Computers, Electronics, and Music

The world of computers and electronics has greatly influenced the world of music. Since the early 20^th century, musical artists have been toying with electronics to make new kinds of music. One of the first and most popular kinds of electronic instruments is the theremin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin). Later on, towards the 60s and 70s, modular synthesizers became more accessible and popular. They work by filtering a signal through different modules, manipulating the sound. In the 80s, digital synthesizers were created and use digital signal processing techniques to make musical sounds. In addition to synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines also gained popular use to repeat rhythmic patterns that could be played over or programmed to fit with other music.

All of these cool technologies certainly shaped the music that we listen to today, but I want to discuss Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI). It is a standardized interface that communicates control instructions to instruments and computers. Basically, all computers have MIDI libraries that can play a wide variety of musical instruments. A lot of the instruments don’t sound the same, but the general tone is conveyed through the electronic interface. It uses many of the same sounds you might find in an early video game. MIDI is used by artists to either add samples to music, to enhance their sound, or have music programmed so that it can be practiced along to. Many times, I have programmed a song into MIDI and played it back so I could hear several instruments together. There are tons of music writing programs that use MIDI for playback purposes, such as Finale, Sibelius, and Guitar Pro.

Even though MIDI is an important development for me personally, most people think of EDM when they hear of electronic music. Dance music and its various genres have become extremely popular in the modern day. Tons of people attend clubs, festivals, and raves for house, techno, trance, dupstep, and trap music. Another fun genre of music using electronic instruments is chiptune. Artists use the sound chips in vintage computers, video game consoles, and arcade machines to make music. It originally was used to make music for video games, but newer artists who wanted to capture that sound for original music turned to these methods. Of course, there will always be the experimental artists that use electronic signals and crazy algorithms to write music, but that sort of ideas are mostly applied to noise music, which isn't nearly as popular.

All of the genres, techniques, and technology that have evolved from the coalition between music and electronics have had a big impact on our society. Even electric guitars and microphones owe it to circuits and wires for existing. The use of computers to understand and create music will continue to grow and evolve as humanity continues to grow and evolve.