Adventures in Academia

**JussiK** · November 24th, 2003, 06:39 AM

Time again here to teach the young like Harold Melvin/Teddy Pendergrass told us to do. The local university commissioned yours truly to lecture on music and the concept of futurism/retrofuturism. Naturally I'll end up discussing disco - what else? But to get to the sleeve of Giorgio's "Battlestar Galactica" and all other sorts of future/sci-fi/fantasy/experimental rhythm things either avantgardist or plain pop and everything in between ( Whitfield, Dee Dee Jackson, Meco etc ) and on to wikki-wikki-electro, tekkno and ambient one must obviously dig into Stockhausen, space age lounge, the electronic "concrete" ballets of the sixties, the German electronic stuff that Graham Start specialises in, Kraftwerk and I don't know what else. Do you? What's your interpretation of the birth of electronic/future-themed dance music? Need some help here and trust me I'll give you credit in my presentation.

**Nano** · November 24th, 2003, 11:06 AM

Maybe I'm putting it too "macro", but I think the whole space era had much to do with dance music turning to techno themes. Since 1957 (Sputnik I) to 1969 at least (man on the Moon) that thing was everywhere; you can see it in clothes fashion, sci-fi bestsellers, the UFO craze, movies... And of course Moog synthesizers with that crispy noises (that sounded so "far out" then and so "fart" now :) ) helped a little. Add to that the concept themes of prog-rock in the 70's (spaceships on all those Yes/Floyd albums) and... voilá! Cerrone's "Supernature" :lol:

**Giovanni** · November 24th, 2003, 05:40 PM

Jussi,

The space/electronic age in music depends by one & only thing..................... the advent of electronic instruments

I have really nothing more to say, but I want my credit too...... :lol: :lol: :lol:

ciao!

**BrunoRepublic** · November 24th, 2003, 06:32 PM

Originally Written by JussiK

... one must obviously dig into Stockhausen...

This is one thing I must really take issue with. Every time I read an article about the origins of electronic music, Stockhausen's name comes up. But his influence on electronica has been vastly overstated. He did, what, 5 pieces that incorporated primitive electronics in his decades-long career?

Ironically, most of the artists who really pushed and developed the synthesizer as an instrument (Wendy Carlos, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze) all distanced themselves from futurism. Vangelis briefly flirted with it in on Spiral and Albedo 0.39 before going back to his shamelessly romantic style. The only prominent electronic artists to really pursued futurism were Kraftwerk (who were really a pop act in robot's clothing) Giorgio Moroder (we all know the details there) and Larry Fast (who recorded as "Synergy"). Isao Tomita is debatable, given that his albums are electronic interpretations of classical works, and his highly embellished recordings could be seen as a response to Wendy's very literal interpretations of Bach's pieces.

It is interesting listening to this stuff today, as Klaus Schulze's albums from the mid-80s onward sound more dated than the ground-breaking material he was coming up with in the mid-70s. Larry Fast was amazing from a technical perspective, but most of his albums don't hold up very well today.

Most of the "futurist" electronic music were done by long-forgotten acts that were often filed under "Moog" music -- named after the company which built the first commercial synthesizers, even more hilarious when the equipment used was actually by rival ARP. Often these amounted to little more than some conventional instrumentation hastily thrown together, with a synth line or two on top. For at the time, doing an all-electronic production a la Carlos or Tomita was an incredibly tedious and hugely expensive affair.

In my rather useless and ill-informed opinion, there were three big "pushes" for futurism in music: the first being the arrival of commercial synthesizers, which spawned all the cheesy Moog albums, hoping to cash in on the success of Wendy Carlos' Switched On Bach without the effort. The second was the success of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon. While the cover and production certainly sounded futuristic, the lyrics are firmly timeless, based on the universal experiences of the human condition. Nonetheless, almost every rock album that came out in the next year had some obligatory synth on it -- even Black Sabbath's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath album. The third was the massive success of Star Wars. With this, the floodgates really opened, and you can see and hear it in everything that happened after that. Sci-fi and Fantasy took over, at least for a few years.

Arguably, there was still some of this happening in the early 80s, when computers started to creep into everyday life in the form of ATMs and video games. But the realization of some of the promises of sci-fi are what doomed futurism. With technology ever-present, it was no longer novel, and thus not worth singing about. On the practical side, the creation of MIDI and affordable synthesizers meant that anyone could sound like Patrick Cowley or Giorgio Moroder or Kraftwerk. The last example of futurism that I can think of in dance music was Living On Video; a song that seemed so cutting-edge at the time, but sounds so shockingly dated today. The utterly meaningless "tech" lyrics only worsen the situation. Kraftwerk, the most prominent proponents of futurism, became victims of their own philosophy: they were obsolete.*

*My thoughts on this were confirmed by an interview I read with former member Karl Bartos, who stated that the group simply could not keep up with the pace of music technology in the early 80s. Determined to stay on the leading edge, they would spend months reading manuals and learning new gear that would become obsolete in weeks. They simply couldn't keep up, thus their silence of several years. Exasperated and desperate to make some actual music, he left the group and went solo. Their long-awaited recent album shows how they have gone 180°, and are now lauded for their "retro" sound.

**paul** · November 24th, 2003, 07:38 PM

Congrats Jussik. I can't think of a better man for the job. Teach them youngsters a thing or two :D
My two cents is I remember David Bowie on one of those VH1 things talking about I Feel Love. Perhaps you saw this. Anyway, Bowie said when he heard the song he was drawn to it and believed he heard the future of music then. Of course this space age electronica is attributable to Giorgio Moroder.
That's my piece. As with Giovanni, you can toss a little credit my way as well :lol:

**JussiK** · November 25th, 2003, 01:19 AM

Thank you Nano, Gio, Graham and Paul!

Graham: What a tremendous piece you wrote - I'll be studying it carefully and looking into all that's there. I know nothing about stockhausen really, being only familiar with the few pieces and his reputation. Good that you brought the problem with him up. - I've got some of those later Klaus Shultzes and you're right, they sound just like your average whatever synth thing, with nothing to call inventive.

I'd add a few ambient troupes such as the future sound of london, with their jokey acid-fuelled comic book sci-fi-themes, and maybe a couple of good transmission ideas too - remember the isdn concert they did some years back that seemed amazing at the time?

Nice bit of info about David Bowie and I feel love, Paul.
Thanks again , guys!

**Sami M** · November 25th, 2003, 02:23 AM

I came to think about the theories of T. Adorno and what he said about music and electronic music. He himself composed avantgarde stuff.

There's plenty about him in the net. You can start with this http://ariada.uea.ac.uk:16080/ariada...nt/Technik.pdf

The electronic music is discussed at the end. I came across his theories during my studies on communication. Not so much to do with dance music but somewaht with ambient and the use of electronics/new devices.

**QUINNY** · November 25th, 2003, 02:46 AM

Just my two cents: The first electronica I came across was by Faust, Can and also a band called Neu in the early '70s. All German of course. They sounded really avante garde to my ears at the time. Maybe not what you're looking for, but may be worth delving into 'cos it was seriously different at the time. Probably sounds ever so dated now.

**BrunoRepublic** · November 25th, 2003, 08:28 AM

Originally Written by QUINNY

Just my two cents: The first electronica I came across was by Faust, Can and also a band called Neu in the early '70s. All German of course. They sounded really avante garde to my ears at the time. Maybe not what you're looking for, but may be worth delving into 'cos it was seriously different at the time. Probably sounds ever so dated now.

Ah, the so-called "Krautrock" movement (an incredibly stupid name, but alas, it has stuck). There's been a fair amount of interest in this stuff in recent years.

Neu was an interesting one. Two guys with such differing ideas on how to make music that it's amazing they came together at all. Michael Rother went solo after Neu, and in relative terms, was quite successful with his first few albums. All instrumental pop that was mostly guitar work with a bit of synth, and featuring Can's drummer. Nice, although the twangy Hawaiian and steel guitar sounds kinda get to me after a while.