Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production, an electronic musician being a musician who composes and/or performs such music. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound producing devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ, and the electric guitar. Purely electronic sound production can be achieved using devices such as the theremin, sound synthesizer, and computer.
The first electronic devices for performing music were developed at the end of the 19th century, and shortly afterward Italian Futurists explored sounds that had previously not been considered musical. During the 1920s and 1930s, electronic instruments were introduced and the first compositions for electronic instruments were composed. By the 1940s, magnetic audio tape allowed musicians to tape sound and then modify them by changing the tape speed or direction, leading to the development of electroacoustic tape music: musique concrète, created in Paris in 1948, was based on editing together recorded fragments of natural and industrial sounds, while music produced solely from electronic generators was first produced in Germany in 1953. Electronic music was also created in the United States beginning in the 1950s. An important new development was the advent of computers for the purpose of composing music. Algorithmic composition was first demonstrated in Australia in 1951.
In America and Europe, live electronics were pioneered in the early 1960s. In the 1970s to early 1980s, the Mini-Moog became the most widely used synthesizer in both popular and electronic art music. In 1980, a group of musicians and music merchants developed the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), and Yamaha released the first FM digital synthesizer.
Electronic music, became increasingly common in the popular domain starting in the late 1960s because of the advent of affordable music technology. Today electronic music includes many varieties and ranges from experimental art music to popular forms such as electronic dance music.
In the late 1960s, pop and rock musicians, including The Beach Boys and The Beatles, began to use electronic instruments, like the theremin and Mellotron, to supplement and define their sound. By the end of the decade, the Moog synthesizer took a leading place in the sound of emerging progressive rock with bands including Pink Floyd, Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Genesis making them part of their sound. Instrumental prog rock was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands like Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Can, and Faust to circumvent the language barrier. Their synthesiser-heavy "Kraut rock", along with the work of Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music), would be a major influence on subsequent synth rock.
Electronic rock was also produced by several Japanese musicians, including Isao Tomita's Electric Samurai: Switched on Rock (1972), which featured Moog synthesizer renditions of contemporary pop and rock songs, and Osamu Kitajima's progressive rock album Benzaiten (1974). The mid-1970s saw the rise of electronic art music musicians such as Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, and Tomita, who with Brian Eno were a significant influence on the development of new-age music.
After the arrival of punk rock, a form of basic synth rock emerged, increasingly using new digital technology to replace other instruments. Pioneering bands included Ultravox with their 1977 single "Hiroshima Mon Amour",[96] Yellow Magic Orchestra from Japan, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, The Human League, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Tubeway Army from the UK, Devo from the US and Yello from Switzerland. Yellow Magic Orchestra in particular helped pioneer synthpop with their self-titled album (1978) and Solid State Survivor (1979). The definition of MIDI and the development of digital audio made the development of purely electronic sounds much easier. These developments led to the growth of synthpop, which after it was adopted by the New Romantic movement, allowed synthesizers to dominate the pop and rock music of the early 80s. Key acts included Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, A Flock of Seagulls, Culture Club, Talk Talk, Japan and the Eurythmics. Synthpop sometimes used synthesizers to replace all other instruments, until the style began to fall from popularity in the mid-1980s.