In the media, electronic music is often portrayed as a form of “club culture”. To some extent this stereotype is true. However, it’s not the whole story. Electronic music has many links to psychology and neuroscience.
Electronic music has been shown to have a positive effect on human behavior. Some studies have found that it can increase your body’s ability to fight off infections. Other studies have looked at how listening to electronic music influences your mood and general outlook on life. This blog will explore these issues in greater detail.
Electronic music can be defined as any genre that uses synthesizers or other electronic instruments as part of its structure. The most common types are trance, techno, dubstep, house and drum & bass but there are many others too!
We hope you enjoy reading about how does electronic music relate to your brain function!
In this post I will attempt to explain the relationship between electronic music, and the mind. Firstly, I will give an overview of the history of electronic music, explaining the different instruments and genres. Secondly, I will explore the impact of electronic music on society, for example subcultures. Finally, I will look at the science behind electronic music, for example brainwave entrainment.
The science behind electronic music is mainly based on our understanding of how sound works and how it affects the human mind. We know that audio frequencies can be generated through motion, such as a guitar string vibrating, or another objects oscillating. These vibrations travel through the air in the form of waves, which we perceive as sound.
Electronic music most often uses sound waves which are generated artificially, primarily by digital means. However, many modern electronic instruments use some sort of analog components to generate their sounds as well. The difference between analog and digital sound generation is mainly that digital sound is created using mathematical equations whereas analog sound is created using circuitry. The two main ways of creating electronic sounds are:
Synthesis – This is the manual creation of sounds by programming them into a synthesizer (usually with some kind of software). A synthesizer is essentially a device that generates and manipulates audio signals in order to create sounds (hence you will see terms like ‘digital synthesizer’ or ‘analog synthesizer’). Synthesis allows for very precise control over the parameters of sound generation (such as pitch and timbre), but it requires a lot of technical knowledge and skill to produce anything worthwhile.
Sampling – Sampling involves recording real-world sounds and then
The first electronic music was made in the early 1900s, when a Russian scientist named Lev Termen invented something called the Theremin. This was a musical device which was played by moving your hands through the air between two antennas. It was one of the first electronic musical instruments and it made a very interesting sound. If you have seen science fiction movies from the 1950s and 1960s, you may have heard this sound before.
Moving your hands either closer or further away from one of the antennas changes the pitch of the note. Moving your hands closer or further away from a second antenna changes the volume of the note. The Theremin is also known as an etherphone or terpsitone and it is still used today in some modern classical compositions as well as some film scores (the theme to The Day The Earth Stood Still is a good example).
Electronic music started to change significantly in 1948 with the invention of another instrument called the Ondes Martenot (sometimes referred to as Ondium Martenot). It is not entirely clear whether this instrument was invented before or after the Theremin but it did make use of different technology and created notes in a different way. Although there are many similarities between these two early electronic instruments, they were quite different
Electronic music is a form of music that uses electronic musical instruments in its production. Electronic musical instruments include synthesizers, computer programs and samplers. The first electronic musical instrument was the keyboard theremin invented in 1920 by Russian inventor Leon Theremin.
Electronic music is an umbrella term for music that focuses on the manipulation of audio signals. It does not refer to a specific style or sound, but rather to the use of electronics in the production of music.
In its early years, electronic music was often viewed as purely experimental, but has since evolved into one of the most popular forms of music today. The originators of this genre were mostly inspired by jazz and classical styles of music, which they tried to emulate using electronic instruments. Some composers blended these electronic sounds with live instruments, while others used electronic sounds exclusively.
The invention of the transistor was a game changer for electronic music. This enabled musicians to use less bulky and more portable equipment such as the synthesizer. Synthesizers give musicians the ability to create electronic sounds and manipulate them with knobs and buttons. In 1956, RCA demonstrated the first synthesizer prototype: the Mark I Synthesizer which was the first time a machine could produce a variety of sounds. The machine used around 1500 vacuum tubes and weighed over one ton! Obviously, it was not very practical. By 1963, Moog Music released a portable modular synthesizer that was way more compact than its predecessor but still required patch cords in order to control its sound. Synthesizers have come along way since then and are now used by many bands like Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode.
The first electronic music was made with are:
• Oscillators (audio tone generators)
• Signal processors (phonographs, tape recorders, different filters, amplifiers etc.)
• Control devices (gates, sequencers, telegraph keys, etc.)
It was the invention of the oscillator that allowed electronic music to be created. The very first electronic instrument was called the Oscillator, which creates a sound by generating an oscillating electrical signal.
One of the first oscillators was created by radio engineer Lee de Forest in 1915, just two years after he invented the vacuum tube amplifier. de Forest’s audio oscillator generated a sinusoidal wave at 50-100 cycles per second, which was used to make voice transmissions during World War I. It wasn’t until 1919 when Western Electric introduced the first commercial audio oscillator that could generate sine waves up to 15 kHz. This opened up new doors for more complex music to be made electronically.