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Electronic Dance Music and Academic Music Genre, Culture and Turntables

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Electronic Dance Music and Academic Music Genre, Culture and Turntables Electronic Dance Music and Academic Music Genre, Culture and Turntables Eoin Smith NUI Maynooth Republic of Ireland [email protected] In: Motje Wolf & Andrew Hill (Eds.) Proceedings of Sound, Sight, Space and Play 2010 Postgraduate Symposium for the Creative Sonic Arts De Montfort University Leicester, United Kingdom, 2-4 June 2010 http://www.mti.dmu.ac.uk/events-conferences/sssp2010/ Abstract ‘Found sound’ has become a more prominent element in electronic dance music in recent years. Artists such as Mum, Fourtet, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Luke Vibert and Boards of Canada include elements from the world of ‘found sound’ into their music, either as full sound art compositions or minute gradients of field recordings incorporated into more rhythmic based tracks. This leads to a blurring of genres and sound worlds; however, an interesting anomaly is that while these artists seem to embrace this blurring of genres, it is my belief that the same cannot be said for the more academic side of sonic art. Within academic institutes who cater for the sonic arts, the influence of electronic dance music is not always noticeable. An instrument which seems to have transcended genre is the turntable. It is now accessible in both the world of sonic art and electronic music culture. But how is this so? What I intend to look at in this paper is why this dichotomy of sound worlds exists, concluding with a look at how the turntable could act as an intrinsic element of performance and composition but also as a milestone instrument in the fusing of genres and cultures. In: Motje Wolf & Andrew Hill (Eds.) 56! Proceedings of Sound, Sight, Space and Play 2010 Postgraduate Symposium for the Creative Sonic Arts De Montfort University Leicester, United Kingdom, 2-4 June 2010 http://www.mti.dmu.ac.uk/events-conferences/sssp2010/ Eoin Smith: Electronic Dance Music and Academic Music: Genre Culture and Turntables Electronic Dance Music and Aca- explores an instrument which has ap- demic Music: Genre, Culture and parently transcended genre. It is import- Turntables ant to note that some generalisations are made in discussing terms like aca- Introduction demic music or electronic ‘dance’ music, in order to keep from deviating too much Prior to entering the academic world of from the topics in question. music, I was unaware of any major di- chotomy between genre and culture in relation to Electronic Music. As a turn- Electronic Music: In the Beginning tablist and electronic musician, I was (and still am) interested in sound/music The introduction of the Telharmonium in as an art form, a means of expression the early twentieth century by Dr Thad- and a communicative force, regardless deus Cahill gave the world its first elec- of genre, context in which it is appreci- tronic instrument. The Telharmonium ated, or culture associated with it. As I was a cumbersome instrument which progressed through the world of aca- was originally designed to transmit elec- demia and ‘became’ a composer of aca- tronically generated tones from a demic music (electro- ‘central station to translating instruments, acoustic/acousmatic music) or partici- located at different points in nearby con- pated in more sonic art based practices cert halls. Cahill’s plan was to build an (such as installations), a divide became 'electronic music device and pipe live mu- apparent between the cultures and son- sic to remote locations’ (Holmes 2002, orities of academic ‘art’ music and the p. 45) electronic music culture to which I was with the aid of telephone signals. The accustomed. Having examined the his- Telharmonium was essentially a piano- tory of both, it was interesting to find like, keyboard based, tone generator how closely the two cultures co-existed. which allowed the user to shape and en- At this point in my studies and career I velope sounds dynamically. Due to this, feel that there is a specific space in the coining of the term synthesis can be music where academic/art music and attributed to Cahill, to describe what he electronic dance music co-exist, where was doing, in terms of combining ‘indi- the precise sonorities and performances vidual tones to create composite sounds’ associated with academic music fuse (Holmes 2002, p. 46), as was described with the heaving mass of sound associ- in his original patents for the Telharmo- ated with electronic dance acts. Within nium. Performances from the instrument this domain there is no cultural divide were aired over telephone wires, to and there is little one can do in terms of nearby concert halls, and although it imposing a genre on the sound. I believe was an initial success and provided in- that it provides a valuable insight into the terest for composers of the day, the in- future of music and will continue to push strument was largely an impractical the boundaries of our perception of mass of machinery, ‘60 feet wide, 20 genre and music cultures. Where I feel I feet tall and weighs 200 tons’ (Shapiro can incorporate elements from the world 2000, p. 4). This, along with the financial of academic music into electronic aspect of building and maintaining such (dance) music, the same cannot be said a machine, made it redundant. for incorporating electronic ‘dance’ The practice of performing over tele- music into the academic domain. Why is phone wires was also made obsolete this so? This paper attempts to explore with the invention of the triode (a this anomaly, exploring it from the per- vacuum tube that allows the transmis- spective of an aficionado of this emer- sion of sound through electrical signals) ging hybrid of sound and cultures and around 1906, which heralded a new be- In: Motje Wolf & Andrew Hill (Eds.) 57! Proceedings of Sound, Sight, Space and Play 2010 Postgraduate Symposium for the Creative Sonic Arts De Montfort University Leicester, United Kingdom, 2-4 June 2010 http://www.mti.dmu.ac.uk/events-conferences/sssp2010/ Eoin Smith: Electronic Dance Music and Academic Music: Genre Culture and Turntables ginning for electronic instruments. These which begins to ensue this notion of ‘art instruments no longer had to rely on the music’ within the domain of found sound technology of telephone signals to composition. After experiments in the transmit or perform music. This technol- field of ‘found sound composition’, the ogy resulted in the creation of more Radiodiffusion Télévision Française compact instruments, which resulted in (RTF) funded Schaeffer and Pierre more accessible Electronic Music in- Henry in order to assist them in setting struments, for the public and audience up their own studio. Groupe de Recher- alike, as they could now see the instru- ches Musicales (GRM) established a ments which were producing the audio. studio where one could hear lectures on Instruments like the Theremin, devel- Musique Concrète and also have the oped by Leon Theremin, and the Ondes opportunity to compose. Martenot, produced by Maurice The thirst for knowledge in Electronic Martenot, began to emerge: the ethereal Music, led young composers to seek out sounds of such instruments, contributed institutions like the GRM or the Cologne to the eerie soundscape of this period in Electronic Music Studio, to gain more Electronic Music history. insight into the technical and musical Toward the end of the forties, the sonic processes of Electronic Music. Aside terrain of Electronic Music was begin- from the institutionalised realm of Elec- ning to change. Opposed from the tronic Music, there were important and purely synthesised sounds of the early historic developments happening. The pioneers of Electronic Music, such as evolution of the Moog synthesiser (cre- Thaddeus Cahill or Leon Theremin, a ated by Bob Moog, an avid fan of Leon new ideology was born in Music Con- Theremin and subsequent manufacturer crète, where one did not need synthesis of the instrument) gave Wendy Carlos to compose ‘music’. Pierre Schaeffer the means to produce the first com- began utilising sound samples, as op- pletely synthesised record, using the posed to traditional instrumentation, as Moog. Her 1968 album, Switched On material for compositions. Bach, in which she interpreted some of ‘1948 to 1951 – European composers Johann Sebastian Bach’s keyboard broke through the ‘sound barrier’ into two, music, ‘became the top selling album at initially quite distinct, areas of electronic that time’ (Holmes 2002, p. 168) and music: the French variety, music concrète, ‘dragged the synthesiser by its patch cords which used sounds of an everyday acous- out of the chilly atmosphere of academic tic or environmental origin, and Elec- electronic music studios into the spotlight tronische Musik, the German brand which of public awareness’ (ibid). used only electronically generated sounds as its raw (or rather, smooth) material’ The basis for the next thirty years in (Nymann 1999, p. 48) Electronic Music had been cast. The concepts and ideologies in synthesised Both genres were helped immensely by music and Musique Concrète, became the introduction of tape in the early fifties co-opted by the underground move- which allowed composers to overdub ments, most notably Hip-Hop. The idea and edit sounds in a quicker and more of re-contextualising sound samples with creative manner and performances did the use of turntables became a notable not require human performers and ‘the characteristic of Hip-Hop in the early work could be played over and over seventies, as the DJ gained rock-star again’ (Holmes 2002, p. 93): This her- status. Away from the academic insti- alded the age of the
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