The Birth of Electronic Music

fm6 writes "NPR has a story up about the first musicians to compose electronic music. In 1947, Louis and Bebe Barron received an early tape recorder as a wedding present. About the same time, Louis Barron became interested in Norbert Wiener's book Cybernetics and its thesis of common elements in living and artificial systems. This led the Barrons to create a new kind of music using electronic circuits and painstakingly edited magnetic tapes. The Barrons music was featured in various avant-garde records and movies, and finally reached a mass audience in the Science Fiction classic Forbidden Planet."

Comments

Re:That is not the first time that happens

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope, the first electronic music experiment was done by Lev Sergeivitch Termen and his famus Theremin. Rumor says it was Joseph Stalin's favorite instrument. However, you can mainly hear it on Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene and Pink Floyd's Echoes songs. You can do amazing things with this simple instrument : http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/theremi n/

Hmm...

[ProudClod]

Amazon referrer ID is still in that address - somebody's going to become very rich tonight...

Rubbish

[GrabtharsHammer]

This is hardly the first electronic music. That honour goes to some American chaps in the late 1890's, who devised a giant machine that played the Victorian equivalent of lift music. The concept was to pipe this music over wires into restaurants and clubs all over town, to save the venues the cost of maintaining house bands.

They even had a successful rollout, with mellow, unoffensive tinkelings broadcast citywide. However, the exercise was doomed to failure because it was extremely costly to keep running. Ultimately, it shut down.

Electronic Musician ran an article on this a few years back. I'd quote you reference but I am currently around 14 hours flight from my home.

Criterion Should Release Forbidden Planet on DVD

[Nova Express]

In addition to having a great, spooky score, Forbidden Planet is one of the greatest science fiction films of all time (and far better, to my mind, than The Day The Earth Stood Still and its fascist interstellar-UN robot overlords). Scenes like the attack of the Monster from the ID on the space ship, the interiors of the Krell city, and the climax still hold up today. It's arguably the best science fiction film before 2001, and perhaps the best until Star Wars (Metropolis (or rather, what survives of it), is, IMHO, too heavy-handed in its philosophising.)

Referrer links

[fm6]

I wish. I routinely put referrer links on Slashdot. (Why not, as long as I point to books I've can honestly recommend. I don't stoop to link spam, though.) I tend to generate many hits, but very rarely a purchase. Probably my favorite books are too far off the mainstream.

I'll probably get a ton of hits this time -- but I can't picture a lot of Slashdotters wanting their own copy of Cybernetics or Forbidden Planet. Most will read the reviews on Amazon, then go to Netflix and/or their public library. If past experience is any judge, I'm more likely to make money from people who follow my links to Amazon, and then decide to pick up a video game while they're there!

I'll post results on my Slashdot journal in a couple days, in case anybody's interested.

Re:Referrer links

[Lord_Dweomer]

I know I personally detest when people put referral links in story blurbs because there is no way for me to know that they aren't just posting the story for the sake of trying to make money.

Now, I realize that this probably wasn't your motive as you claim, but one can never be too sure on the internet. I know if I wanted to do this, right after the story got greenlighted, the first thing I'd do is post about how I probably won't get much money, etc. and try to start a grassroots effort behind it to gain credibility.

So my point is that if you intend for us to view you and your story with any grain of credibility, you need to strip all financial incentives from the message.

This is like when we see "industry reports" with "dire warnings about spyware" which happen to come from experts at companies who sell anti-spyware tools as shown by this excellent post in this story from earlier today.

Any time it is evident that someone posting on here has a financial incentive for us to buy a product they are discussing, or whatever it may be, it immediately sets off alarms in our heads that say "the whole purpose of this spiel is to get us to buy this so they make money". And since I can see you are a long time slashdot user, I'm sure you know the general response around here to that kind of message.

However, I am a bit annoyed at your statement of how you routinely put referral links on Slashdot, yet you don't think you are link spamming. A bit contradictory eh?

Re:JMJ

[Ucklak]

More like Walter/Wendy Carlos with Switched on Bach in the 60's
to be copied by Hans Wurman and Isao Tomita and also a source of inspiration for Jarre, Eno, and other 'Avante Garde' musicians.

Re:50 years later

[Lord_Dweomer]

"What are the new movements going on in the electronic music world that the mainstream has yet to become aware of?"

While I am no real expert on electronic music, I WAS in the rave scene for quite some time, and I don't mean as a kandy kid who just went to roll. I went for the music, and I can honestly say you will see some of the most innovative stuff in the rave scene. That is where the underground is.

Now as for styles, I recommend EVERYBODY check out Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music. It gives an EXTREMELY comprehensive look at the different genres that exist, and even for someone as myself who thought I was familiar with them, I still found tons I never heard of. Plus, they give lots of samples of famous/definitive songs for each genre.

Personally, I think drum and bass is the next type of music that will go mainstream. We're already starting to see it happen as some of the more common beat samples get worked into some pop songs or trance songs, and I've also noticed quite a bit of it in commercials as well. So definitely going to say drum and bass, or possibly 2-step, since its really just R&B and hiphop with the 2-step beat, which will let it gain popularity quickly in the hip-hop scene which in turn seems to be whats affecting the mainstream nowadays.

Re:Kraftwerk

[chiph]

Y'all might be interested in reading Wolfgang Flur's book on his Kraftwerk years:

Kraftwerk: I Was a Robot
ISBN: 1860744176

Basically, (according to Wolfgang), he never received any royalties from the songs, because he was regarded as an employee of the band, and was on salary. Interestingly, one of the last chapters reveals that much of the Kraftwerk sound was the result of producer Conny Plank (who also worked with Brian Eno on the first Devo album).

Chip H.

Re:That is not the first time that happens

[Basehart]

I interviewed Bob Moog, the man who invented the Moog Synthesizer and currently revitalizing the Theremin, a few years ago. He's the one who really kicked things off IMHO.

As for the first electronic musical instruments, they go way back to 1874 when Elisha Gray invented the Harmonic Telegraph, and I'm betting the "music" that it produced was ultimately the first Electronic Music.

There's a concise history here.