A comprehensive overview of the globally ever-evolving electronic music scene with a particular focus on progressive house, trance, and techno.
The book is for all DJs, producers and fans of electronic dance music. It features interviews with more than 100 VIPs from the DJ world as well as more than 300 biographies of the most popular DJs in the world. Also featured are 1000 reviews of the best tracks ever produced as well as photographs of clubs, events and festivals from around the world.
The book’s release marks a major milestone in electronic dance music culture. It is an essential piece of reference work for all interested in electronic music.
This book is intended for people interested in the history of electronic music and the musicians who created it. It should also be of interest to musicians, as well as anyone wishing to pursue a career in the music industry, whether as a musician, engineer, producer, or business executive.
Electronic Music Pioneer: An Insider’s History traces the evolution of electronic music from its earliest beginnings in the late 1800s through the end of the twentieth century. The author draws upon his firsthand knowledge of many of the individuals, institutions, and companies involved in this fascinating story. This book is unique in that it provides a comprehensive overview of the global electronic music scene with a particular focus on progressive house, trance, and techno.
Electronic music is a style of music that typically uses synthesizers and computers for composition. Whereas traditional musical instruments are played by musicians, electronic music is usually programmed with a computer program.
There are many styles of electronic music. Some styles, such as acid techno and hardcore, were born from techno in the 1990s. Other styles, such as IDM and glitch, emerged from ambient and electronic rock in the 1990s. Still other styles, such as breakbeat and big beat, were created by British DJs in the 1980s and 90s. Some styles, such as ambient house and chill-out, emerged from house music in the 1980s and 90s.
Electronic dance music (EDM), also known as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres made largely for nightclubs, raves and festivals. It is generally produced for playback by DJs who create seamless selections of tracks by segueing from one recording to another.[1] EDM producers also perform their music live in a concert or festival setting in what is sometimes called a live PA.[2] In Europe, EDM is more commonly called ‘dance music’, or simply ‘dance’. In the late 1980s and early 1990s
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production, an electronic musician being a musician who composes and/or performs such music. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronics only. Electromechanical instruments include mechanical elements, such as strings, hammers, and so on, and electric elements, such as magnetic pickups, power amplifiers and loudspeakers. Examples of electromechanical sound producing devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ, and the electric guitar, which are typically made loud enough for performers and audiences to hear with an instrument amplifier and speaker cabinet. Pure electronic instruments do not have vibrating strings, hammers, or other sound-producing mechanisms. Devices such as the theremin, synthesizer, and computer can produce electronic sounds.
The first electronic devices for performing music were developed at the end of the 19th century, shortly after the invention of the first vacuum tubes (thermionic valves) and radio receivers around 1897–98; however they were not widely available until the 1920s. The first electronic musical instruments were developed in the early 20th century; early electromechanical instruments, such as the Ondes Martenot, appeared
Electronic musicians are musicians who use electronic musical instruments, computers, or electronic music technology as an aid in the production or performance of music. In practice, a “musician” may be a synthesist or the member of an electronic music group. An electronic musician may also be specifically called an electro musician.
Electronic musicians perform in a variety of styles ranging from popular forms such as EDM and hip hop to avant garde styles like musique concrète and experimental electronic music. Some electronic musicians perform live using custom-made MIDI controllers to trigger sounds on computers or synthesizers, though others program their sequences and use pre-recorded samples. The advent of computer music systems has allowed for increasingly sophisticated electronic musical instruments and more flexibility for composers to control the timbre and pitch of the instruments they play through MIDI systems.
The composers of electronic music brought a new way of composing. They used electronics to build their own machines to write their music.
In the 1970s, many electronic composers began writing music for television and film, where they were able to use the new wave of electronic synthesizers that were coming into use.
The first composer to use a synthesizer was Jean-Claude Vannier, who used it in his score to the 1971 film Le Grand Amour. The next composer to use a synth was Pierre Henry, who used it in his score for the 1976 film Le Voyage en Ballon.
By the 1980s, composers were using synthesizers in a variety of ways. Some composers used them to create ambient music, which is a kind of background music that is not intended to be listened to closely. Other composers used them as part of an orchestral ensemble, playing along with other instruments in an orchestra. Still other composers used them to create music for video games or other types of interactive media.