As a result of the way recorded music has been distributed over the past half century, there is an enormous amount of wealth concentrated in a tiny number of hands. In the US, for example, most recording artists get about 90% of their income from touring and merchandise. For every artist who gets rich in this way, thousands don’t.
The problem with music is that it’s so cheap to make. Anyone can do it: all you need is a laptop and a microphone. This means that there are now more musicians than people willing to pay to listen to them. As a result, the supply of music exceeds the demand at any given price. The only way to make money selling music is by selling it at a very low price– which is why touring and merchandise are such important sources of income for musicians
In the mid-1980s, I moved to New York City. My office was across from Radio City Music Hall. I would see people streaming out of the building every day, laughing and chatting about what they’d just seen. My heart would sink. I had never been inside the Music Hall. The thought of it made me feel sad.
I’d listen to talk radio on my drive home from work and hear people calling in to discuss their favorite bands or musicians: Springsteen, U2, Michael Jackson. I wondered if these musical luminaries were really all that great. Maybe the callers were just kidding about their enthusiasm for them? Perhaps these musicians weren’t all that wonderful after all? It was possible that there was something wrong with me–that I simply wasn’t able to appreciate something so popular with so many people?
I started to think this way because I listened mainly to electronic music–and at the time (1985), no one liked electronic music or its practitioners very much. The only place you could hear it was late at night on college radio stations or in record stores that specialized in “alternative” music. There were a few magazines–like Keyboard and Electronic Musician–where you could read about your favorite musicians and their latest gear purchases,
I’ve been a musician for a long time, and I’ve seen the music industry change. Back when I was a kid, in the early 80s, it seemed like there was no way for an underground band to break through to the mainstream. If you didn’t have a record deal, you couldn’t get your music heard. Today, of course, you can put up a website and sell your music directly to fans all over the world. This is great news for musicians: if you’re really talented, you can make money without having to deal with the middlemen.
But this is bad news for musicians who aren’t so talented. The problem is that there are two kinds of distribution–one for hits, and one for everything else. A hit makes its creator so much money that it’s worth paying lots of people to make sure everyone hears about it–radio DJs, record store owners, etc.. Every other recording loses money; the only question is how much. In the old days, before the internet, these “losers” were bundled together with hits and sold as part of a package: every time someone bought a record album at the store they were also helping to pay for all those obscure recordings that lost money.
Today that doesn’t happen anymore
What are some of the most influential electronic music artists/bands? Who’s at the top? You could make an argument that the best electronic band is The Prodigy, a trio from Essex, England. As with any other genre of music, there are those who claim that one or another band is the best, and then there are those who don’t really care about such classifications.
The Prodigy is one of the most popular and influential bands in the world. They have sold over 25 million albums and singles worldwide, including over 7 million albums in the UK alone. Their greatest hits album Their Law: The Singles 1990-2005 was nominated for two Brit Awards and won Best British Dance Act at the 2006 Brit Awards. They have had five UK number one singles and six UK number one albums.
In 2009 they were voted as “The Greatest Dance Act of All Time” by Mixmag readers. They were also ranked number five on VH1’s “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock”.
The Prodigy was formed by Liam Howlett in 1990, after he left New Wave band The Cut Up Boys to pursue his own musical interests. He did so after being inspired by hip hop artists such as Afrika Bambaataa and Public Enemy, acid house
Electronic music is not a genre. It’s a method of making music; a way to create, record and produce it. It can be used to make any kind of music – from rock, folk, country and pop to hip-hop, rap and classical – as well as its own distinct genre, which has been happening since the ’60s.
Analogue synthesis is where you start off with an oscillator (a “sound source”) which creates a waveform at different frequencies (pitches). This is then run through filters and modulators (like envelopes) to shape the sound. The signal is then amplified and directed through speakers.
Digital synthesis uses mathematical formulas called algorithms to generate the waveforms. It can do anything analogue synthesis can do but it is easier to control and more reliable. Digital effects units like delay and reverb are also now common in studios for adding ‘space’ to sounds or for processing vocals or instruments.
The first electronic musical instrument was the Telharmonium from around 1900 but other than that, electronic music was largely unheard of until the 1950s when musicians began experimenting with tape machines and looping sounds together using them.
In the 1960s we saw early pioneers like Isao Tomita, Karlhein
Electronic music is a part of the avant-garde movement that evolved from the early 1970s. It was a time when artists wanted to break away from conventional art and music forms, as well as the traditional ideas of beauty and good taste. Electronic music is commonly made with electronic musical instruments or electronic sounds effects. Music that uses electronic instruments is not necessarilly electronic music. The term “electronic” does not imply that the composer will use only electronics to produce the music. The word “electronic” refers to the nature of being created electronically with the aid of computers, synthesizers, samplers and other digital technology.
Electronic music is often used in films, television shows, video games and commercials, as well as in performance art settings like dance clubs and raves. However, it is not exclusively limited to these areas. In fact, some electronic music can be found in mainstream pop culture today. For example, many popular bands have incorporated electronic sounds into their repertoire in order to appeal to broader audiences. Examples include No Doubt (“Just a Girl”), Rancid (“Time Bomb”), Blink 182 (“All The Small Things”), Oasis (“Wonderwall”) and Robbie Williams (“Angels”).
There are many different genres
Johann Sebastian Bach is generally regarded as one of the finest and most original composers in history. His music continues to be widely performed, and his brand of Baroque musical style is still seen as a standard for many performers.
The year of his birth is uncertain, but it was probably 1685 (the same year as Handel). He died on July 28, 1750. We celebrate his birthday today with our own Johann Sebastian Bach Day!
Bach was born into a large family in Germany. His father, Johann Ambrosius, was a court musician who taught him violin and basic keyboard skills. He also took lessons from his brother and other relatives. After losing both of his parents when he was 10 years old, he lived with his older brother who was also a musician. While living with his brother he began studying organ, music theory and composition, under the instruction of Georg Bohm. By the age of 18 he had already written some organ pieces that won him great popularity throughout Germany.
Bach spent most of his life working as an organist and composer for the churches in Arnstadt and Muhlhausen. After marrying Anna Magdalena Wilcke in 1720 they moved to Leipzig where he worked at St