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INTRODUCTION

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. The electronic musician is the person who composes and/or performs such music. In general, we can make a distinction between sound produced using electromechanical means and sound produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound producing devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ and the electric guitar. We can achieve purely electronic sound production using devices such as the Theremin, sound synthesizer and computer.

The first electronic devices for performing music in the history of electronic music, were developed at the end of the 19th century. Shortly afterward Italian Futurists explored sounds that had previously not been considered musical. During the 1920s and 1930s, electronic instruments were introduced and the first compositions for electronic instruments were composed. By the 1940s, magnetic audio tape allowed musicians to tape sounds and then modify them by changing the tape speed or direction. This led to the development of electroacoustic tape music in the 1940s in Egypt and France. Musique concrète, created in Paris in 1948, was based on editing together recorded fragments of natural and industrial sounds. Music produced solely from electronic generators was first produced in Germany in 1953. In the beginning of the 1950s people in Japan and the United States also created electronic music .


AN IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT

An important new development was the advent of computers for the purpose of composing music. In 1951 in Australia the first algorithmic composition took place. In America and Europe, the pioneering of live electronics started in the early 1960s. During the 1970s to early 1980s, the monophonic Minimoog became once the most widely used synthesizer at that time in both popular and electronic art music.

In the 1970s, electronic music began having a significant influence on popular music. Genres such as krautrock, disco, new wave and synthpop emerged. They adopted polyphonic synthesizers, electronic drums and drum machines. In the 1980s, electronic music became more dominant in popular music. Popular music relied more and more on synthesizers, programmable drum machines and bass synthesizers. Digital technologies for synthesizers including digital synthesizers became popular in the early 1980s. A group of musicians and music merchants developed the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI).

Electronically produced music became prevalent in the popular domain by the 1990s, because of the advent of affordable music technology. Contemporary electronic music includes many varieties and ranges from experimental art music to popular forms such as electronic dance music. Today, pop electronic music is most recognizable in its 4/4 form. It’s vastly more connected with the mainstream culture as opposed to its preceding forms which were specialized to niche markets.

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At the turn of the 20th century, experimentation with emerging electronics led to the first electronic musical instruments. These initial inventions were not sold, but were instead used in demonstrations and public performances. The audiences were presented with reproductions of existing music instead of new compositions for the instruments. While some were considered novelties and produced simple tones, the Telharmonium accurately synthesized the sound of orchestral instruments. It achieved viable public interest and made commercial progress into streaming music through telephone networks.

Critics of musical conventions at the time saw promise in these developments. Ferruccio Busoni encouraged the composition of microtonal music allowed for by electronic instruments. He predicted the use of machines in future music, writing the influential Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music. Futurists such as Francesco Balilla Pratella and Luigi Russolo began composing music with acoustic noise. Thus, they wanted to evoke the sound of machinery. They predicted expansions in timbre allowed for by electronics in the influential manifesto The Art of Noises.

The first practical audio tape recorder was unveiled in 1935. Improvements to the technology were made using the AC biasing technique, which significantly improved recording fidelity. As early as 1942, test recordings were being made in stereo. Although these developments were initially confined to Germany, recorders and tapes were brought to the United States following the end of World War II. These were the basis for the first commercially-produced tape recorder in 1948.

Magnetic audio tape opened up a vast new range of sonic possibilities to musicians, composers, producers and engineers. Audio tape was relatively cheap and very reliable. Its fidelity of reproduction was better than any audio medium to date. Most importantly, unlike discs, it offered the same plasticity of use as film. You can slow down tape, speed it up or even run it backwards during recording or playback, often with startling effects. It is possible to edit tape physically in much the same way as film. This allows for seamlessly removing or replacing unwanted sections of a recording. Likewise, you can edit in segments of tape from other sources. You can also join tape to form endless loops that continually play repeated patterns of pre-recorded material.

Audio amplification and mixing equipment further expanded tape’s capabilities as a production medium. As a result, it became possible to mix together multiple pre-taped recordings (and/or live sounds, speech or music). Finally, it allowed simultaneously recording onto another tape with relatively little loss of fidelity. Another unforeseen windfall was the possibility of relatively easily modifying tape recorders to become echo machines. That way they can produce complex, controllable, high-quality echo and reverberation effects. Most of these effects would be practically impossible to achieve by mechanical means.

The spread of tape recorders eventually led to the development of electroacoustic tape music. The first known example was composed in 1944 by Halim El-Dabh, a student at Cairo, Egypt. He recorded the sounds of an ancient zaar ceremony using a cumbersome wire recorder. At the Middle East Radio studios he processed the material using reverberation, echo, voltage controls, and re-recording. The resulting work was entitled The Expression of Zaar. The presentation was in 1944 at an art gallery event in Cairo. El-Dabh’s initial experiments in tape based composition were not widely known outside of Egypt at that time. But El-Dabh is also notable for his later work in electronic music at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in the late 1950s.

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In Cologne (Germany) the radio studios of the NWDR officially opened in 1953. It would become the most famous electronic music studio in the world. This studio was the brain child of Werner Meyer-Eppler, Robert Beyer and Herbert Eimert (who became its first director). It was soon joined by Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig. The year 1949 was the year in which Meyer-Eppler wrote his thesis Elektronische Klangerzeugung: Elektronische Musik und Synthetische Sprache. In his thesis he conceived the idea to synthesize music entirely from electronically produced signals. This way, elektronische Musik was sharply differentiated from French musique concrète, which used sounds recorded from acoustical sources.

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The earliest electronic musical instruments in Japan, Yamaha Magna Organ were built in 1935. However, after World War II, Japanese composers such as Minao Shibata were aware of farther developments of electronic musical instruments. By the late 1940s, Japanese composers began experimenting with electronic music. Institutional sponsorship enabled them to experiment with cutting-edge equipment. Their infusion of Asian music into the emerging genre would eventually support Japan’s domination in the development of music technology several decades later.

Following the foundation of electronics company Sony in 1946, composers Toru Takemitsu and Minao Shibata independently conceived possible uses for electronic technology to produce music. Takemitsu had ideas similar to that of musique concrète, which he was initially unaware of. Shibata foresaw the development of synthesizers and predicted a drastic change in music. Sony began producing popular magnetic tape recorders for government and public use.

The avant-garde collective Jikken Kōbō (Experimental Workshop), founded in 1950, was offered access to emerging audio technology by Sony. The company hired Toru Takemitsu to demonstrate their tape recorders with compositions and performances of electronic tape music. The first electronic tape pieces by the group were “Toraware no Onna” (“Imprisoned Woman”) and “Piece B”. They were composed in 1951 by Kuniharu Akiyama. Many of the electroacoustic tape pieces they produced were used as incidental music for radio, film, and theatre. They also held concerts employing a slide show synchronized with a recorded soundtrack. There were also composers outside of the Jikken Kōbō. Among them were Yasushi Akutagawa, Saburo Tominaga and Shirō Fukai. They were also experimenting with radiophonic tape music between 1952 and 1953.

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An island in the Mediterranean Sea, belonging to Spain. Ibiza is noted as one of the birthplaces of electronica and DJ'ing of electronic dance music. Many top performers in the electronica genres have either resided in Ibiza, worked there as house DJs, or used Ibiza to premiere new tracks.

Ibiza's roots as a venue for electronic music go back to the late 1960s, when American and European hippies used the island as a vacation spot. After-hours house parties featured psychedelic music played from vinyl, 1960s-style discotheque lighting, dancing, and of course drugs and casual (and often public) sex. As the 1970s evolved into the 1980s, some of the parties got too large and intrusive to be held in homes or beach cottages, and so they moved into bars and become commercial enterprises.

Electronic dance music began to appear in the mid-1980s, and with it, the club's DJs evolved from merely being record-spinners and become performers in their own right, taking after some of what was being done in the rap and hip-hop worlds. Clubs became larger and stayed open later, as the island's reputation grew with people seeking dancing and nightlife. The club Space set a marker in the late 1980s; as island law prohibited the clubs from staying open 24 hours, Space closed at 6 AM each morning, taking an hour to clean up and then re-opening at 7 AM for daytime partying and dancing. Other clubs followed, and the scene grew large enough to attract top DJs, spinning tracks from top producers. Club patrons developed a rather unique sleep cycle, involving periods of sleep and chill-out during the day, and staying up all night. A cafe called Cafe del Mar latched onto this trend, holding daily sunset chill-out sessions featuring ambient music. Cafe del Mar became influential enough in the ambient style that it began commissioning and releasing its own compilation albums of ambient tracks.

As the scene has grown, the usual problems associated with large crowds of tourists have appeared, rankling the residents. Over the past decade, the government has undertaken various measures to try to price accommodations on the island out of reach of most of the young adults who patronize the clubs. So far, though, these measures have had little effect.








Ibiza (Spanish: [iˈβiθa]; Catalan: Eivissa [əjˈvisə]; see below), officially Eivissa) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of Spain. It is 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the city of Valencia. It is the third-largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. Its largest settlements are Ibiza Town (Catalan: Vila d'Eivissa, or simply Vila), Santa Eulària des Riu, and Sant Antoni de Portmany. Its highest point called Sa Talaiassa (or Sa Talaia)is 475 meters (1,558 feet) above sea level.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibiza

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Ibiza has been a magnet for clubbers and partygoers for many years. With so many styles & genres, it’s easy to forget about the history born in the clubs and on the beaches of the island. So how did it begin?https://discoveribiza.com/history-of-music-in-ibiza/

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Ibiza has something very special and unique, something that leads painters, photographers, filmmakers, and all kinds of artists to land on this small Mediterranean island: it's light. Ibiza's light transforms all its surroundings, and no photographic filters are needed to achieve the perfect selfie with the perfect brightness.https://www.theushuaiaexperience.com/en/blog/ibiza-lifestyle/night/history-ibiza-nightlife-beach-clubs/

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First opened in 1989, the iconic Space Ibiza celebrates 25 years of existence this summer (hence this documentary), and it’s no exaggeration to say that Space has changed the concept of clubbing as we know it. Sundays, for example, helped give rise to the birth of the 24-hour party, while the club has also acted as a springboard for the careers of Carl Cox, Steve Lawler, Sasha, and literally hundreds of others. Yet while it’s now very much a state-of-the-art, 6,000 capacity super-club, back in ‘89 it started out with far more humble intentions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOZwVumhxAc

Tony Pike is an 83-year-old Ibiza legend who passed away in early 2019 after a lifetime of partying. His hotel 'Pikes" has been a debaucherous hotspot for celebrities spanning decades, boasting such guests as George Michael, Freddie Mercury, Liam Gallagher, and Grace Jones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvLM8DS-BJo

Ah Ibiza, it is a mystical little island filled with both charming free-spirited love and blackout drunken stupor. When combined these can form unforgettable magic. Everyone remembers his or her first experience on the White Isle, but often times it is not their most memorable, as that experience serves as just a taste of what the island has to offer. No one knows this better than some of the DJs here on the island who have spent a countless number of seasons absorbing Ibiza and all of its mystical energy.

Resistance, Ultra Music Festival's proper techno and house extension, has made its debut on the island this year, establishing its presence and contributing to some of that White Isle spirit. While Resistance may be the new kid on the block this season, its lineup is stacked with a number of Ibiza veterans who have seen and experienced it all. With a myriad of memories logged into their personal histories, we asked some of these DJs to relate their wildest Ibiza story.https://www.ibiza-spotlight.com/magazine/2017/08/resistance-djs-share-their-wildest-ibiza-memories http://suitelife.com/blog/nightlife-in-barcelona/ibiza-party-island/

Ibiza’s history is littered with rock-star stories: German singer-songwriter Nina Hagen married here in 1987 in a punk wedding that lasted two days. In 1977, Eric Clapton was rumoured to have almost died in a shipwreck as he was arriving here on his boat with George Harrison. But everything always seems to lead back to Pikes – the hotel nestled in the hills overlooking San Antonio where Wham! recorded their Club Tropicana video; that hosted Freddie Mercury’s infamous 41st birthday party; and where Mercury stayed prior to his iconic Ku Club performance with Montserrat Caballé, the famous Spanish opera singer. Legend has it the performance rehearsal was held there, though, like much of the decade, the details are fuzzy. The hotel takes its name from Tony Pike, a British-born Australian, former Navy sailor and international playboy who came to Ibiza in 1978 post a 48-hour party. On the recommendation of a friend, Pike boarded a Spanish ferry, got off in Ibiza – and decided to stay. A listing for a 500-year-old finca (estate) near San Antonio soon caught his eye; the name was Can Pep Toniet, meaning ‘the property of little Tony’. Who could resist such obvious fate? Rock ‘n’ roll is how the music scene got going in the first place on Ibiza Essentially derelict, with no water, electricity or sanitation, over the next few years Pike built his five-room hotel from the ground up, using a jackhammer to put in the infamous pool and illegally tapping into a government generator for electricity. As the 1980s began, Ibiza was in the throes of its first flush of club-culture tourism. Pacha, Amnesia and Club Ku had opened, and rumours of Ibiza’s uncrowded beaches and rolling hills had spread quickly on the breeze. The former capital of the hippie movement was on the cusp of change. For Pike, that change came in 1983, when Simon Napier-Bell, the manager of Wham!, decided to shoot the group’s new single ‘Club Tropicana’ at the hotel. The video saw Pike making a cameo as a bartender, George Michael floating in the pool, and the cementing of both Ibiza and Pikes Hotel as the party destination to be. For a whole decade, you couldn’t say ‘hedonism’ on Ibiza without including Pikes Hotel in the same breath. ‎Andy McKay and Dawn Hindle, the current owners of Pikes, agree: “There’s not a rock ‘n’ roll hotel in the world that couldn’t say that Pikes competes with them for the top spot.”