musiconline blog

A musical piece, made with music-specific hardware or software is called to be electronic. Production of electronic music can be roughly inspected in two different categories: with electromagnetism or with help of electrical devices.

History of Electronic Music

Electronic music has a history of almost 150 years. Although in the beginning it was totally conceptual due to the state of technology, it became alive (obviously) later on. Technological advancements during 20th century affected every aspect of the daily life.

First breath of the electronic music, Telharmonium (Dynamophone)

Invented by Taddeus Cahill, telharmonium was a device to have 12 disks which trigger the closely placed electronic circuits to vibrate in certain frequencies. All the disks were attached on a single pole. With the help of a single electric motor, every disk was rotating with the same velocity.

Although Taddeus Cahill died way before bringing his ideal design into life, he managed to get his name on history books as the inventor of electronic music.

During its journey, electronic music has reached to a point where thousands of sub-genres exist and millions of people are listening to it on a daily basis.

Of course, the trends in music change all the time. But if we were to take a snapshot of today, these would be the most liked genres in music industry:

1 – Trap : Trap's characteristic sound comes from Roland's 808 drum kit. Although it was more of an instrumental genre couple years ago, Trap is now far more popular because it's mainly used for rappers and hip-hop singers. To sum it up, trap is an electro hip-hop. It is based on the art of sampling, pitched sounds and sound effects.

2 – Trance : Favorite of the 90's, Trance was on the rise with DJ and producer Armin van Buuren until recently. Dutch DJ won titles consecutively due to his popularity back then. A characteristic property of a typical Trance song is the sound wave called as "Saw".

3 – House : Born and raised 70's Chicago, House music is one of the most sub-genrefied electronic music genre. Sub-genres like progressive house, deep house, minimal house or melodic are the most known ones. House is believed to have a more calmer or user friendly sound, compared to other electronic music pieces.

4 – Funk : Funk is a fusion of electronic with Jazz. It is this simple, yet really popular.

5 – Dubstep : Dubstep songs can easily be distinguishable by their "wobble bass" elements. Also fast and sharp changes in octaves is another characteristic feature. It comes from reggae music and the very first examples of Dubstep are relatively slower and chill compared to today's.