Electronic and Experimental Music: Foundations of New Music and New Listening (Media and Popularculture)

By Thomas Holmes

Book Overview

Electronic and Experimental Music is a second edition of a well-known text on the history of electronic music. Holmes' original book, first published in 1985, was a beginner's introduction both to the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415936446
• ISBN13: 9780415936446
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.7" x 1.0" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic, but, where is Bowie?

This is a fantastic book about the origins and development of electronic music, covering both artists and engineers. The author begins with a brief survey of late-19th/early-20th century modernist and avant-garde European and American composers. He then follows the long lineage of artists, engineers, and tinkerers who, over the course of a century, contributed to the development and artistic use of such technologies as the telephone, the phonograph, the tape recorder, and the synthesizer - to name just a few. The book is well written, well researched, and informative. That being said, this book is essentially a history of elite, institutional music, meaning that it focuses on university professors, classically-trained rebels (Cage, Stockhausen, Carlos, etc.), engineers (Bob Moog, etc.), mathematicians, and large entertainment corporations (RCA, MGM, Warner Bros., etc.). Those individuals looking for information on so-called rock pioneers such as Kraftwerk, Bowie, Devo, and the many, many others will be disappointed. This is the one shortcoming of the book: it fails to acknowledge the fact that by the 1960s electronic and experimental music was embraced and advanced by the rock community. How could you leave out Kraftwerk or Bowie? The author makes no significant mention of Krautrock, Disco, New Wave, Synthpop, Hip Hop, or the various types of electronic dance music - much less Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV, Coil, NIN, KMFDM, et al! In addition, the author does not even mention technologies such as Pro Tools, Reason, Logic, Live, etc. - all of which have their roots in the productions of "rock" oriented music. Nevertheless, the book is useful and informative, and despite these limitations, it stands highly recommended.

Broad approach

This book covers a large scope of musicians and technicians who were involved in electronic and electric music from the early 1900's to the present day. It is written in a fairly comprihensive style and centres upon the impacts that technology has had upon c20 music. A facinating read. Highly recommended for broad insights into the intentions of most electronic composers. I was rather happy to see a brief section on DJ Olive actually - this shows that Homles does not merely wish to stick to mentioning composers that the masses often only know by name. Splendid stuff. Couldn't find much wrong with it really. Take a preview of the contents page for yourself for a general idea.