ELECTRONIC_MUSIC_HISTORY.md

An history of electronic music

full of personal and geographical biases...

Before modern electronics (The Electricity Fairy)

Some ancestors of electronic instruments

• The telharmonium (1897): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telharmonium

• The intonarumori is an instrument created in 1913 by the futuristic composer Luigi Russolo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x581XLd76U. Russolo is the author of a manifesto on The Art of Noises (L'arte dei rumori), a manifesto for futuristic music:

  • https://www.italianfuturism.org/manifestos/the-art-of-noise/
  • French translation: http://luigi.russolo.free.fr/mani1.html ; http://luigi.russolo.free.fr/mani2.html ; http://luigi.russolo.free.fr/mani3.html ; http://luigi.russolo.free.fr/mani4.html

• The Theremin, a non-contact instrument invented in 1919: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5qf9O6c20o. It is used from time to time by certain bands:

  • Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin guitarist:
    • In the documentary It Might Get Loud (2008), he shows The Edge and Jack White how to use theremin to create sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kujH0ScAi0
    • A 1977 live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtoVZ4eObg8
  • The Rolling Stones: «2000 Light Years From Home», album Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967), mellotron and theremin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8ul4lwQ0p8
  • Sting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d117vqZJhgU
  • Jean-Michel Jarre (Monaco concert, 2011): https://youtu.be/aDpHs_KwduI?t=68

• Ondes Martenot (1928): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondes_Martenot

  • The Beach Boys, "Good vibrations" (1966): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdt0SOqPJcg
  • Radiohead, "How to disappear completely" (live): https://youtu.be/chE1_g3GAWw?t=153
  • Daft Punk feat. Paul Williams, "Touch", Random Access Memories, 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gkhol2Q1og

• Hammond organ (1935):

  • Bob Marley & The Wailers - No Woman, No Cry (Live At The Rainbow 4th June 1977): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ6VezKMoRY

• Ondioline (1941): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondioline

Musique concrète

Before music produced by electronic circuits, experiments were made in the 1940s with electroacoustic music and musique concrète, where (concrete) sounds were recorded on tape or vinyl and arranged and manipulated (the ancestor of sampling):

• Pierre Schaeffer, 78 rpm with closed groove (1948): http://fresques.ina.fr/artsonores/fiche-media/InaGrm00208/la-naissance-de-la-musique-concrete-et-electro-acoustique.html
• Pierre Schaeffer, "Etude aux chemins de fer" (1948): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9pOq8u6-bA
• Iannis Xenakis, "Diamorphoses" (1957): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho452dlRTaU
• Pierre Henry, "Psyché Rock", Messe pour le temps présent (1967): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qssa6ec7faQ

50's: Stockhausen

• Elektronische Musik Studie I (1953): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovz6it26iSw
• Elektronische Musik Studie II (1954): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwj6ZptPnDo
• Telemusik (1966): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-vb97ukRjY
• A more recent work, Oktophonie (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePBB-NO8vKg

50's: misc

• Herbert Eimert, Klangstudie II (1952): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTSed3Ybzhg
• Luciano Berio, Perspectives, per nastro magnetico (1957): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpcEu1hgRjw
• Tom Dissevelt & Kid Baltan:
  • Song of the Second Moon (1957): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVl2_MSwmSA
  • Syncopation (1958? released in 1962): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW-n6GWFAvI
• Else Marie Pade:
  • Syv Cirkler (1958): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmvmyCn4gqA
  • Faust (1962): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28TqFKy4lG0

50's: Forbidden Planet (1956)

First film whose soundtrack (Louis & Bebe Barron) is entirely electronic:

• Robby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKdTYaAY1V8
• The great machine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHXfMjp2zqI
• Main Titles Overture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR-MkDKWWW0&list=PLRLCwrdOigtm7KXEfoL7zJCE3EyJ0\_ijV

60's: Moog synthesizers

Wendy Carlos

• Switched-On Bach (1968): https://soundcloud.com/jackson-mades/sets/switched-on-bach
• A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick) theme (1971): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCBwiM3notI

Popcorn (Gershon Kingsley, 1969)

The first great success of electronic music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popcorn_(instrumental)

• Popcorn, original by Kingsley (1969): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z1zLiqoB1Q
• HotButter cover (1972): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDHrXeEItu4
• M&H Band cover (1987): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=614hHSGJ9z8
• Kingsley (2000): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJavX92uRqY
• Muse cover:
  • Taratata (French TV), Oct. 2009: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSqEITkCtvg
  • Single (2010): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeP9a_2Ar-0
• The Muppets cover (2010): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvDvTnTGjgQ
• Other covers: https://www.youtube.com/c/popcornsongcom/videos

Bernie Krause

He was a student of Stockhausen. As a guitarist, he will work for Moog and learn about electronic music, before becoming a bio-acoustician: he will study soundscapes, record the sounds of nature, highlight their frequential and temporal organisation, then show the degradation over the decades of soundscapes and therefore of the corresponding ecosystems (https://www.wildsanctuary.com/ ). He also played with people like The Doors or George Harrison.

• Paul Beaver & Bernard L. Krause - The Nonesuch Guide To Electronic Music (1968): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqhFvITV7kM

About modular synthesizers

Before becoming digital, the first synthesizers were analogue and modular: each function corresponds to a button, the functions and modules are connected by cables (wave generators, envelope generators, low frequency oscillators, filters, sequencers...) Ideal to understand what a synthesizer is!

• Documentary 50th Anniversary of the Moog Modular Synthesizer (2014): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7TJyPAyTiQ

• Documentary Back to the future sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w6qWiEx8BQ

• Silver Apples, Dust (1968): https://youtu.be/A7J1zMMv61Y

• Eliane Radigue (drone music)

  • Stress-osaka (1969): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr5he-HGuEg
  • IMA Portrait documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcy5fLcAsQQ

• The Analog Session (Alexander Robotnick & Ludus Pinsky):

  • Fun-fare (2009): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUrKE_ktTXI
  • N5 From Outer Space (2009): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H511Iye6BsI
  • Lettrobox1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_YEQUVAtNE

• Misc:

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iIo5Y-oPhk
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drbD4GigDAo
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjlnJciXbnY
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vkwtSRmDyI

70's: Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze

Tangerine Dream:

• Zeit (1972): https://youtu.be/rjvF36gzLF8?t=57m28s
• Live at Conventry Cathedral (1975): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w8pbGz7E8c

Klaus Schulze:

• Cyborg (1973): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knItIJIYYmQ
• Timewind (1975): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBn0Jnf7_3M
• Moondown (1976): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8OaMab9Y8Y
• Live 1977: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfYZf-sKeYk

70's: Vangelis

• Heaven and Hell (1975): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv3qZ8g8rr4
• "Pulstar", Albedo 0.39 (1976): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaMBmBeNvtM&list=PLwZyLyoCdAbMeKrcBQ3yJuzGqkI\_1u81v

Later famous works:

• Chariots of Fire (1981): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSav51fVlKU
• Blade Runner - Theme End Titles (1982): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQMwfoXg5JE
• 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYeDsa4Tw0c

70's: Jean-Michel Jarre

• Oxygène (1976):
  • Oxygène track 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSIMVnPA994
  • Album cover: http://www.granger-michel.com/project/oxygene-epreuve-pigmentaire/
  • Oxygene: Live in Your Living Room (2007): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNeBT3mUxd8
• Equinoxe (1978): https://youtu.be/qHSyLuYx2zU?t=759
• Les champs magnétiques, 1981: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX5oI5YYIZM
• Interview, Oct. 2015: http://www.liberation.fr/apps/2015/10/jmjarre/\#chapitre-0

70's: misc

• Isao Tomita:
  • Snowflakes Are Dancing (Debussy) (1974): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD-b6mU3SYQ
  • Switched on rock - Electric Samurai (1972): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbOKN8cm4Nk
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind(Steven Spielberg, 1977): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4PYI6TzqYk
• Tubeway Army, Are Friends Electric (1979): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzSM3pRtgcM

70's: Synth-Punk

• Suicide, Ghost Rider (1977): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn0_fDjvI_s
• The Normal:
  • Warm Leatherette (1978): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgoqyjRXnh0
    • Cover by Trent Reznor (NIN), Peter Murphy, Atticus Ross, Jeordie White, 2006: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo7ONZlN5Zg
  • T.V.O.D. (1978): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlIiyB4bGDc

70's: Kraftwerk

• Autobahn (1974): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkOZNJYAZ7c
• Radioactivity (1975): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X--F5b5IdqU
  • Radioactivity (Chernobyl version), Moscow (2005): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXPzZezGu8k
  • Radioactivity (Fukushima version), Tokyo - No Nukes 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWsQgmq-fNs
  • Radioactivity, French TV (1978): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPhUWrQx1zY
• Trans-Europe Express (1977): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms6kC-3yq0k&list=OLAK5uy_nDUpPT0EVhePgXihBpL0XZ6J09mu_TZlU
• "The Robots", The Man-Machine (1978): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68d8GRgiec4&list=OLAK5uy\_lpF64nOVPBv72HvvFlP6PAJdyAlY1cxgM
  • The Robots (Roboter, original German version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DBc5NpyEoo
• Computer World (1981):
  • Computer Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtWTUt2RZh0
    • The Coldplay tribute to Kraftwerk, Talk, (2005): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH9meoWmAOM
  • It's more fun to compute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3odl-KoNZwk

70's: Giorgio Moroder

• Donna Summer - I Feel Love (1977): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm-ISatLDG0
  • Cover with a modular synth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lZO-3Uz0ps
• Chase, soundtrack of Midnight Express (Alan Parker, 1978): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrPWkIRWY9U
• Daft Punk tribute "Giorgio by Moroder", RAM (2014): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhl-Cs1-sG4

80's: the synth invasion (pop, techno, electro...)

The synthesiser market skyrockets, prices fall. The year 1980 marks a turning point.

• Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Enola Gay (1980): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5XJ2GiR6Bo
• Visage, Fade to Grey (1980): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZiJQL9OLqI
• Taxi Girl,Cherchez le garçon (1980): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av83iD8zn_w
• Depeche Mode, Just Can't Get Enough (1981): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6FBfAQ-NDE
• Soft Cell, Tainted Love (1981): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZVpR3Pk-r8
  • In fact a cover of Gloria Jones (1964): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJKe2j9Wjh4
  • Another cover by Marilyn Manson (2001): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbhjEDH4pIk
• Liaisons Dangereuses, Los Niños del Parque (1981): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx12N1Tw14w
• New Order, Blue Monday (1983): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYH8DsU2WCk
• New Order, Confusion (1983): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRf418ZUBGI
• Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (1983), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeMFqkcPYcg
• Anne Clark, Our Darkness (1984): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNSk45A923g
• Talk Talk, Such a Shame (1984): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLdvpFIPReA
• Art Of Noise, Moments In Love (1985): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cen22TBHo9M
• Kraftwerk, Musique Non Stop (1986): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lIlROWro8

...

We can stop here, with Art of Noise (remember Luigi Russolo) and Musique Non Stop: electronic music is now mainstream!