In the 1990s, a new alternative electronic music emerged. It was driven by the development of two types of software: groove boxes (such as the Roland TB-303 and TR-909) and sequencers (such as Ableton Live), which allowed users to easily create loops and beats.
Electronic music also found its way into mainstream pop music during the 2000s. For example, The Black Eyed Peas’ single “I Gotta Feeling” topped the charts in many countries. In addition, electronic dance music experienced a surge in popularity around this time, with acts such as Deadmau5, Daft Punk, Swedish House Mafia and Avicii becoming very successful.[citation needed]
A new alternative electronic genre formed from 2010 onwards with artists such as M83, Synthwave producer Kavinsky,[14] Holy Other and Com Truise.
Alternative music is a term used to describe music that differs from the predominant music of the time. It typically has an unconventional or non-commercial element to it and is most often associated with artists who are not signed to a major label. As well, alternative music tends to be more underground and therefore less mainstream than popular music.
Alternative electronic music is a genre that encompasses many different styles of electronic music, particularly those that have been referred to as “left-field” by the mainstream media and record companies. It has developed as a parallel form of electronic dance music in the 1990s. Alternative electronic musicians have been described as those “futurist musicians who use synthesizers, samplers, and sequencers as their instruments to create musical landscapes which are both beautiful and haunting.”
Electronica is a blanket term for a number of related styles of “alternative” electronic music. As with rock, electronica encompasses a wide range of styles, including ambient, drum and bass and techno. Electronica is typically an underground form of music, played in clubs instead of on the radio. In recent years electronica has been incorporated into mainstream pop music.
Electronica began to emerge as a distinct musical genre in the late 1980s. The Detroit-based group Cybotron were the first to coin the term “techno” for their music, which was heavily influenced by computers and synthesizers. Their album Enter was one of the first albums to be entirely recorded on computer equipment.
In Europe, groups like Kraftwerk from Germany and Yellow Magic Orchestra from Japan had begun to experiment with electronic music as early as the 1970s. By the 1980s European synthpop acts like Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys had become popular on both sides of the Atlantic.
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments and circuitry-based music technology. In general, a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means (electroacoustic music), 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
Electronic music was once associated almost entirely with Western art musicbut from the late 1960s on the availability of affordable music technology meant that music produced using electronic means became increasingly common in the popular domain. Today electronic music includes many varieties and ranges from experimental art music to popular forms such as electronic dance music.
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 (electroacoustic music), 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 devices were purely electroacoustic, and some are electromechanical (see ondes Martenot).
Although pure electronically produced sound existed in the nineteenth century it was not perceived as music by most people at that time. For example Luigi Russolo’s Intonarumori (1913) was an attempt to create music out of noise by using special equipment. These
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology as the basis of composition or performance.
Electronic music emerged in the early 20th century, with the widespread use of electronic musical instruments and the synthesizer in particular, which led to a new generation of composers including Luigi Russolo, Edgar Varèse, Edgard Varèse, Pierre Schaeffer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Milton Babbitt and Steve Reich. In the 1920s, it was further enhanced by the development of musique concrète by Pierre Schaeffer, which developed into later electroacoustic music; this was followed by its influence on rock music during the 1960s.
Today, pop and rock subgenres such as techno and trance have been created from electronic music. Electronic dance music (EDM) has also become popular throughout the world. The term “electronic music” has been used to describe numerous styles of synthesis since the invention of early analogue synthesizers such as the Theremin in the 1920s.
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments and circuitry-based music technology. In general, a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means (electroacoustic music), 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 first electrical phonograph was invented. Early electrical and electronic instruments include the telharmonium (dynamo-electric phonograph), Hammond organ (1935), electric piano (1929) Theremin (1920) Ondes Martenot (1928), electro-Theremin (1947), Trautonium (1930)