Guide to Electronic Music Timeline

Guide to Electronic Music Timeline and early Sub-Genres

Musique Concrète (late 40's, 50's)

Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. It's roughly the oldest form of Electronic Music.

Pierre Schaeffer - Etude aux Chemins de fer" (1948)

Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan- Song To The Second Moon (1957)

Edgard Varese - Poeme Electronique (1958)

Electronic Psychedelic (60's)

The psychedelic community co-opted the newfound Electronic instruments and keyboards and injected them into the music.

The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows (1966)

Pink Floyd - Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (1968)

Silver Apples - Ruby (1968)

Minimalism (late 60's to 70's)

Minimalist music is an originally American genre of experimental or Downtown music named in the 1960s based mostly in consonant harmony, steady pulse (if not immobile drones), stasis and slow transformation, and often reiteration of musical phrases or smaller units such as figures, motifs, and cells.

Terry Riley - A Rainbow of Curved Air (1969)

Mike Oldfield -Tubular Bells (1973)

Philip Glass - Music in Twelve Parts?Parts2 (1974)

Early Synth / First Synth "Pop" (early 70's)

While not officially part of any specific sub-genres, early Synth music through the Moog Modular Synthesizer inspired some of the first pop successes in Electronic Classical, Early Synthpop, and Frenchpop. These were some of the first commercial success for Electronic music, especially for Hot Butter which sold nearly a million copies worldwide and was Top 10 in multiple countries.

Jean-Jacques Perrey - E.V.A. (1970

Wendy Carlos - Suicide Scherzo (1972)

Hot Butter - Popcorn (1972)

Classic) Rock Adds Analog Synths (early 70's)

While not an Electronica subgenre please keep in mind that analog synths were not just being used by only Electronic musicians but also by Rock Musicians as well. Most of these sounds were very cutting edge for the pop and rock charts

The Beatles- "I Want You (She's So Heavy) (1969)

The Who - Baba O'Riley (1971)

Yes - Roundabout (1971)

Pink Floyd -On the Run (1973)

Krautrock / Dusseldorf School (early 70's)

The Düsseldorf School which included Can, Cluster, Kraftwerk, and Neu! and was the more percussive and rhythm-oriented school. Kraut Rock refers to the legions of German bands of the early '70s that expanded the sonic possibilities of art and progressive rock. Working with early synthesizers and splicing together seemingly unconnected reels of tape, bands like Faust, Can, and Neu created a droning, pulsating sound that owed more to the avant garde than to rock & roll

Can - Oh Yeah (1971)

Kraftwerk - Tongebirge (1973

Neu! - Isi (1975)

Berlin School / Progressive Electronic (mid 70's)

In Berlin, former Krautrock bands went even further with electronic experimentation, exploring the possibilities of more robust synthesizer equipment. By the mid-70s the Moog modular synthesizer's sequencing capabilities had been discovered and harnessed for decidedly spacey music called "Berlin School of Electronic Music", or just Berlin School.

Klaus Schulze - Totem (1975)

Ashra - Blackouts (1977)

Ambient (70's)

Brian Eno is generally credited with coining the term "ambient music" in the mid-1970s to refer to music that, as he stated, can be either "actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener", and that exists on the "cusp between melody and texture." Eno used the word "ambient" to describe music that creates an atmosphere that puts the listener into a different state of mind; having chosen the word based on the Latin term "ambire", "to surround". Of course ambient existed before Eno.

Popol Vuh - Vuh (1971)

Vangelis -Creation Du Monde from L'apocalypse des Animaux (1973

Brian Eno Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1977

Disco (Electronic) (70's)

Disco marked the dawn of the modern era of dance-based popular music. Growing out of the increasingly groove-oriented sound of early '70s and funk, disco emphasized the beat above anything else, even the singer and the song. Disco was named after discotheques, clubs that played nothing but music for dancing

Donna Summer - I Feel Love (1977)

Giorgio Moroder - From Here to Eternity (1977)

Sylvester - You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) (1978)

Synthpop (Late 70's to Early 80's)

Synthpop is a subgenre of New Wave and pop music in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It is most closely associated with the era between the late 1970s and early to middle 1980s, although it has continued to exist and develop ever since. Kraftwerk (from Germany) and Gary Numan and The Human League (from England) are often hailed as the pioneers of the style

Kraftwerk - The Model (1978)

Gary Numan - Cars (1979

Human League - Don't You Want Me (1981

New Order - Blue Monday (1983)