Electronic Music

Lets go back to 1916 where Hugo Balle, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, and Richard Hue- Isenbeck are finding the Dada artistic movement. These guys are a bunch of anarchists living in Zurich, Switzerland. The Dada movement preaches the “essence of spirit” the freedom of expression, hatred to “the great war” (or what we later called World War 1) , with a want to preserve the middle class, while humankind was degrading morally, with little or no hopes for a bright future. This goes in context with this CS3 course in how before world war 1, man thought so much was to come. The Dada movement expressed the deterioration or our civilizations due to wars through sound and not words. They thought sound was more sincere and liberal.
    These guys noticed that music doesn’t have a specific language, so more people can relate to it. They would rebel against what was happening in the world by creating music based on industrial noises. You have to think that back then everyone listened to polka, piano, and Stravinsky. When all of a sudden this “Dada” movement started using tools to bang on pots and pans to create music. It was not in any way popular, but these guys contributed the base for “Electronic Music”.
    Electronic Music is basically making noises into music not by instruments, but rather through alternative sources. The Dada Movement didn’t use electricity to make their music mainly because it’s the early 20th century and electricity was somewhat a luxury. So to be honest it was in the 1920’s that the worlds first synthesizer was born officially launching an era still very active today in all of our lives, yes, called electronic music. The first instrument was made by a Russian electronics genius named Leon Theremin and he called his synthesizer a “Theremin”. The cool thing about this synth is that it didn’t have a keyboard like synths do now; it was simply a device that senses changes in electromagnetic waves. Basically you stand in front of it and wave your hands back in fourth and it will make noises and tones out of that.
    So as everyone else go into Hollywood and Rock N Roll, the world was still not speaking the same language of music. People in the Middle East listened to Um-Kilthoum at the same time Elvis was dancing to the Jail House Rock. Also in the late 1950’s, new sounds became available as people used the “Theremin” with the string set-up of a piano to make music. Et Voile La, the first Electronic Piano or E-piano came out in 1958. People were surprised to see a piano that uses electricity to play out notes. In the 60’s the first proper analogue synth came out from a company by Robert Moog called the Mini-moog. Now thanks to the development of these instruments which are worth tens of thousands of dollars in museums these days, we had the fame of people such as Walter Carlos, Emerson Lake & Palmer and Pink Floyd. Although most bands used guitars, it was these electronic instruments that made their sound “different”.
Time goes on into the 70’s where soul and funk dominated dance-floors in nightclubs all over the world. So many songs come out at the time with a variety of instruments such as trumpets, violins, guitars, and drums, but what made the sound unique were the electronic keyboards mainly used for the bass sounds. YMCA, Macho man, I will survive, funky town, the bee gees, the Gibson brothers, George Clinton, Abba… (and this is Amii Stewert Knock on wood) and so many more all contributed to the disco era which was the first public outrage of electronic music because they all used electronic instruments.
A group of Germans got together in 1972 and formed the first purely electronic band and called themselves Kraftwerk. They used electronic drum machines that looked like huge computers and took electronic conception to the extreme. Other artists came out; there must be someone in this class that has heard of Jean Michelle Jarre. The French guy that holds those huge concerts with laser-lights flashing in the sky above Paris while he runs around on stage not holding a guitar, but rather a microphone plugged into a keyboard where he would come out sounding like a robot. For more check out his albums “Oxygene”. I think there are like 12 volumes out now.
At the same time a few American bands followed the trend and made electronic music. After the disco-power of the 70’s came the first ever DJ stars. The famous trend setting nightclubs at the time were called the Paradise Garage and Studio 54, both in New York. Also in Chicago was a club called the Warehouse, the birth place of global dance music today called House music. At the same time came more bands using electronic music such as Depeche Mode. Yet Electronic Music is such a big movement that it would take forever to mention all styles that came out of it including hip-hop, pop from the 80’s, and the careers of Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince, George Michael, and all the rest of the bisexual, spiritual, pedophiles that we all listened to as we grew up.
However the style of music that preserved the category of Electronic Music is what we know today as House, Trance, Drum & Bass, Jungle, Ambient (like chill-out music), break beat, and so on. Especially with technology and personal computer power, it’s easier to make music these days, and also unlocks more creativity.
A lot of people associate Electronic Music with drugs, and that is a total mis-conception. The only reason why the two are ever categorized is because people claim there is no other music that makes them feel as connected as electronic music. It doesn’t mean you have to listen to it all the time, it doesn’t mean your parents will like it. But Electronic Music doesn’t need to have words, doesn’t need to be translated. It’s become a global culture derived on music that soothes the mind giving it joy.
Nowadays there are so many variations of electronic music that you hear all the time but are not aware of (Arabic). For example House Music can suit any culture. Remember Um-Kilthoum was brought back in the spot-light when an obese Lebanese DJ took her alf laila wa Leila track and added an electronic beat to it. Almost all Arabic artists now follow that same trend, such as Nawal Zoghbi, Uri Mrakadi, Amro Diab, Haifa Wehbe (whatever) and all the rest of the stuff you hear pumping out of those loud sound systems in tatar BMW with no brakes, wheels or windows. To conclude, I hope you now have a wider idea of how music today has been shaped by a movement that started over 80 years ago called electronic music.