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Pioneers of Electronic Music

Rev. Juda Sleaze

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Rev. Juda Sleaze Newbie

Rev. Juda Sleaze

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I'm hoping this thread will allow others to enlighten me by revealing some old-school pioneers I haven't heard of...

 

But first, my nominations for the two most influential artists in electronic music:

 

1. Delia Derbyshire

 

The woman who arranged and produced the original Dr. Who theme. Next time you hear anyone moaning about how difficult and "buggy" Logic is, think of her creating awesome music with just a piece of taught string, an oscillator, and reams of tape strewn along a corridor. She was decades ahead of her time.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_theme_music

 

Some samples of her music, including a dance track 20-odd years before dance music:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7512072.stm

 

 

2. Tangerine Dream

 

Although their innovation seems to have waned since the late 80s, I'm still blown away by how much their 1983 album 'Hyperborea' sounds reminiscent of Orbital from the mid-90s.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangerine_Dream

 

 

Any more?

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Andyreww Newbie

Andyreww

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You'll know these - just adding them to the discussion:

 

Kraftwerk - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraftwerk Kraftwerk were one of the first groups to popularize electronic music. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Kraftwerk's distinctive sound was revolutionary, and has had a lasting effect across many genres of modern music.

 

Gary Numan - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Numan Commercially unsuccessful for many years of his career, Numan is nevertheless considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music.

 

New Order - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Order New Order combined post-punk and electronic dance, and became one of the most critically acclaimed and highly influential bands of the 1980s. I thank New Order for getting me into Electronic Dance Music as i saw them in 1988 at Manchester GMEX Centre. They had DJs from Hacienda playing Warm-up/Intermission - first time I'd head what became known as House Music.

 

Brian Eno - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Eno Musician, composer, record producer, music theorist, singer and visual artist, best known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.

 

Andy

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Rev. Juda Sleaze Newbie

Rev. Juda Sleaze

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Never heard of... (ulp!) Tangerine Dream before? Man, you guys are YOUNG! :lol:

 

Look up Morton Subotnick, Karl Stockhausen and Milton Babbitt.

 

Who hasn't???

 

On a slight aside, the first time I went to Germany in the late 90s, the country completely lived up to its stereotypes; the first thing I saw upon disembarking from the train was a fat guy with mullet and mustache, eating a sausage and wearing a Tangerine Dream T-shirt :lol:

 

I'd always thought of Stockhausen as the grandaddy of electronic music, but that's probably because I need to find more time to read up on it...

 

Now I have to buy albums by Roger Powell, Morton Subotnick and Milton Babbitt. Discovering new music excites me greatly :D

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Andyreww Newbie

Andyreww

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Forgot two:

 

Jean Michelle Jarre - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_michelle_jarre He is a pioneer in the electronic, synthpop, ambient and New Age genres, and known as an organiser of outdoor spectacles of his music which feature lights, laser displays and fireworks.

 

Soft Cell - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_Cell The duo is most widely known for their 1981 worldwide hit version of "Tainted Love" and influential album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. Interesing tid-bit - my instructor at school produced for Soft Cell.

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Kent Sandvik Newbie

Kent Sandvik

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Maybe you should also add Del Shannon's Runaway into the list of early synth pioneering songs? It was actually a Musitron:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musitron

 

a.k.a Clavioline:

 

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar07/articles/clavioline.htm?print=yes

 

But hey this was 1961! Not to speak of Little Red Monkey by Frank Chacksfield's Tunesmiths, first song on the UK pop charts that had an electronic instrument (1953.)

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Jordi Torres Veteran

Jordi Torres

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Here's a list of key people (off the top of my head):

 

Max Mathews

Leon Theremin

Clara Rockmore

Pierre Schaeffer

Jean-Claude Risset

Vladimir Ussachevsky

Mario Davidovsky

Otto Luening

John Chowning

Bernard Parmegiani

Louis and Bebe Baron

Edgard Varese

Iannis Xenakis

Francis Dhomont

Paul Lansky

Terry Riley

Steve Reich

 

And a nice compilation for you (works by the people I listed above are included in this compilation, plus other important ones mentioned by others in this thread):

 

OHM: The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music

 

 

J.

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Jordi Torres Veteran

Jordi Torres

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Ooh! Ooh! I know what I'm asking Father Christmas for!!! :D

 

Thanks loads for the link!

 

You're welcome! Remeber this is just a compilation, and some of the works have been edited (because the originals were too long to fit). Serves a good intro to these people's work.

 

I really like Silver Apples of the Moon by Morton Subotnik.

Bernard Parmegiani is amazing, too.

Terry Riley...Love him! REAL trance music.

 

J.

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behyer Newbie

behyer

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Can't forget Emerson, Lake and Palmer, with Keith Emerson lugging literally tons of synthesizers on massive world tours. He did some really unique and mostly-accessible electronic music; and with Greg Lake adding good songwriting, people who wouldn't have dreamed of listening to electronica found themselves singing along. They put out five albums in four years (1970 to 1974), with three top-40 singles. That's impressive.

 

Back in the first part of the 1970s, there was a competition of sorts between ELP and Yes (with Rick Wakeman trying his best to one-up Emerson, usually failing), while Pink Floyd was testing the synthetic waters. In the mean time, Kraftwerk was becoming purely electronic and Tangerine Dream went from spooky (Phaedra and Rubycon) to jazzy (with Exit, in 1981).

 

But you really have to give the lion's share of credit to Kraftwerk. They've been imitated, sampled and ripped off more than any other electronic music group, all the while inventing their own instruments and technologies, including percussion that we still groove to. And they're still at it. Anybody see their 2005 concert film, Minimum-Maximum? Wow. I just want their control surfaces. But the MOST INCREDIBLE THING ABOUT KRAFTWERK...?

 

They're four pasty white guys from Germany, and THEY GOT DA FUNK!

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Kent Sandvik Newbie

Kent Sandvik

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Can't forget Emerson, Lake and Palmer, with Keith Emerson lugging literally tons of synthesizers on massive world tours. He did some really unique and mostly-accessible electronic music; and with Greg Lake adding good songwriting, people who wouldn't have dreamed of listening to electronica found themselves singing along. They put out five albums in four years (1970 to 1974), with three top-40 singles. That's impressive.

 

Lucky Man might be the first rock recording ever with a synth solo.

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Andyreww Newbie

Andyreww

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Kraftwerk. Anybody see their 2005 concert film, Minimum-Maximum? Wow. I just want their control surfacesK!

 

Just watched the videos on YoutTube - WOW!

 

Not sure I'd class these are Pioneers (more influential) - Orbital, Orb & Leftfield do, however; deserve a mention IMHO

 

Andy

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Kent Sandvik Newbie

Kent Sandvik

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@ Kent:

What a beauty, that cat. Is it a Maine Coon?

 

Might be, a caleco for sure. Trying to remember some other synth pioneers, mostly from the pop side... There was this huge explosion of bands in the very late seventies, early eighties when Prophets/Jupiters, Korg MS-20s et rest came to market -- i.e. anyone could purchase them and you didn't need a electronic music degree to program them. Mostly from England. It was a fun scene, every week something new was released, oh I miss those days, early day Human League, Ultravox et rest...

 

Also check out the pioneers of Putty, EMS synthi, Pink Floyd, Gong, Todd Rundgren et rest.

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