Portal:Electronic music
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Electronic music is a term for music created using electronic devices. As defined by the IEEE standards body, electronic devices are low-power systems and use components such as transistors and integrated circuits. Working from this definition, distinction can be made between instruments that produce sound through electromechanical means as opposed to instruments that produce sound using electronic components. Examples of an electromechanical instrument are the teleharmonium, Hammond B3, and the electric guitar, whereas examples of an electronic instrument are a Theremin, synthesizer, and a computer.
| Techno | |
| Stylistic origins | |
|---|---|
| Cultural origins | |
| Typical instruments | |
| Mainstream popularity | Moderate, largely in late-1980s and 1990s Europe, more popular in Eastern Europe and Brazil currently |
| Derivative forms | IDM, trance, acid house, jungle, hardcore |
| Subgenres | |
| Acid, ambient, minimal, wonky | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Microhouse, ghettotech, tech house, tech trance, techstep | |
| Regional scenes | |
| Detroit techno, Nortec, Schranz, Yorkshire Bleeps and Bass, Jtek | |
| Other topics | |
| Electronic musical instrument – computer music – record labels – raves – free party – teknival | |
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that was developed in Detroit, Michigan, during the mid to late 1980s. Many styles of techno now exist, but Detroit techno, a genre in its own right, is seen as the foundation upon which many other subgenres have been built.
The initial take on techno arose from the melding of various African American styles such as Chicago house, funk, electro, and electric jazz with Eurocentric synthesizer-based music. Added to this was an interest in futuristic and fictional themes that were relevant to life in American late capitalist society: most particularly the novel Future Shock by Alvin Toffler. Techno music pioneer Juan Atkins cites Toffler's phrase "techno rebels" as inspiring him to use the word "techno" to describe the musical style he helped to create. This unique blend of influences aligns techno with the aesthetic referred to as AfroDiasporic Futurism. To producers such as Derrick May, the transference of spirit from the machine to the body is often a central preoccupation; essentially an expression of technological spirituality. In this manner "techno dance music defeats what Adorno saw as the alienating effect of mechanisation on the modern consciousness."
Music journalists and fans of techno are generally selective in their use of the term; so a clear distinction can be made between sometimes related but often qualitatively different styles, such as tech house and trance. "Techno" is also sometimes confused with generalized descriptors, such as electronic music and dance music.
Kraftwerk (pronounced [ˈkʁaftvɛɐk], German for "power plant") is a German musical group who have made significant contributions to the development of experimental and electronic music. The band was founded by Florian Schneider-Esleben and Ralf Hütter in 1970, but became widely known as a quartet consisting of Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos alongside the founding members.
The techniques Kraftwerk introduced, together with the equipment they adopted, are now commonplace in modern music. They have been a major influence on the popular music of the end of the 20th century, often considered of comparable status to The Beatles.
- "Somebody will ask those of us who compose with the aid of computers: 'So you make all these decisions for the computer or the electronic medium, but wouldn't you like to have a performer who makes certain other decisions?' Many composers don't mind collaborating with the performer with regards to decisions of tempo, or rhythm, or dynamics, or timbre, but ask them if they would allow the performer to make decisions with regard to pitch and the answer will be 'Pitches you don't change.' Some of us feel the same way in regard to the other musical aspects that are traditionally considered secondary, but which we consider fundamental. As for the future of electronic music, it seems quite obvious to me that its unique resources guarantee its use, because it has shifted the boundaries of music away from the limitations of the acoustical instrument, of the performer's coordinating capabilities, to the almost infinite limitations of the electronic instrument. The new limitations are the human ones of perception."
- Milton Babbitt, quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812
