[Closed] Electro Synth Pop-Tastic thread... Help/Advice needed!

Got to be Kraftwerk, surely? Massive influence, fascinating I would've thought..
or Tangerine Dream.I'd like to read that...

what about the lady/gentleman who did the original doctor who special sound effects back in the 60's.they actually created those sounds before the synth was invented (in some cases they designed their own sound effect making devices http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr08/articles/radiophonic.htm.
also how about vince clarke.the guy is a legend as far as i'm concerned 🙂

Definitely KRAFTWERK I hear them everywhere in everything. I'd love to be in your position to delve into them properly. Don't dismiss them just cos they're german roadies! KRAFTWERK. end of thread.

all those you listed are influenced in some way from Kraftwerk. yes, I'm a bit of a fan 🙂 early breakdance? kraftwerk! can I write it for you?

listen to:
Autobahn
Trans Europe Express
computer World
Radio-activity

then you'll get it.

Daphne Oram and Kraftwerk were the first that sprang to mind when I started reading your post. Both have already been mentioned as well.

*edit* BTW if Daphne Oram and her Oramics machine is of interest the Science Museum currently has an exhibition going. No idea if its any good though but might be interesting.

KRAFTWERK is too obvious, been done LOADS before apparently. And because of that, can be quite difficult to create an outstanding case study on them so I've been told.

what about the lady/gentleman who did the original doctor who special sound effects back in the 60's.they actually created those sounds before the synth was invented (in some cases they designed their own sound effect making devices

Ron Grainer/Delia Derbyshire?

Don't feel I know enough about them, or would remain interested enough, to be quite honest. Incredible though their achievements were though of course, I've found it hard to relate to anything pre-synth to be honest when learning about the music, as my mind doesn't comprehend well the notion of there not being a keyboard to play to make a musical note!

Daphne Oram, didn't know about her... Will have a read about her...

MPC 60 (or even Fairlight) might be an interesting gear-based one to look at.

slainte 🙂 rob

This was a piece on Radio 3 (I think) from a couple of years back on Daphne Oram.

For the 70's German sound i'd go for Connie Plank.
For 80's UK sound, Daniel Miller.

Perhaps John Carpenter then? Influential in modern music while also influencing electronic music in film?

I guess it has to be someone or something you are interested in and then you determine how influential it is, and the scale of influence is perhaps less important than being able to articulate what and why they were influential to those they were.

You could probably choose Boards of Canada if you had enough enthusiasm for them and write a good piece even if you don't get to say "He invented the Moog! Enough said!" 😉

Brian Eno
Robert Fripp
Ps I'm a massive Kraftwerk fan, been since I was 11, 43 this year.

Was scrolling down thinking, Brian Eno. Brian Eno. Brian Eno? BRIAN ENO! Then Sputnik said it 🙂

Jean Michelle Jarre? Human League? 🙂
Noisia do some amazing sound design/synth programming, but I don't know how much influence they have had on others. They do design presets for synths/plugins etc.

just dig up more on kraftwerk. I'm not going to stop on the kraftwerk thing. some great calls on Brian eno and BBC lady, Go older then.. the soundtrack to Forbidden planet bebe and louis barron.

edit: you just looking for an 80's synthesizer bod it seems..
take your pick. Better thread would be.. "who epitomises this particular synthesizer.."

Good call on Brian Eno, he's a possibility...

Again, Kraftwerk just too obvious. Also whilst they were way ahead of their time, their music doesn't really do much for me unlike many many others I can think of that have also been influential.

I guess it has to be someone or something you are interested in and then you determine how influential it is, and the scale of influence is perhaps less important than being able to articulate what and why they were influential to those they were.

Just because I think someone/something is massively influential, doesn't mean to say they are influential enough to fit the criteria. I originally wanted to do Armand Van Helden, but my lecturer said on his own he's probably not influential enough, but if I wanted to do study the New York House Producers (him, Todd Terry, MAW etc.) influence on the scene in general then that may be better. It has to interest me enough, but also it has to be universally recognised (not just be me) as being highly influential.

The Barron's again maybe, but I knew nothing of them until a couple of weeks ago. I'd rather do something I at least know a small amount before hand, so I know they are likely to maintain my interest. I'd likely to Pierre Schaeffer or Karlheinz Stockhausen, or even Leon Theremin before the Barrons to be fair, but again, though massively influential, I'm not sure I could really get enthusiastic enough about them.

it's down to you then!
I saw a docu on Eno where he described the tape loop processes he used and his early stuff is defo experimental, accidental and creative in it's nature. I'd be looking for experimental creativity to write about rather than someone on a bandwagon doing someone elses stuff I guess.

you just looking for an 80's synthesizer bod it seems..

FAR from it...

I'd really love to write about Bob Moog, but I think I'd have to select such a small section of his work (as he has done and created so much), I'd still be missing out on so much. Might be good to focus on just the Minimoog though maybe?

Moroder is there cos he was so influential moving Disco from the live Orchestra's to being fully synthesized, and for creating those crazily repetitive yet madly catching arpeggiated basslines. Also, cos he did quite a lot of film work too, and did the soundtracks to 2 of my fave films of all time (Scarface and Top Gun).

Prince... Well he's just a midget sized genius! It's hard to think of pop musicians these days that he hasn't influenced in some way, the way he changed the game with things like reverb, and the crazy amount of swing he used to humanise the music, was very influential.

It's far from being all about the 80's synth bods... Otherwise I'd probably do Gary Numan, though someone else on the course is already writing about him anyway.

it's down to you then!

Haha, I know that! I'm after more opinions and suggestions, and this has been very useful as some good ones have come up...

scarface soundtrack. The whole film. I can't explain why this is so good and influential to my younger friends 🙁

you know what you're after, you're looking for contemporary obscure I think, not the obvious. there must be a geeky electro synth pop forum somewhere..

you could do a small band like ladytron, and do a cynical trace back their whole sonic career to the electronic year dot. cos they are very retro sounding.

Walter carlos with clockwork orange soundtrack

If Kraftwerk is too obvious, how about Manuel Gottsching, composer of E2-E4? Another German genius whose influence is all over house music: [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E2-E4 ]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E2-E4[/url] (you'll recognise the tune). Or, in the UK, A Guy Called Gerald?

It would also be interesting to look at the effect (good and bad; bad mostly) MIDI has had on popular music. Jaron Lanier has a good riff on it in You Are Not a Gadget.

BTW, what kind of degree lets you listening to house music all day?!

What about jeff mills or mike banks (underground resistance). Banks is a really influential and interesting character.

To my eyes goldie seems out of place on your list. I'd like to see the bob moog one. Or pet shop boys. My wife and I were talking the other day about how influential they were in a quite subtle way. More in terms of electronic culture than sound, likewise erasure. Although we both accept that this is probably due to our age and them being the most visible entry into electronic music.
It's a nice choice to be making for a degree.

To be honest, I'd be more inclined to look at something geeky - like the influence of Genesis P'orridge or Pete Christoperson on the early electronic music scene.

[url= http://www.klaus-schulze.com/ ]http://www.klaus-schulze.com/[/url] or Rick Wakeman.

gotta be the DMX or 808

Going a bit leftfield how about the SID-soundchip from the commodore 64? Its quietly become quite common across a whole range of electronic artists to either use a sidstation or direct sample/sid-style sounds. You could widen it out to accommodate the rise of chip-tune and other subgenres using outdated gaming hardware. Very 'on trend' !

Juan Atkins and/or the Belleville Three

Fairlight CMI? Mellotron?

Could you go a little abstract and focus on something like pirate radio in London and its influence on modern electronic music, Garage, DnD, Grime and recently the part it played in leading the emergence of Dubstep which has subsequently become very popular and its styles that can be heard in everything now.

MrSynthpop's idea sounds brilliant.

Definitely Fairlight, principally because they've just released an anniversary model so you could bookend the essay nicely whilst padding out the middle a bit with a bit of background about where they went after their original sampler. Because lets face it, the sampler was the cornerstone of so many home studios. The explosion of electronic music for me was down to the fact that by the early 90's anyone with a few grand spare could, with a sampler and an imagination, really [i]create[/i] for the first time.

+1 for the Belleville Three - or perhaps a more in general 'the detroit influence'.
or
the roland 303, 808 & 909
or
Chicagos influence - Trax records and Frankie knuckles etc (who now has a street named after him in Chicago thanks to Barack Obama)

E2-E4 is currently available from sounds of the universe records in London - all 58 minutes of it

The Synthbritannia documentary is worth seeking out and the 'history of electronic music' podcasts are well worth a listen.

Your essay is far more interesting than the ones I had to write for my Chemistry degree.
The influence of Chemistry on Electronic music could have been an interesting essay.

How 'distant' past do you need? IME, aphex twin did some crazy things with synths in terms of rewiring/twiddling about with them to make sounds that you couldn't otherwise achieve.

Whereas Vince Clarke (don't laugh!) was a master of just making fabulous arrangements of more readily available synth sounds that he could play on stage 'live' but that were both complex and hard for other people to reproduce (at the time!), but very pleasing to the 'pop' ear.

Also old Nine inch Nails also not pop, but great use of eletronix for the times those records were made in IME.

If you're going to include people who designed influential hardware you have to include Peter Zinovieff. Most great electronic albums of the 70's featured an EMS synth. There's a fascinating interview with him at the [url= http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/dr-peter-zinovieff-the-original-tectonic-sounds ]Red Bull Academy[/url]

Also William Burroughs who was a heavy influence behind cut up & loop music.

This is great! I would absolutely love to be in your shoes and write about music!
Some of the guys above beat me to it, but I think writing about Detroit Techno would be interesting. I would slant towards Carl Craig(huge fan) as he is such a influential talent across a broad spectrum of genres(straight up techno, Drum and Bass, Electronica, and even jazz with his Detroit experiment stuff)
Or your other option of MAW. Again lots of history that you can delve back into(the whole latin/Puerto Rican jazz stuff etc.) Interesting stuff.
On a different tip that nobody has mentioned, what about Suicide? Hugely influential and not greatly known until many years later.

Go really in depth on the development of the Fairlight CMI. Hardware and software, prototypes etc and then append with stories from the original big hitter users like Peter Gabriel and Vince Clarke.

Agree that Vince Clarke should need to be referenced.

The transition of Joy Division to New Order.

The most successful synth band are Depeche Mode who have had a massive influence on that genre of music and electronica in general like Trance/Ambient, EBM, Industrial etc.

Jean Michel Jarre also an important experimenter with synth sounds during the late 70's early 80's.

Damn, curtisthecat beat me to suggesting Suicide.

Check out the first album if you haven't already heard it. Their influence straddles rock (eg. Spacemen 3 etc) and techno (Weatherall is a huge fan). Probably the most uncompromising band I have ever seen live.

Juan Atkins is a good choice also, some of his tracks were a real watershed in electronic music.

I agree Kraftwerk is too obvious.

Neu! Would probably be my choice though. So influential, first on pop in the '70s and '80s and later on guitar bands.

DAF seemed to big for a while on the club scene. Was always partial to a bit of Fad Gadget too.

With the Sheefield link Caberet Voltaire were pretty interesting too. nag, nag nag was a bit of a favourite.

It would also be interesting to look at the effect (good and bad; bad mostly) MIDI has had on popular music.

VERY good shout... Had completely missed that one for some reason. Quite frankly where we'd all be without MIDI is anyone's guess (though I suspect something would have been invented to do the same job), but what an invention that was...

BTW, what kind of degree lets you listening to house music all day?!

It doesn't, but I am studying for an HND (though will probably do a final year to turn it into a BA) in Electronic Music. And I bloody love it! The module I'm currently doing that requires me to write this case study is quite simply called "History of Electronic Music". Other modules I've done so far this year have been more hands on, practical modules, though really loving the whole mix of practical and theory in the context of the subject.

What about jeff mills or mike banks (underground resistance). Banks is a really influential and interesting character.

Whilst fairly influential in their respective genres, probably not influential enough given the context of the learning outcomes.

To my eyes goldie seems out of place on your list. I'd like to see the bob moog one.

Goldie is a loooooooong way from being out of place on the list. Nobody would argue that D&B isn't a sizable chunk of the moden Electronic Music Industry, and he is/was the Godfather of the genre. And his Timeless Album was the breaking point, before that D&B was just "jungle" that was played by a few mash-heads at sweaty raves and was no more inventive than the age old Amen Break with a couple of samples laid over the top. Then in 1995 Goldie blew everything and everyone apart with his Timeless Album. If one man could be more influential within one genre of music, I can't think of him right now.

Going a bit leftfield how about the SID-soundchip from the commodore 64? Its quietly become quite common across a whole range of electronic artists to either use a sidstation or direct sample/sid-style sounds. You could widen it out to accommodate the rise of chip-tune and other subgenres using outdated gaming hardware. Very 'on trend' !

Too recent to be honest. Whilst Chiptune was a big thing about 6 or 7 years ago (and to a lesser extent, still is, though it's easier to replicate now with plugins for a DAW), it's not really a big influence at all. People have been using retro equipment for donkeys years in all sorts of fields to achieve authentic older sounds, chiptune is just one of the more recent evolutions of that to be honest. I'd be better off looking at the MiniMoog, or Yamaha DX7, looking at how popular they were and again how popular they are now.

Juan Atkins and/or the Belleville Three

Possibly good call, certainly influential enough...

Fairlight CMI? Mellotron?

Fairlight, yes possibly, Mellotron I don't know. But both are of little influence (even though they predeceded it some time) compared to the AKAI MPC... And I don't want to do the MPC, someone else is already writing about it.

Could you go a little abstract and focus on something like pirate radio in London and its influence on modern electronic music, Garage, DnD, Grime and recently the part it played in leading the emergence of Dubstep which has subsequently become very popular and its styles that can be heard in everything now.

Could possibly get away with it if I went back to the 80's and 90's, but anything newer would be classed as too new to know how influential it yet is. Not keen to be honest though...

the roland 303, 808 & 909

Too cliched for me, and again, another one of my classmates is already writing about them.

Your essay is far more interesting than the ones I had to write for my Chemistry degree.
The influence of Chemistry on Electronic music could have been an interesting essay.

All I can say is it rocks! 8)

How 'distant' past do you need? IME, aphex twin did some crazy things with synths in terms of rewiring/twiddling about with them to make sounds that you couldn't otherwise achieve.

Aphex Twin could be a good shout, he's been going long enough, and he is pretty influential.

Whereas Vince Clarke (don't laugh!) was a master of just making fabulous arrangements of more readily available synth sounds that he could play on stage 'live' but that were both complex and hard for other people to reproduce (at the time!), but very pleasing to the 'pop' ear.

He was one man (albeit good at what he did), in a whole musical movement full of similar men. Not even close to being influential I don't think in the context. Not compared to Gary Numan, Giorgio Moroder and perhaps a couple of others anyway.

The transition of Joy Division to New Order.

Don't think that Joy Division/New Order on their own would be a good enough shout, but as I was also considering talking about the Hacienda, certainly Tony Wilson would be a good shout as he was massively influential in terms of the Manchester (and therefore the whole of the UK) music scene from the late 70's until the late 90's and even beyond.

Cheers everyone for all your help so far, really can't explain just how much you've helped me out, and I wasn't expecting anything like the level of responses. I hope I've not come across as ungrateful to anyone if I've not agreed with you in any way, far from it, just that I've got certain criteria to fit and I know reasonably well what will and what won't fit those criteria.

mboy - Member
though it's easier to replicate now with plugins for a DAW

Might be too recent, but over the last 10 years or so I'd say the PC-based (home) studio has had a MASSIVE effect on electronic music. Might be hard to quantify though I guess? Never fails to interest me that the kind of leftfield, noisy, abstract stuff we were doing on KVR and EM411 8-10 years ago is now turning up as part of mainstream electronica on Radio 1 and the like.

slainte ❓ rob

Isao Tomita

What about the rise of the DAW itself as a theme?

Is perhaps the one thing from the last 10-15 years I could cover effectively I reckon... Though it would be quite a geeky subject.

Great thread 🙂

I wish I had similar assignments rather than management consultant bollocks to write about.

I nearly ended up with Vince's old Fairlight - would have been an expensive coffee table!

Some great suggestions above that I can't really think to add to.

I have various contacts relating to the above dependant upon which way you decide to go.

I'd be really interested to hear a precis of what you finally choice to cover 🙂

Pretty much decided after all that I'm going to write about the MiniMoog.

Just writing a Research proposal at the moment... Anybody got any key information they that I should know (that I might not have already found), or any pointers to any? Would be really useful...

Ive just read this thread for the first time. Interesting stuff.

Only thing I can add at this stage is that the first minimoogs were a nightmare to keep in tune. Tuning would drift mid performance as streetlights were switched on etc,as this caused the voltage/current to fluctuate.

Wolfgang Flur said it so it must be true! 🙂

Vince Clarke+1 Thomas Dolby? Leon Theremin?

The idea that Gary Numan has been more influential on electronic music than Vince Clarke 😆

Just checked out what I wrote was 100%. It's not. When playing in Paris Kraftwerks tempos were all out. At 8pm all the big factories plugged into the network which made the voltage fluctuate.

Never fails to interest me that the kind of leftfield, noisy, abstract stuff we were doing on KVR

we were ahead of our time 😛

I would think the bob moog story would be very interesting, though it sounds like you have to focus on just one product by the sounds of it? I met him a couple of years before he died, he was a nice old man, bit dithery and eccentric, but captivating. The moog story is quite interesting, sad at times but interesting.

Or the VST/Steinberg story might be a good one, bringing electronic music into everyone's home computers.

On the VST front you can look into Arturias Minimoog VST. I use it and within a mix you couldn't tell the difference.

On the VST front you can look into Arturias Minimoog VST. I use it and within a mix you couldn't tell the difference.

don't start on that!

That didn't take long!! 🙂

Sheffield: Human League. Heaven 17. ABC.

And supposedly it all started with a Kraftwerk gig at the Uni in 1976. Sheffield's version of the Sex Pistols at Manchester Free Trade Hall.

Anyone mention Tangerine Dream? That go back a fair old way so probably influenced quite a few artist that followed.

Edit : Probably not considered pop, though...

don't start on that!

lol @ bigjim... I take it you've played around on the originals then, cos anybody younger than about 50 wouldn't claim to be able to tell the difference between a decent VST and the original hardware these days. Thank heavens for decent software!

I would think the bob moog story would be very interesting, though it sounds like you have to focus on just one product by the sounds of it? I met him a couple of years before he died, he was a nice old man, bit dithery and eccentric, but captivating. The moog story is quite interesting, sad at times but interesting.

I would like to have done the whole thing on him, but it's WAY too big a topic. Christ I've got a 3000 word cap on this, I could probably write 3000 words on Bob Moog before he even invented the Moog Modular or the Minimoog! So I decided to pick the thing he was most famous and influential for... Incidentally I watched the documentary he did shortly before he died on Youtube the other day, really interesting story. What struck me is that he was so ridiculously nice and down to earth, not at all big headed despite obviously being quite a wealthy and influential man. He seemed to be as much in awe of some of the musicians who played his instruments as they were in awe of him for creating it!

Now... Any good books to read up on the Minimoog?

The idea that Gary Numan has been more influential on electronic music than Vince Clarke

Personally I think he has, maybe not directly in the field of "pop" music, but overall he probably has. With the likes of Nine Inch Nails, The Foo Fighters, through to Basement Jaxx and Armand Van Helden (and tonnes in between) all citing him as a massive influence.

I think Vince Clarke has done a lot don't get me wrong, but I'd say his influence has been more mainstream... Which is great, but doesn't float my boat quite so much.

I take it you've played around on the originals then, cos anybody younger than about 50 wouldn't claim to be able to tell the difference between a decent VST and the original hardware these days. Thank heavens for decent software!

Nah I've not but it must be the most common ,repetitive and boring VST argument topic, analogue hardware vs VA emulation! The Arturia one if memory serves me right seems to be one that splits people the most too. I have Minimonsta but have no interest in things sounding like the original.

I've not seen the Moog documentary, will look out for it, I saw him in 2004 doing a talk with Jean Jacques Perrey which was quite entertaining.

Phil Niblock is another random person who might be worth looking at. I think he uses quite interesting techniques and his live show is pretty powerful if you ever get a chance to see it.

Minimoog, good choice 🙂

Now... Any good books to read up on the Minimoog?

http://www.amazon.com/Analog-Days-Invention-Impact-Synthesizer/dp/0674016173/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272211371&sr=1-1

And googling reveals this which looks like a good place to start:

http://www.till.com/articles/moog/