History of Electronic Music: Milestones, Genres, Innovators
Explore the complete history of electronic music from 1877 to today. Discover key innovators, instruments, genres, and how to listen like an insider.
Electronic music is sound shaped with electricity and code. It covers music made with electronic and electromechanical tools — from early devices like the theremin and Hammond organ to synthesisers, drum machines, samplers, tape, laptops and modern DAWs. It includes both sounds generated electronically and sounds captured then transformed: spliced tape, filtered signals, turntable techniques, digital processing. The result spans headphone minimalism and club euphoria, avant‑garde experiments and pop hits — a continuum that runs from musique concrète to techno, ambient, grime and beyond.
This guide charts that story. We sketch a clear timeline from 19th‑century inventions to the present; map the genre family tree; and spotlight the innovators, including overlooked women and underrepresented pioneers. You’ll meet the studios and machines that changed everything (Moog, TR‑808, MIDI, Ableton), hear essential recordings, and tour the cities and scenes that defined eras. We also unpack how electronic music reshaped listening, and offer human‑first ways to explore it today, with a concise glossary and answers to common questions to keep you oriented.
Defining electronic music: scope, tools, and terms
Electronic music is music whose sounds are generated or transformed by electronic means. That can mean purely electronic sources (oscillators, theremin, synthesisers, computers) or electromechanical instruments whose signals are amplified and shaped (Hammond organ, electric piano). Just as vital are the recording and control technologies — from magnetic tape and turntables to samplers, sequencers, MIDI and modern DAWs — that let artists capture, edit and organise sound. Understanding these building blocks makes the history of electronic music far easier to navigate.
Sound sources: Purely electronic (oscillators, synthesiser, computer) and electromechanical (Hammond organ, electric piano).
Synthesis: Creating timbre electronically (subtractive, FM, wavetable, granular) rather than recording an acoustic source.
Sampling: Capturing audio and re‑using it as playable material; core to hip‑hop and many electronic genres.
Sequencing: Arranging notes/events in time; from hardware step‑sequencers to software piano rolls.
MIDI (1983): A standard that lets instruments and computers communicate performance data.
DAW: Digital Audio Workstation software (e.g., Ableton Live) for composing, recording and mixing.
Modular systems: Patchable modules forming custom instruments; a hands‑on approach revived in Eurorack.
Tape and turntables: Tape splicing, loops and speed changes; later, DJ techniques like scratching and beat‑matching.
Live electronics: Real‑time processing of instruments/voices with filters, delays and modulators.
