A History of Electronic Music Part Deux

Last blog left us entering the electronic world in the 1980s. Up to this point, the majority of electronic applications in music were either used in avant garde classical techniques or used as an instrument among others in rock and pop. The 80s ushered in a period of full reign of the synthesizer, with some artists choosing to create music solely on this instrument!

The synthesizer had reached full potential in the 1980s; with super pop stars such as Michael Jackson and Madonna using their sounds almost exclusively at times:

Listen to the bass line, lead synth lines and underlying chords; they all use synthesizers!

Synthesizers also came with the ability to "sequence" a sound, or essentially program a loop to the users liking:

This is entire album of Michael Jackson's Thriller, but in the first seconds of the first track you can hear the synthesized drum sounds. These sounds were sent through a sequencer; instead of the artist having to play each and every note, all one had to do was push a button and the programmed sound would play on repeat! (Note that this technology was available before the 80s, but only became increasingly more famous during this time.)

Pop music wasn't the only genre exploring the synthesizer, in fact a new genre that would see an explosion in the 90s was utilizing electronic music technology as well; rap music. Rap brought to the forefront the Roland TR-808 drum machine, with it's now an easily recognizable sound. Rap music usually relies heavily on using "samples" or pieces of other music put back together in a type of musical collage. This collage usually contained a newer and sometimes edgier beat:

Stay tuned to see the evolution of the synthesizer in the 90s to today's music...did it take control or has is regressed or morphed into something else?