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."

That is not the first time that happens

[pulgabm89]

Electronic music has been around for longer than that... we all know that

Re:ive always loved digital music.. gogo techno ty

[Anonymous Coward]

Where would we be without it?

In the jazz club, down the road :)

electro

[Universal Indicator]

All the best electronic music seems to come from Europe.

Aphex Twin
Kraftwerk
Squarepusher
-Ziq
The REPHLEX label
stuff like that :-)

Re:50 years later

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that electronic music has had far greater impact on contemporary music than you give it credit. Just look at Radiohead, for a single example. Their music contains much that is traditional, acoustic-based type instruements like a drum kit and guitars and the like. This, however, is combined with a variety of synthesizers, effects units, and other electronic sources of sound, that give Radiohead their signature sound.
The same could be held for a wide variety of bands, whether they be rock, pop, rap, whatever.
Furthermore, look at recording studios. All audio sources become converted into electricity, and have numerous alterations performed on them in the process.
Underground music, for example, the "unS unS unS" you speak of, is where the experimentation goes on. Then those techniques, sounds, patches, whatever, filter through to the mainstream arena.
So please don't say that electronic music is stagnating. I don't believe that any musical genre really stagnates.

Re:50 years later

[tidepool]

Hahaha. Leave it to slashdot to produce people who think they know EVERYTHING that has to do with anything technologically related. Have you ever stepped out of your house and went out? DJ's, like it or not, are still dropping electronic beats in one of HUNDREDS of unique 'styles'. Many of these DJ's then become producers &/or remixers.

Electronic isn't dead; it never will be. Perhaps you mean that electronic/dance music isn't being pushed into the U.S.public (as much), which would be partially true. But to anyone in 'the scene', this is a godsend.

Oh, to support this, go look on ebay for some technic 1200's -- They are STILL selling like hotcakes and pulling much impressive prices.

And I hate to tell you, but not many people who simply listen to ole' fashion' records are going to be purchasing a MANUAL turntable; No, the people who are purchasing these manual turntables want to have direct manipulation.

Ala hip-hop or electronic. One could argue that both are the same, have you listened to rap/hiphop beats at all these days? Same ole drum machines, plenty of samplers, yadda yadda.

Electronic is alive & kicking, weather the un-informed public is aware or not.

Re:That is not the first time that happens

[KillerCow]

An IBM 7094 [ibm.com] sang "Daisy" [textfiles.com] in 1961. Google [google.com].

And the Theremin was patented in 1929. Wiki [wikipedia.org].

Re:electro

[mmkkbb]

and all these guys ripped off kraftwerk in the beginning...

why do you have carl craig on there twice?

Re:Oh come on, it's just ripping off Shakespeare ;

[AncientWarrior]

I've heard that before, but as far as I can see, it's absolutely bogus. For example, FP has absolutely none of the web of pre-existing relationships (Antonio is the brother of Prospero etc) that are central to the Tempest. Nor does the Tempest have anything like the ancient tragedy of the Krell as a plot device.

"Forbidden Planet" stands quite well on its own as a story; the music is amazing.

Re:50 years later

[teneighty]

Ishkurs Guide to music is far from definitive - while he identifies a lot of different sub-genres, he spends most of the time pontificating on each subgenre rather than actually informing the reader what exactly defines each genre. His guide is a start - but there's a big need for a resource that clearly defines each genre by a clear set of criteria - things like BPM, what chords are typically used, etc.