Our lives are shaped by the changes in technology. No exception is made when it comes to music.
Technology and change tend to leave the arts out when talking about them. Even so, these creative fields always stand to gain or possibly lose the most in the long run. The music industry seems to be continually impacted by the waves of technology.
Music is a part of everyone’s life on some level. Is there anyone who doesn’t listen to music?
Music has changed greatly over the years and has become quite different from the days of your parents. Whether it is synths, CD players, or DAWs, everything has changed significantly. Taking this as a given, one wonders how music got to be so popular?
We live in a world dominated by the digital, by electronic instruments, by digital music streams, it’s time to look back and revisit some of the technology that brought us to this point in time in music with the hopes of learning more about where the world of music will head in the future. In the world of music, several key pieces of technology are quite important.
The Phonograph
Let’s go way back. Many things are known about Thomas Edison. Although he introduced the phonograph, his discovery is often overlooked. Phonographs brought music into the living rooms of people all over the world. 1877 marks the anniversary of the invention of music. At the time, music was usually performed in ballrooms or concerts for the affluent.
Think of a phonograph similar to one of your first music systems, a vinyl player or even an MP3 player. As the first device to reproduce recorded sound, the phonograph contributed to the rise of various genres, including jazz and blues.
Electrified Guitar
The electric guitar is a big part of our lives. What would we do without it? What percentage of your favourite songs contain an electric guitar? Little did Les Paul realize that his instrument would change music forever when it was created in 1941. An electric guitar played a significant role in the rise of rock ‘n’ roll.
The electric instrument’s new age sound combined with the easy operation made it a favourite of emerging musicians trying to break existing musical norms. Imagine how your favourite artist would have fared without the invention of the electric guitar.
Creating A Multitrack Recording
Multitrack recording is often taken for granted, but it was comparable to the introduction of space travel to music with the rocket. In the days before digital technology, it was common for musicians and sound engineers to record a whole track in just one take.
In the multitrack recording, songs are divided into sections, so they can be experimentally crafted one piece at a time, allowing more time for songwriting and album perfection.
Your favourite pop albums would likely never have been recorded if the multitrack recording had not been used. Consider if Queen never created a masterpiece. That’s exactly right.
Pedals For Effects
In the early days of music, effect pedals were the bee’s knees because most of these effects could be recreated digitally. Effect pedals allowed musicians to add effects to their music by adding things like distortion, reverb, and chorus to the various components.
Music festivals, as well as live studios, were never the same after effect pedals were introduced.
The Synthesizer
The likely conclusion is that you predicted this and if you are reading this article, it is likely that you are already a synthesizer owner at home. The synthesizer was created as a way to create or even replicate the sound of an orchestra whose sounds are enormous and difficult to reproduce.
In the beginning, synthesizers were powerful instruments that created so many sounds that they meshed with wavy tracks for decades, displaying countless sounds that we are accustomed to today. It is time for you to take on a challenge. Try to think of ten pop songs from each decade that did not incorporate synthesizers off the top of your head, starting from the 70s.
A Turntable
A new generation of phonographs? No, not really. However, the turntable was a crucial part of hip hop, one of the world’s most influential genres. By playing back popular songs using the playback device, aspiring DJs could produce their own interpretation of classic tracks, thereby spawning a host of other highly successful genres.
MIDI Controller
There are many people this age who do not use synthesizers, but instead, they use MIDI devices connected to their musical instruments. Through this technology, users are able to play multiple electronic instruments simultaneously using a computer or other musical device that can be hooked up to a computer. It is possible to play the piano one minute and change to a guitar or harp the next without having to skip a beat with a midi controller.
As a result of MIDI, musicians were able to access an entire universe of sounds that would otherwise have been impossible or too expensive for them to acquire all at one time.
Live Stream Concerts
There are a lot of things changing in our lives because of the Coronavirus pandemic, and music is not an exception. The pandemic has led to music events becoming available online live streaming due to the situation. There were even Korean famous artists who chose to hold online concerts recently, such as BTS. If you want to be sensible and stay safe then you can buy tickets for this kind of event through TicketsOnSale.com, you may even find some events for free if you keep your eye on social media.
Auto-Tuning
Whatever your opinion of auto-tune, its effects on music are still being felt in the 21st century. Vocoders showed musicians how they could manipulate their voices almost as far as an instrument. Various musical acts have used auto-tune, including Kraftwerk and Kanye West.
Personal Computers
In addition to spawning a host of bedroom talent, some of them became superstars, this is perhaps one of the most obvious influences on music. With the introduction of the PC, anyone with a computer can step into the arena of music and become a creator, without having to have a studio or even instruments to start with. You could use your personal computer right now in order to create your own music if you wanted to right now.
As you can see there are many ways that technology has changed music and has it is produced. Are there any other changes that you think should be included? Please share some in the comments below.
