Electronic music is 126 years old . Older than Rock and Roll and older than most forms of music played today . Electronic music is gaining popularity with people like MOBY , AIR , and it's the sole driving force in HIP HOP and RAP . Infact HIP HOP and RAP couldn't exist without it . There are alot of people here in this forum , I guess I wanted to know what everyone is doing ? What do you think about electronic music today ? How difficult has it been for you to get you're music heard ? What do you think the A&R people are looking for ? I saw the video for MOBY'S " We are all made of Stars " and while it's a catchy tune , it's by no means a brilliant one . It is not beyond anyone here to create music like that . What is everyone's goal here ? What kind of a mark do you want to leave ?

Moby only makes music for commercials these days. It's sad really.

That's what A&R people want.

-tek

i want to make songs you can make love to your old woman by.

but really i want to share my music with people in a non anonymous enviroment...so no posting my songs on websites or anything like that. i want to play live, and play hard. so far thats my only goal.

800dv:
I'm assuming you're calling the invention of the phonograph (in 1877) as the beginning of electronic music. However, for nearly a century, the use of "electronics" with music was about preserving accoustic or electrically-amplified performance. Distorting or rearranging those recordings, or synthetically generating sounds electronically, for the porpose of making new sounds and new musical expressions, began in earnest only in the 1960's (and, not incidently, substantially outside of the world of popular music).

As for "leaving one's mark..." Although I'm also a great believer in live performance, I'm afraid MRT1212 and I seriously part company on the "non-anonymous" point - it's a pet peeve of mine, so pardon while I indulge myself . . .

Most of today's "music" is about celebrity, recognition, and profit. The actual writing and performing of music is a caboose on that train. My attitude is that music posted on a website as free download is one of the most sincere forms of artistic endeavor, since the artist is giving of himself purely for the purpose of musical expression and pleasure without concern for or interest in whether the appeal is broad enough to generate self-serving celebrity or profitability.

My ideal in musical success is a former insurance account executive by the name of Charles Ives, who wrote in obscurity (and at night) for much of his life. His music was revolutionary, idiosyncratic, and personal. His eventual recognition was one brought on by the sheer force and quality of that music as promoted by other composers and performers who recognized it. Comparing his stature and contribution to Moby's is a little like comparing the importance of Edison's invention of the phonograph to the invention of the 8-track tape player.

Oldschool - wrong again ! The first synthesizer called the Musical telegraph was made in 1876 . It was an instrument that created sine waves electronically . The Telharmonium was made in 1897 , a huge synthesizer that was to be copied by Laurens Hammond but on a much smaller scale with his organs in the 1930s. Electronic Music , that is creating tones electronically is far older than the 1960s . The first ALL electronic music score for a movie was done in 1956 for the FORBIDDEN PLANET . All of the music for that movie was done by Louis and Bebe Barron and was done on electronic instruments that they built themselves . I have a 1939 Recording of John Cage's " Imaginary Landscapes #1 " using the Theremin and other electronic gear . I have early Japanese tape music from the late 40s and early 50s ( music concrete ) . E'TUDE AUX CHEMINS DE FER by Pierre Schaffer in 1948 ( tape music - music concrete ) . Piece for Tape Recorder by Vladimir Ussachevsky in 1956 . Those first synthesizers in the late 1800s were made before amplifier technology - they were to be broadcast over telephone lines . You are saying the 1960s ?????? What are you thinking ???? I suggest you do A LOT more research before any more babble comes from you . If you learned that in School , I suggest you get a refund - it was money well waisted . I sorry to be so harsh but I have little tolerance for such a LACK of knowledge on the history of ELECTRONIC MUSIC . Especially when it is the SINGLE most important advancement in music in the last 200 years . 1960s , what the hell were you thinking ??????????????????????

Goo'ness!
OK, I defer to your greater historical knowledge of the world of electronic music. I do assert that my primary assertions (the early focus of recorded music, and the "beginning in earnest" of electronic processing in the '60s) are technically correct. The dabblings of folks like John Cage, who used accoustic instruments and ambient "real sounds" almost exclusively until late in his career ("Imaginary Landscape No. 1" being a pretty rare exception) can't really be called an awakening of the genre, nor can the very early film scores.

But I'm picking nits. You can have your "superior knowledge" moniker with no protest from me. I would, however, be curious as to how you justify the inclusion of the terribly derivative use of electronic sampling and sequencing in current hip-hop and rap into such a varied and interesting historical context. It's hard to compare the desperately unoriginal and repetitive sampling of something like Fat Boy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" to the intense and abstract tape manipulations of Morton Subotnik's 1967 "Silver Apples..." I realize we're comparing apples to oranges, but, by my read, the world of electronic music, as a body, is simply not moving forward.

I do admit to having downloaded the "Weapon of Choice" video, but it sure wasn't for the music . . .

. . . oh, and as to my useless degrees - BA and two years of graduate work in music theory and composition, with a side-long glance at viola performance. It was really quite worth the very slim money I paid for it (state universities were really pretty cheap when I was young), but it did not include electronic music specifically. The University of North Texas, where I did my abortive graduate work, had a very active electronic lab of which I never darkened the door. (My pedagody of theory teacher at UNT couldn't stand Bartok and Stravinski...you can imagine what he thought of Cage.)

All of my dabbling in the craft of electronic music has been in the last 4 years, and is as much a result of my current "day job" focus of computer multimedia (I'm a K-12 technology resource teacher) blended with an odd-lot of songwriting from my club days in the 70's, as any exposure to the historical roots of electronic music.

oldschool, i didnt mean to imply i want celebrity status or something like that.

its just that to me, internet based distrobution of my music seems so impersonal...i want to give people an experience that isnt just 1's and 0's from a website in the endless sea of websites.

i could care less about putting my music on a website, or selling cds. in fact id rather just play live than anything else right now.

Im with MRT. I just wanna play for people. I don't care if I make a million on a movie or commercial, or if a million people hear my song on the internet and like it. I just want people to experience my synth bass and music through a system with a lot of watts. Is that too much to ask? unfortunatly, if you don't have guitar, drums, vocals, your nothing, at least where Im from.
Im working on getting money for a quality demo at a Protools studio. Until then, nobody is gonna hear my expression.

I'm sorry then Oldschool , get you're money back . I don't see how you can say early electronic film scores don't count . I don't see how you can say tape music from the 40s and 50s don't count . What the hell do you think sampling is ??????? That is what tape music is all about --- sampling sounds and then rearranging them . What the hell are you thinking ???? The first thing I learned in college was to challenge what I was being told . Just because they hold the rank of being the teacher doesn't mean a damn thing . Your insight in this is poor - that's being kind . Your educational background means NOTHING except the fact that you play Viola - I do like that . Stick to that !