A Brief Introduction to Electronic Music

Original Version

When thinking about electronic music, what most people picture in their minds is probably a massive neon-and-foam party, or maybe the last David Guetta single that sounds everywhere, from radio stations to television ads, or the catchy beat from a 90’s eurobeat hit. Nowadays, electronic music has become an umbrella term for all the above mentioned common places, but much more at the same time; if for a long time it was the core around which different distinguishable sub-cultures organized, these days, whether we notice it or not, almost everything that radio stations play has digitally-generated elements in it. In this essay I will briefly examine how a musical genre that firstly emerged as part of an avant-garde movement has reached such a widespread influence and has become so omnipresent that we hardly notice in its full extent how important it is for the current musical production.

The origins of electronic music can be traced back to the first decades of the twentieth century. In the 1920’s, musicians had already began exploring the possibilities of experimenting with different instruments to create synthetic sounds. However, these initiatives led to innovations that were more technological than musical, and even though later developments would have been impossible without these early enthusiasts’ contributions, the configuration of a proper electronic music scene would have to wait till the early seventies. Of course, this is nutshell history; especially if we acknowledge the amazing development of production techniques in the 60’s and how forward-thinking musicians and producers started incorporating the innovative studio techniques such as tape manipulation and sampling as one more instrument (see The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows”).

It was in Germany, throughout the whole decade of the 70’s, where a group of artists of the so-called “krautrock” scene started experimenting with electronic sounds. Most of the bands associated with this avant-garde movement had little in common in terms of their sound, but all of them shared a taste for experimentation and the integration of technology in the creation of music. Faust, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Neu! and Can, each of them with its own particular style, were pioneer bands that not only developed new sounds or innovative production techniques (many of this bands even crafted their own instruments), but they also changed the way in which people thought of music.

The influence of this first wave of electronic bands throughout Europe was huge during the next two decades, and it was not limited to a particular genre: Joy Division incorporated Kraftwerk-like robotic beats into punk music to create a menacing and martial sound (“Isolation”); New Order crafted atypical pop songs that people could dance to (“Blue Monday”), Pink Floyd mixed synthesizers with prog-rock (“On the Run”, “Any Colour You Like”); David Bowie’s art-rock prefigured many sub-genres of electronic music in his Berlin Trilogy; and Afrika Bambataa single-handedly set the foundations of rap culture (his classic hip-hop hit “Planet Rock” samples Kraftwerk’s  “Trans-Europe Express”). As many of the artists and bands that were influenced by the first-wavers become influential (sometimes genre-founders) themselves, the prominence of digitally-generated elements in the music of a variety of different musical scenes was greater and greater as time went by.

However, the popularization of a particular kind of electronic music, namely dance music, did not take place until the end of the 1980’s. By that time, electronic music had held sway over most of the music that the decade is remembered for, from Maddona to the Talking Heads, but it was always as the added element to an already existing musical style, whether it was pop, funk, or rock. What changed with the coming of the new decade was that dance music and all its different sub-genres, were a kind of music evidently and almost exclusively made up of synthetic sounds. The repetitive, trance-inducing patterns of the music, the appearance of the figure of the DJ (acronym for Disc Jockey), the clandestine celebration of massive underground parties in different urban and rural spaces, and the popularization of the so-called designer drugs were all factors that finally crystallized in the emergence in England of what would be known as rave culture.

Needless to say, this popular scene became a pop culture referent immediately identifiable and associable to a specific period of time (late 80’s and early 90’s), and was quickly exported to the rest of the world. The Love Parade, a massive street party that took place until 2010 in Germany and, on a number of occasions, in other countries such as Venezuela and Chile, is probably the most well-know of the rave-inspired electronic parties. Thus, the fact that dance music was the first contact of the general public with electronic music may explain why people often equate electronic music with dance music. Although electronic music had already become important within a considerable number of underground youth subcultures, it still remained part of specific niches and hadn’t had yet a great impact on mainstream culture.

The 1990’s saw the emergence of a series of acts that took the general public’s recent familiarization with electronic music as a starting point to create sounds that were essentially electronic, but that were not (necessarily) meant to be boogied away on the dancefloor. Björk, Portishead and Aphex Twins, to name a few, started blending different genres in order to find new possibilities and mediums for the creation of music, just like the former krautrock bands had done almost twenty years ago. Thus electronic music was revitalized through continuous experimentation in the search of originality, and new genres emerged: trip-hop, IDM (intelligent dance music), ambient, big beat, etc. Even classically trained avant-garde musicians such as John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen took elements from electronic music and incorporated them into their own pieces.

Nowadays, the influence of electronic music can be found almost everywhere in the current musical production. While the more radical and experimental styles remain unknown to the general public, the latest radio hits certainly owe a lot more to electronic music than one would notice at a first listening. Hits songs by best-seller acts such as The Black-Eyed Peace, Lady Gaga and Rihanna are all heavily indebted to electronic music.

As it usually happens with ahead-of-their-time movements, the avant-garde impulse that fuelled the creation of the first pieces of electronic music has been assimilated into mass culture to an extent that nowadays we almost do not notice its presence. What little more than forty years ago was a radical initiative to break new paths that would push musical language to its limits (making music with machines?) has become part of our everyday musical landscape.

Aplying the Lanham Method

When thinking about electronic music, what most people picture in their minds is probably a massive neon-and-foam party, or maybe the last David Guetta single that sounds everywhere, from radio stations to television ads, or the catchy beat from a 90’s eurobeat hit. Nowadays, electronic music has become an umbrella term, but much more: the core around which different distinguishable sub-cultures are organized. In this essay I will briefly examine how a musical genre that firstly emerged as part of an avant-garde movement has reached such a widespread influence and has become so omnipresent that we hardly notice in its full extent how important it is for the current musical production.

In the 1920’s, electronic music appeared and musicians began exploring the possibilities of experimenting with different instruments to create synthetic sounds. However, these initiatives led to innovations that were more technological than musical, and even though later developments would have been impossible without these early enthusiasts’ contributions, the configuration of a proper electronic music scene would have to wait till the early seventies. Of course, this is nutshell history; especially if we acknowledge the amazing development of production techniques in the 60’s and how forward-thinking musicians and producers started incorporating the innovative studio techniques such as tape manipulation and sampling as one more instrument (see The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows”).

It was in Germany, throughout the whole decade of the 70’s, where a group of artists of the so-called “krautrock” scene started experimenting with electronic sounds. Most of the bands associated with this avant-garde movement had little in common in terms of their sound, but all of them shared a taste for experimentation and the integration of technology in the creation of music. Faust, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Neu! and Can, each of them with its own particular style, were pioneer bands that not only developed new sounds or innovative production techniques (many of this bands even crafted their own instruments), but they also changed the way in which people thought of music.

The influence of first wave of electronic bands throughout Europe was huge during the next two decades, and it was not limited to a particular genre: Joy Division incorporated Kraftwerk-like robotic beats into punk music to create a menacing and martial sound (“Isolation”); New Order crafted atypical pop songs that people could dance to (“Blue Monday”), Pink Floyd mixed synthesizers with prog-rock (“On the Run”, “Any Colour You Like”); David Bowie’s art-rock prefigured many sub-genres of electronic music in his Berlin Trilogy; and Afrika Bambataa single-handedly set the foundations of rap culture (his classic hip-hop hit “Planet Rock” samples Kraftwerk’s  “Trans-Europe Express”). First-wavers influenced many artists and bands—the prominence of digitally-generated elements in the music became greater as time went by. However, the popularization of a particular kind of electronic music, namely dance music, did not take place until the end of the 1980’s. By that time, electronic music had held sway over most of the music that the decade is remembered for, from Maddona to the Talking Heads, but it was always as the added element to an already existing musical style, whether it was pop, funk, or rock. Dance music and all its different sub-genres changed and exclusively presented synthetic sounds. The repetitive, trance-inducing patterns of the music, the appearance of the figure of the DJ (acronym for Disc Jockey), the clandestine celebration of massive underground parties, and the popularization of the so-called designer drugs were all factors in the emergence of the rave culture in England.

Needless to say, this popular scene became a pop culture referent immediately identifiable and associable to a specific period of time (late 80’s and early 90’s), and was quickly exported to the rest of the world. The Love Parade, a massive street party that took place until 2010 in Germany and, on a number of occasions, in other countries such as Venezuela and Chile, is probably the most well-know of the rave-inspired electronic parties. Thus, the fact that dance music was the first contact of the general public with electronic music may explain why people often equate electronic music with dance music. Although electronic music had already become important within a considerable number of underground youth subcultures, it still remained part of specific niches and hadn’t had yet a great impact on mainstream culture.

The 1990’s saw the emergence of a series of acts that took the general public’s recent familiarization with electronic music as a starting point to create sounds that were essentially electronic, but were not boogie. Björk, Portishead and Aphex Twins, to name a few, started blending different genres in order to find new possibilities and mediums for the creation of music, just like the former krautrock bands had done almost twenty years ago. Thus electronic music was revitalized through continuous experimentation in the search of originality, and new genres emerged: trip-hop, IDM (intelligent dance music), ambient, big beat, etc. Even classically trained avant-garde musicians such as John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen took elements from electronic music and incorporated them into their own pieces.

Electronic music is almost everywhere; while the more radical and experimental styles remain unknown to the general public, the latest radio hits certainly owe a lot more to electronic music than one would imagine. Hits songs by best-seller acts such as The Black-Eyed Peace, Lady Gaga and Rihanna are all heavily indebted to electronic music.

As it usually happens with ahead-of-their-time movements, the avant-garde impulse that fuelled the creation of the first pieces of electronic music has been assimilated into mass culture to an extent that nowadays we almost do not notice its presence. What little more than forty years ago was a radical initiative to break new paths that would push musical language to its limits has become part of our everyday musical landscape.

The importance of Piaget´s framework for second language teaching

(1) participles

(2) absolutes (noun + present or past participle)

(3) appositives

(4) adjectives out of order

(5) transitive verb in active voice

(6) transitive verb in passive voice

The importance of Piaget´s framework for second language teaching

Piaget’s ideas, new and revolutionary, changed the previous conception of psychology: behaviorism; a scientific worldwide theory which said that humans only assimilate information by stimulus.

Piaget, a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher, never proposed rules about how to intervene in education or how to teach a second language. However, his research on mental development in children has had important implications in language teaching. Explaining that children do not just store information, Piaget provided coherence to his cognitive development perspective. Children process information and create their knowledge while touching and feeling; young learners, active and motivated, construct their own knowledge (schema).

Piaget explained that children try to make sense of the environment they are inserted in; ideas and concepts are manipulated by them in order to create new knowledge. As they go through this process, they use these experiences to manage new situations and problems. This is really important because children need the chance to experiment—especially in the classroom.

He also made proposed a completely new perspective: children’s mind works differently from adult’s mind. Piaget argued that there are four universal stages of development that all children pass through, as a result of their biological development. These universal stages are: Sensorimotor stage, Preoperational stage, Concrete operations stage and Formal operations stage.

The teacher should create tasks that will give students the opportunity to practice activities, as well as different thinking operations appropriate to each stage. He should decide ‘how to teach’ first and then, ‘what to teach’ according to each age or, in Piaget’s words, according to each cognitive development stage.

Piaget’s research resulted to be relevant for second language teaching. As I said before, and despite the various critics, he proposed a clear system of ideas about the child’s cognitive development—something that even nowadays is useful. A teacher must implement a method which should be based upon a selected approach and according to the specific stage the child is passing through.

Piaget’s stages can tentatively be a useful tool or even work as a model for curriculum design. For instance, in the Preoperational Stage when children begin schooling, they are not yet able to think abstractly and need concrete physical situations to learn. I have experienced that during my days as a teacher assistant; children’s mind tangled and confused about the use of new grammar and vocabulary is a real issue in ESL classrooms. However, they found easier learning new English through a game instead of simple written instruction or examples. As Piaget mentions “a child is not satisfied with speaking; he must needs ‘play out’ what he thinks and symbolize his ideas by means of gestures or objects, and represent things by imitation, drawing and construction.”

"Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society...but for me and no one else, education means making creators....You have to make inventors, innovators—not conformists." (Bringuier, 1980, p. 132)

Becoming a Vegetarian

(1) participles

(2) absolutes (noun + present or past participle)

(3) appositives

(4) adjectives out of order

Becoming a vegetarian

I have been trying to become a vegetarian (yes, a person that not eat meat for a bunch of different reasons). Actually, I have been without eating meat for almost a year. I know there are some people who do not have problems to quickly make the first step, but that was not my situation. Having an unhealthy diet was one of my major worries. I did not want to start losing weight or getting sick, and realize that vegetarianism was not an option for me; therefore, I started doing lot of research about it. My mind tangled and my Mom doubting about my decision; do I have the willpower to do this?

I decided that it would be a better idea to go slow. First, cut out red meats (cow and pork) and then white meat (chicken and turkey). This method had good results; after two months I had already left behind red and white meat. However, I am still struggling with seafood. I live in a region of Chile which is a rich source of seafood and I have been eating it since I was a little girl. I also love cooking so it became a big challenge using (and eating) new vegetarian and vegan recipes.

Kneading and baking in my kitchen, I found how easy it was to create new culinary food without using any kind of animal products. Veggie quiches, Bean lasagna, and Eggplant pizza, were the first recipes that I proudly made.

While doing my research I also found millions of pictures, videos, and articles that showed how animals were (and are) treated by the meat industry. Images of farm animals are still on my mind, scared, crowded, and agonizing. Most of those animals are kept into small cages—they can even turn around—and fed with pesticides and antibiotics.

I am aware that being a vegetarian or vegan can be difficult, but there are hundreds (if not thousands) of reasons that prove that is totally worth it. I want vegetarianism to become a lifestyle that I am proud of.

A completely different topic: Reading Henrietta Lacks' story

I have had a chance to completely immerse myself in the story of Henrietta Lacks. When I first purchased this book, I realized that I was completely unaware of her presence as well as her importance in the history of medicine and scientific framework. What most caught my attention is how the story is presented to the audience; not only the medical implications, but also the human side. Henrietta represents many sensitive topics. She is a poor woman, almost an orphan, housewife, mother, worker, African-American, and diagnosed with cancer. Did I miss something? As we can see her story embodies provocative issues in everyday life and society. It encompasses poverty, racism, oppression, gender, and most important: ethics.

     As a kind of biography, I will mention some important details which in my opinion are relevant to understand her story. She was born in Roanoke, Virginia, on August 1, 1920. Her mother died when she was only four years old and lamentably her father did not have the patience for raising his children. In consequence, Henrietta and her siblings moved to her grandfather’s house in Clover (also Virginia) where her family still farmed the tobacco fields.          

     While living in Clover she met her cousin (and future husband) David Lacks with whom she spent time planting and harvesting tobacco, and most important growing up together. Henrietta was considered to be the prettiest girl in her town, with her beautiful smile and walnut eyes.

     She had a little crush on Crazy Joe, who was also her cousin; however, the relationship that she developed with ‘Day’ was deeper. Because he was deeply in love with Henrietta, Crazy Joe was called like that. He even stabbed himself in the chest when he realized she was getting married to Day. So it was done, Henrietta married to Day and they kept working on the tobacco fields till their Cousin Fred Garret came from Baltimore bringing the good news: he got a job in Turner Station. Due the rise of steel production at Bethlehem Steel’s Sparrows Point, employment began to increase as well as the number of African-American workers. It suddenly became “the promise land” for black families from the south that started migrating and heading towards a new life. The work in this “promise land” was not easy. All the black workers were immersed in a poisonous environment; they were constantly breathing in toxic coal dust and asbestos. Needless to say, all of these toxic wastes were brought to their own homes and spread to their families. Despite this fact, Fred convinced his cousins that they should migrate as well.

     Since 1951, Henrietta started to feel strange and find inside her cervix a prominent lump. She asked her husband to take her to the hospital because she was already bleeding. After several exams, Henrietta’s biopsy report from the lab said that she was diagnosed with “epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix, stage I”. Henrietta’s gynecologist, whose name was Howard W. Jones, his boss, Richard Wesley, and Telinde, a cancer expert, discussed if it qualified as cervical cancer--and the procedures to cure her. Telinde had a good reputation; he was one of the best cancer experts in the country. Within his methods, he treated both carcinoma in situ and invasive carcinoma using an aggressive treatment to prevent women dying from metastasized cancer.  He often used patients from the public wards for research, usually without their knowledge. Many scientists believed that since patients were treated for free in the public wards, it was fair to use them as research subjects as a form of payment. After knowing her results Henrietta signed an Operation Permit form giving consent to the staff of Hopkins Hospital to perform any necessary procedure or treatment (radium treatment, in fact). Even though nobody asked her if she wanted to be a donor, doctors at Hopkins removed pieces of tissue from her cervix. Doctors also did not tell her that the treatment had left her infertile.

     After the first radium treatment, she was sent home with instructions to call the clinic if she had problems (and she had some later on). Two days after Henrietta went home, the Gey Lab was able to grow her cancer cells: the first immortal human cells. 

New grammar that I've learned

I still remember the first time we covered FANBOYS in class. I was just starting my second year at university when my grammar teacher explained to me and my classmates this new acronym. He started by telling us the following: “just join the first letter of each word I am going to write on the board.” He wrote down: FOR (reason), AND (conjunction), NOR (negation), BUT (contrast), OR (disjunction), YET (unexpected outcome), and SO (result). Then, he asked us about the relationship between these new items. Most of them were familiar to me. I had been using some of them for quite long time, but I never realized their function within a sentence. What is the purpose of using coordinating conjunctions? Well, obviously the words “coordinating” and “conjunction” help me to develop an explanation. These are “connecting words” that connect (I know it sounds repetitive) two ideas as one in a single sentence. However, if you missed the comma before each of these items you will be in presence of a run-on sentence. So, if you are connecting two ideas using conjunctions, be careful, and do not forget the comma!

I had so much fun in class last week. It is the first time I am involved in that kind of activity in which creativity was the protagonist while learning grammar. We were given several words to create original, meaningful, and different sentences. What do I mean by ‘different’? As we already discussed in class there are different types of sentences which are S-VI (Subject-Verb Intransitive), S-V-O (subject-verb-object), AND S-LV-SC (Subject-Linking Verb- Subject Complement). When it comes to create sentences within a paragraph, I am not always aware of the different function that a word has. I used to put attention only to the different kind of verbs within a sentence (intransitive, transitive, and linking verbs), but now I am more aware of other components such as nouns, adverbs, and adjectives.

So far this semester...

So far this semester I have noticed that I am aware of the different errors that people tend to make while writing. I really have enjoyed the different in-class activities when we have to proofread and analyze newspapers. During those activities I could realize that even a journalist may present errors of punctuation; sometimes they are not consistent while using them. I consider that it is important to discuss consistency in class because it reveals our own style of writing and also help us to develop a “readable” piece.

As a non-native learner of the English language, I am also aware of the different structures, forms, and functions that written and spoken English present. I know the importance of syntax; the different parts of a sentence such as subject, verb, object, etc. and the different word classes such as nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.

One of the problems that I am still struggling with is the use of “phrasal verbs.” I have problems to recognize whether the preposition or adverb is part of the phrasal verb or it is acting by itself within the sentence.  I also get confused because the meaning of the verb sometimes completely changes. During my first years studying English it was very complicated to learn new ones, I used to learn them by heart and then forget them the following week. One of my friends also struggled with that. However, between her and me, the problem was solved. We created some fun mnemonics—with drawings included in order to learn those new words. We even encouraged each other to use those phrasal verbs in context, in every day conversation.

I previously mentioned that I am aware of the different parts of a sentence; however, it is still difficult for me to identify, for instance, intransitive verbs or indirect objects. But I am optimistic and I think I would learn how to identify them during the following weeks. It is never too late to understand new things that is why I see myself as a life-long learner. I am willing to comprehend the variety of conventions that languages in general present.

What have I learned so far?

During the first weeks of this semester I have had the opportunity not only to discuss and learn many things regarding grammar patterns, but also criticize different teaching methods. While participating in the Socratic seminars developed in class, we have shared our opinions and brought up thoughts and ideas on what it is the best way to teach grammar. One of the things that we criticized was the traditional instruction at schools. It is a bit frustrating and sad to know that there are still some teachers that use traditional methods to explain, for instance, punctuation, and do not care too much about the meaning and ideas that their students want to develop. On the contrary, they only focus on form and structure of a piece of writing. In my opinion, the traditional method does not work because its characteristics do not include the encouragement to compose a piece of writing focus on content and creativity. I think it is essential to keep in mind that punctuation is a process (with developmental implications), acquired over time, and an indicator of language awareness; therefore, we need to be careful with the different tools that we use to teach the proper use of grammar and punctuation to our students. Even for us it is difficult to accomplish grammar or punctuation rules because they are constantly exposed to different adjustments and modifications. When I first started to learn mechanics in English, it was difficult to figure out where a punctuation mark had to be placed. It was different than the punctuation I learned in Spanish. As a second language learner, I am aware of the different challenges that young native speakers face; as a future teacher, I am willing to help my students to succeed in grammar.

Finally, I would like to mention that this course has been really helpful for me. Listening to my classmates’ discussions and sharing different perspectives have helped me to broaden my knowledge about grammar and also about American classrooms. My knowledge about the American culture is not that deeper as theirs, obviously.