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Synthpop |
| The history of synthesizers: |
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Synthesizers
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Already in the 1870s some people had started to experiment with electronically produced music.
But it was not until the 1950s it began more seriously.
For example there was a studio built in Köln, Germany, only for this purpose.
The first synthesizer was built at RCA, USA in 1955.
The synthesizers made in this early time were however very expensive and also very hard to handle.
In the 1960s the first really useful synthesizers were made, for example by Don Buchla and Bob Moog.
Bob Moog
is the most legendary of the synthesizer producers with synthesizers like the
MiniMoog and others, which has been much used by synthpop musicians.
In the 1970s the production of synthesizers started in a larger scale. The first synthesizers were analogue. On those all the sounds are created by moving controls, like buttons or bars, on the synthesizer. Then they made digital synthesizers, that can be connected to each other and also to computers. They use a interface called MIDI. MIDI sends information about pitch, timbre, velocity and so on, but it doesn't send the actual sounds, just numbers representing the sounds. MIDI is now present in most personal computers. The most common sound source for modern synthesizers are samplings, i.e. digital recordings of real sounds, most of the time it's sounds from usual music instruments or from analogue synthesizers. Sometimes the different techniques are combined. Links:
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| The history of synthpop: |
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Synthesizers
Synthpop
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In the end of the 1960s some already famous musicians started to use synthesizers, for example
Beach Boys,
but it still didn't change their music very much.
In 1968 the first synthesizer only record was released, "Switched On Bach" with
Wendy Carlos. It was music of Bach played on a Moog synthesizer. In Germany the experimental band Organisation was formed in 1968. They changed their name to Kraftwerk in 1970. At this time they played a disharmonious, but innovative music based upon synthesizers. They released three albums in Germany in the first years of the 1970s. Their music was getting more rhythmical and easier to understand. In 1974 they released their international debut "Autobahn", which was kind of a breakthrough. It's a twenty minutes long car drive accompanied by synthesizers and sound effects. They continued to make this kind of music and they have released six albums since then. They were style-forming for the synthpop. In 1968 Jean-Michel Jarre from France, also began to work with electronic music. For example he combined opera with synthesizers and this attracted some attention in 1972. His first real album "Oxygene" was released in 1976, and it became a success. He plays instrumental electronic music inspired by both classical music and experimental music. On most of his albums he has one tune that is a little more like usual synthpop. In 1981 he was the first western pop musician to have live performances in China. In 1984 he recorded the album "Zoolook". On this album there were samplings from about thirty different languages from all over the world. In 1986 he had planned to make the first recording of music played in space. The astronaut and saxophonist Ron McNair was going to play with him from the spaceship Challenger. However, there was an accident, Challenger exploded right after the lift off and that recording couldn't be done. Jarre has had very spectacular live performances with about one million people in the audience in both France and USA. He has recorded about ten albums. Some other musicians that used synthesizers a lot quite early were Brian Eno, Mike Oldfield, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream and Vangelis. In the end of the 1970s there appeared many artists, especially in England, who used synthesizer as their main instrument. For example Gary Numan, Ultravox, OMD and Human League. These artists were very much inspired by Kraftwerk. In the beginning of the 1980s Depeche Mode was formed. They played a happy and naive sort of synthpop, like their hit single "Just Can't Get Enough" in 1981, until Vince Clarke left the band to form Yazoo (called Yaz in North America) and later Erasure. Depeche Mode's music then became more melancholic and dark. Other English bands that started to release records in 1981 were Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Tears For Fears and Thompson Twins. These bands played some sort of synthpop, but they also used other instruments. From Canada came Rational Youth and from Sweden came Adolphson-Falk. In 1984 there came synthpop artists like Howard Jones, Nik Kershaw and the German band Alphaville. Other examples of synthpop bands from the 1980s are A-ha, Bronski Beat, New Order, Soft Cell, Visage and Yello. In 1984 there also came a new type of pop-music called eurodisco, with many Italian bands like Scotch, and German like Modern Talking. Eurodisco is also based upon synthesizers and it can often be hard to separate from synthpop. The music Pet Shop Boys was playing was also called eurodisco. In 1986 the status of synthpop was weakened and since then only music that is very much based upon synthesizers is called synthpop. The synthesizer continued to be a very important instrument within the pop-music. Eurodisco came to England and the producer team Stock/Aitken/Waterman. They produced records for very many artists. One of the more famous is Kylie Minogue. In 1987 the house music came to England. It originally came from Chicago (e.g. Frankie Knuckles), where it had started a few years earlier. House is monotone synthesizer based dance music with sound effects. In 1991 the techno music came to Belgium and the Netherlands. It originally came from Detroit, where it been played since the mid '80s (e.g. Derrick May). Techno is also synthesizer based dance music, but heavier and darker than house music. From Germany came U 96. In 1992 the eurodisco came back from Germany. It had changed a bit in style though. The typical eurodisco band is made of a German or Italian producer, a black rapper and a female singer. The music is based upon simple synthesizer melodies, rapping and simple refrains. Eurodisco is now often called only "dance". Page, S.P.O.C.K, Sista Mannen På Jorden and This Fish Needs A Bike are four great Swedish synthpop bands. Elegant Machinery, Daily Planet, Daybehavior, Encounter and Saft are a few more examples of Swedish synthpop bands. Examples of newer synthpop bands are Anything Box from USA, Mesh from UK and And One from Germany. Electronic, Saint Etienne and Kim Wilde are English artists with music close to synthpop. Melody Club, Kamera and Bobby are new Swedish artists with music close to synthpop. Examples of genres within synthmusic:
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80s Site of the Day! October 21, 1997 |
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