May Cyborgs Sweat?

There are constantly attempts to explain the history of music as a history of music technology. Looking at electronic music, I want to exemplary rebut this technological determinism. Technology did play a role for sure. A lot of sounds would not have been possible without advances in technology. But many technologies were triggered by theories and prototypes which were created long time ago. There had to be a societal acceptance of the idea before it could be used in popular music.

From Theremin to the Psychodynamic Music Machine

Electronic music instruments exist a whole lot longer as one might think. Some guys may believe that electronic music starts with Tangerine Dream or Kraftwerk. Journalists who want to brag about their profound knowledge normally name Stockhausen and John Cage as initiators. Eventually, the trautonium, which can be seen as an early ancestor of the synthesizer, was invented as early as 1930. Moog began in the 1950s to build “real” synthesizers. It took till 1970 before the advent of the Mini-Moog allowed the increased use of synthetic sounds in popular music.

Tangerine Dream used from 1972 an EMS VCS 5, which was like the Mini-Moog a monophonic, analogue synthesizer. Kraftwerk, too, were a typical Krautrock band, which re-invented themselves only in 1973 as electronic pop group. If we are looking for beginnings, we should turn our sight to England. The Space Rock band Hawkwind may be considered pioneers in using electronic instruments and Keith Emerson as keyboardist of Emerson, Lake and Palmer carried a whole arsenal of keyboards around. Pink Floyd, on the other hand, were a typical guitar band. First, Syd Barrett, then David Gilmour dominated the sound of the band. It was not before 1972 that Pink Floyd used electronic instruments and Rick Wright, by all means, surely was neither a keyboard virtuoso nor a visionary.

In Japan it took till 1974 for Tomita to release his album Snowflakes Are Dancing, on which he interpreted piano pieces by Debussy on the synthesizer. The Yellow Magic Orchestra, which can be seen as Japan’s answer to Kraftwerk, was not founded before 1978.

The analogue synthesizer was not the first electronic instrument that made it into popular music. Even if we ignore the Hammond organ for not being electronic enough, we have to accept the Mellotron as a precursor of the sampler. This device was already used heavily by the Beatles on Strawberry Fields Forever. King Crimson put it to good use as early as the late Sixties and Pink Floyd had it on Dark Side of the Moon in 1973.

Digital samples are extremely important for the 1980s. The digital Fairlight CMI synthesizer was one of the first synthesizers available that used sampling technology. It was shipped in 1979 and found early adopters in Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush or Stevie Wonder. It was much too expensive, however, for ordinary users. The first mass production digital synth was the legendary Yamaha DX7. It shaped the sound of popular music from 1983 onwards. The DX7, however, did not use samples but frequency modulation. In Techno and House hardware sequencers were the basic instruments. It was the Roland TB-303 – an analogue synthesizer with integrated step sequencer –  that created the typical Acid House sound. Analogue drum computers like the Roland TR-606, which was internally a pattern sequencer as well, created the endless, monotonous rhythm loops.

But there was another electronic instruments which offered a totally different user interface: the theremin. It can count as the oldest of the instruments mentioned as it was invented as early as 1919. Its contemporary successor is the Etherwave Theremin, which is built by Moog. The theremin has not made it into popular music yet. The reason for this may lie in its difficult use. It is played contactless by hand and arm motions. The pitch is modified continuously without heeding Gregorian scales. It needs a lot of training to hit the desired pitch (see Chrysler 2011). You also do not know which note will sound next. Having said that, I must admit that Moog offers now a Etherwave Plus (Moog 2011), which comes with pitch preview.

More current developments in the electronic instrument sector also suffer from their inconvenient user interfaces. That may be true for the Body Synth (SynthZone 2011), which translates muscle contractions into midi commands. Other ideas like the AudioCubes (Percussa 2011) are more controllers than musical instruments – but it is open for discussion if this distinction is feasible any more.

MIT media labs are currently developing new hardware and software interfaces between humans and music(machines). One idea is to enable people without musical training to make music; another one is the use of music as part of an interactive therapy for sick people. “The research focus of all this work is on designing computer systems (sensors, signal processing, and software) that measure and interpret human expression and feeling, as well as on exploring the appropriate modalities and innovative content of interactive art and entertainment environments.“ (MIT Media Labs, 2011).

So, maybe it won’t be far till we see the first full-blown psychodynamic music machine, which will turn our unconscious into sound. Bodily parameters like pulse, blood pressure, brain activity, skin resistance, transpiration level, blood parameters and muscle contractions are scanned in real-time and translated into soundscapes. But you have to be a stubborn positivist indeed if you think one can really create an undistorted, audible representation of id. The unconscious is not approachable by electrodes. There has to be interpretation in any case. And if the translation of the raw data by the music machine creates music or just a cacophony lies the ear of the listener. Many people heard only noise when they listened to Ornette Coleman’s albums The Shape of Jazz to Come and Free Jazz.

It’s the Song Not the Machine

The underlying philosophy is much more interesting than the technology. Everyone follows a kind of basic philosophy, even if they can’t name it. Nobody can evade the norms, values and beliefs that are linked to their social world. And that is still true if someone rebels against them. Even in that case, he or she must first acknowledge that there are values. And although the rebel may think to be alone in the struggle against the hegemony, there may be like-minded people. Waves of protests will wash over society.

The realities of the social world are of course mirrored by music. Electronic music, too, does bear witness to the state of society. It was outsiders, nerds that started it. Addicts to technology were the inventors and first adopters of electronic instruments. I would put Cage and Stockhausen into this category.  There was a certain affinity to technology to be found in the early progressive rockers too. But they were strongly affected by hippie ideals as well. They favoured improvisation and experiment while they also rejected capitalism. And they didn’t like to be put together in a box with charts acts which played simple 3 minutes pop songs. They saw themselves as serious artists in an Adornoian way. On the other hand, they all were heavily influenced by the Beatles, the first band which made the transition from a simple beat group to an advanced art project while still delivering nice melodies.

All of them – from Yes to Tangerine Dream, wanted to change the world. They were open-minded and positive. They named the problems of the world but were convinced that their generation was able to overcome them. Love was the answer. Make love not war. Not all generations saw the future in such a positive way.

The conceit of Adorno crumbled to dust in Warhol’s studio. Warhol turned tomato soup cans into objects of art. McLuhan warned about the upcoming era of mass media. Velvet Underground  put pure noise agianst artisan crafts. (But that was done by Sun Ra before). Kraftwerk, Roxy Music and Can were children of this pop culture. They weren’t loaded with the negative energy Velvet Underground possessed, but all of them where alternative drafts to Adorno’s high brow culture. Can hit the charts in 1971 with Spoon, a soundtrack for a television mystery film. (The film was funnily called Das Messer [the Knife]). Kraftwerk conquered the hit lists in 1973 with Autobahn. Roxy Music were permanent residents in the charts. Without these pioneers, bands like Yello, Pet Shop Boys, Soft Cell or Depeche Mode would not have happened.

The renegade keyboardist of Roxy Music, Brian Eno, created a whole new subgenre on his own in the Mid-Seventies: Ambient. This genre refers back to the elitist forefathers Cage and Stockhausen. Eno denounced pop music and composed from now on technoid, emotionless music only. A kind of music that seemed to breathe purity and prudence.

But at the same time a new generation came of age, which did neither share the optimism of their precursors nor the brittleness of Eno. The nihilism, hatched by the likes of Velvet Underground and the beat poets, discharged itself first in New York City, then in London, and consequently all over the western world. A punk storm that washed away all the hippie dreams was its effect. And it wasn’t just the Ramones, Sex Pistols and the Clash. There was a lot of experiment, and some of it was electronic. Suicide and Throbbing Gristle may act as examples here. For this generation, the fears of McLuhan had become reality. The mass media, in accordance with the corporates, had turned the people into a brainless mass of willing consumers. Lost in the Supermarket sang the Clash. No Future.

Upon this foundation of rage and hatred, Front 242 and others built their Electronic Body Music. EBM used machine beats just like house and techno, which grew alongside, but the basic philosophy was completely different. Nine Inch Nails carried this protest into the 1990s.

House and Techno surely were influenced by Kraftwerk (everyone says so. It must be true), but one should not underestimate the influence of Funk and Disco. House and Techno were all about groove from the very beginning. It was mainly dance music even if – as a subculture – it necessarily had a political dimension. Funk was the black counterpart to white hippie culture. Like Funk, House and Techno too were fed by a positive philosophy. The love parade was not incidentally named thus. Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow sang George Clinton. Love was central to the Funk movement too, even if bodily love sometimes was accented by the songs. Disco was in parts openly sexist.

In the Nineties all subgenres came up for air again in new constellations. The Orb, Aphex Twin and Orbital served their technoid customers with machine beats. Goa Trance and Dub reanimated old hippie dreams. Esotericism was on the rise again. Followers danced intoxicated by the beat and other substances around Stonehenge and searched for ley lines. India and chakra meditation were fashionable once more.  Astralasia, Zion Train, Eat Static, Meat Beat Manifesto and others provided the soundtrack for the astral journeys. Ambient became an important subgenre and split in a lot of subsubgenres. Trip Hop and Lounge were invented for more lascivious city folks. And I haven’t mention Drum’n’Bass yet – and, and, and.

The problem with categorizing music is that not even subgenres can be mapped to a certain philosophy. There are intersections and the artists do not like to be put into a box. One should not write about music. Music is an experience. Music is there to be listened or danced to. But language is the only way in which we can put meaning to our world.