the growing popularity and desire for growth and change in the electronic music community, what we hear in the next decade may be entirely different to what we hear today.
-Mitchell Evans