The Score Magazine - Archive December 2016 issue! | Page 46

Head banging has been giving us, our painful pleasures for
over 40years now. But, our ignorance has made us believe
that EDM is the greatest gift bestowed upon us in this very
immediate generation. It is fascinating how the disco era of
the 60-70s peppered up the entire alternative musical scene.
Our ears needed a new treat and we had welcomed the new
wave of fresh experimentations in mainstream music and it
was only then that the legendary electronic sounds creeped
in. One would be surprised to note that the highly anticipated
Atari ST boosted the MIDI music experiences to another
level altogether. Now, it was getting real fun to work with the
analog sounds and marrying it with the digitized MIDI beats.
Then in the middle of 1960s something revolutionary
happened, the Moog synthesizers were born and with it the
musical stage exploded with a bang. So for the first time, the hard rock techno bass gave way
to trance and house alternatives. The feeling was ulterior.
Creativity was setting up and pushing the mark up for the
weird and wonderful.
The Beatles and other rock bands stormed the market with
their experimental rock and rolls, heralding a new era of
'progressive rock'. Electronic sounds still had its roots firmly
set in the foundations of good old rock and rolls. But, soon,
Giorgio Moroder's Chase changed everything. Not only it got
a lot of new people into loving a tenderly growing piece of art,
but it also inspired an entire generation of new musicians.
But, Giorgio infact, was inspired by the German band
Kraftwerk. The musical characteristics of this new sound
was promisingly different for it had a wonderful fusion of
electronica aesthetically blended with vocoder sounds.
So electronic sounds by the 90s have been through a lot of
evolution, and so long it was only all about commercialization
but now experimental techno sounds surfaced propelling in
mainstream musical scene.
Another significant achievement of this era, has been
the fact that the electronic music production for the first
time was getting highly mainstream. Overall, it was
not an underground art from any more. Thanks, to the
mushrooming of home computers that people could actually
see and emulate their own set of music in their own set up.
Henceforth, musical instruments were challenged to another
level of competency while the new born musicians sun bathed
in the light of their newly found democracy.
In the 80s however, the Moog synthesizers, and the multi-
sonic keyboards were passé, MIDI sounds were breaking the
new ground . Audiophiles were now embracing and basking
warm in the sunshine of the new found love. In Europe, people went crazy searching for newer sounds and
music for the best kind of experience. Experiments would not
make a person zone out from the mainstream musicians but
would rope in some brownies for the uber cool and provogue
post-modernism as far as the musical tastes are concerned.
However, the revolutionary move in the electronic sounds
was made possible by the advent of the incorporation of MIDI
sounds with the rock and rolls by bands like the Pet Shops.
New experiences were being sought after and gently came the
tide of dark waves and the roar of drum machines. Before the
new millennium could kick-start, the music of the times have
already come of the age. With the advent of the new millennium, there seemed to be
a nuclear fission in the vast family of musicalities that the
ears could welcome. The world of 'feats.' evolved. It became
sensationally useful and utilizing to use, electronic sounds
alongwith the main music charts. So we have a David Guetta
featuring in somebody else's song and such becomes the craze
for the remixed versions that every other song started having
History of EDM
A brief
44
The
Score Magazine
www.thescoremagazine.com