As genres deepen, they split apart, breeding new sub-forms. This is the way of all art, and truer of music than anything. But electronica's vast and varied genealogical eruption has been spectacularly volcanic. The proliferation of styles -- house, techno, hardcore,... [more]

As genres deepen, they split apart, breeding new sub-forms. This is the way of all art, and truer of music than anything. But electronica's vast and varied genealogical eruption has been spectacularly volcanic. The proliferation of styles -- house, techno, hardcore, jungle, drum 'n' bass, breakbeat, ambient, trance, acid jazz, and more -- all under one umbrella, testifies to a fecundity that proves electronica's relevance to the study of new music. A hundred years ago the Futurists were captivated by a technological fascination that foreshadowed much twentieth-century art. In the early 1980s, a groundbreaking band called Art of Noise took their name from Luigi Russolo's Futurist manifesto that birthed the concept of a music made from pure sound aided by mechanical devices. From the 1970s through the 1980s, Fab 5 Freddy, Grandmaster Flash, and others released African American beats and "turntablism" into the cultural mix. It wasn't long before the new dance music aesthetic merged with the avant-garde roots of electronic music. Just as Erik Satie's "furniture" music led to Brian Eno's "Music For Airports" and later to an entire musical movement based on mood, texture, and a gently hypnotic repetition, Musique Concrete and Don Buchla's pioneering synthesizers and sequencers made tape-splicing experiments that presaged the work of "Illbient" artist DJ Spooky. Upending rock's pop-culture hegemony by replacing guitars with machines has probably been the most incredible achievement of electronica. In a culture obsessed with celebrity, it's incredible to note that most of the stars of this movement are faceless and known only by nicknames that often change, while many of the labels on the recordings feature no artwork. [show less]