The Best Albums of the 20th Century is a blog around electronic music as well as albums that changed the way electronic music is perceived. The goal of this blog is to inform people about the origins of electronic music and about good albums that belong in their collection.
Since its inception, electronic music has been an important part of the music industry. Therefore, I will publish articles about the history of electronic music and about important albums that made an impact on the development of this genre.
For fans of electronic music, it is important to know from where their favorite artists take inspiration. Therefore, I will write articles with information about innovative artists who did something different with the genre and released interesting albums.
I will also post articles with reviews and recommendations for albums that are worth listening to if you are a lover of electronic music or if you want to discover some new artists in this genre.”
Welcome to my Blog. This is my “Top 100 Albums of the 20th Century”. In this blog I will be writing about some of the albums that changed the way I perceived electronic music. As a young adult, in my 20’s, I was mostly listening to pop and rock music and when I discovered electronica and techno through one of my best friends, I was hooked. The first few albums that I discovered were:
– Bjork – Debut
– Aphex Twin – Richard D. James Album
– Moby – Play
(to be continued)
This blog is dedicated to the albums that changed the way we perceive electronic music. A focus on 20th century album and a look at what came before it. There are already so many blogs that review current releases of electronic music. This has no point in adding to the noise. However, every genre needs its roots and history in order to know where it comes from. This blog will try to shed some light on that history and for many readers, this will be a discovery into a whole new world of sound.
This is a list of the best albums of the 20th century. The top 20 best albums of all time, I’ve always been interested in making lists like that. I made one for my local newspaper and after it got published, I got so many reactions that I decided to make another one. This time it would be a worldwide web oriented list. I spent a lot of time on it and now it’s finished!
The idea was to have an electronic music album in every year of the century. They had to be albums released in that particular year, not necessarily recorded in that year (or indeed, only recorded in that year). And yes, there are some singles on this list (they were also released as 12″s).
The question you want to ask: how did you choose these albums? Well, there were two ways: firstly, there were albums which are “classics”, which most people agree upon as being important or special. You can’t really make a list without those. But then there were the more difficult ones which you have to choose yourself. That’s where the fun comes in! With this list I hope to give a picture of what electronic music has meant in the last century.
Electronic Music has been around since the early 20th century. The first attempts to create electronic instruments were performed by pioneers such as Thaddeus Cahill (1867-1934) who made the Telharmonium, one of the earliest electronic instruments (1901-1908), or Theremin who invented one of the most famous electronic musical instruments in history, the Theremin (1920). However, it was not until 1940s and 1950s that electronic music started to be explored.
Arguably, one of the most seminal works in this period is “The Imaginary Landscape No. 1” (1939) by John Cage for 12 radios and percussion, which is considered by many as the first piece of electroacoustic music. Other key pieces include “Variations for Orchestra” (1957) by Milton Babbitt, “Gesang der Junglinge” (1956) by Karlheinz Stockhausen – considered as a key representative of Musique Concrete – or “Poeme Electronique” (1958) by Edgard Varese and Le Corbusier, which was played at the Philips Pavilion in Brussels during the 1958 World’s Fair.
In 1960s and 1970s, we can
In an interview with the Telegraph, composer Brian Eno explained why he considers ambient music the opposite of Muzak:
I was in an airport once, and I heard some very familiar music and then I realized that it was the “Blue Danube Waltz” by Johann Strauss. I was really surprised because I thought, “What’s this doing here?” It was a real shock to me that this piece of music – which is a piece of serious art music – had become part of the wallpaper. That’s what Muzak is. So one day I happened to be in an airport terminal, and there was some Muzak playing, and I suddenly thought, “Well, this is a good place for music to be.” Because it’s not really engaging people. It’s just there for people who want it.
That’s what ambient music does. It doesn’t demand all your attention – you can put it on if you want something to change the atmosphere of where you are. But it doesn’t demand that you pay attention to it, and so you don’t have any sense of obligation when you listen to it.