Analyzing Oscillators: A Philosophical Analysis of Electronica

                                                                         William Phillips

Section 8 Group 1

Midterm Report

February 29^th, 2012

Analyzing Oscillators

            Patrons gather amongst themselves and chant to the steady beat. Their bodies become instruments of their imagination, a world controlled by a mix of their environment, subconscious, and social phenomena. Each of their brains is undergoing something uniquely amazing, yet similarly experienced. Bountiful colors decorate the walls, and every soul is weaved into their own sub-culture’s uniform. Sprawling lights dance upon their bodies and explode across the area like hurling comets. All emotion, intellect, and instinct is set to a rhythmic pace. This is a rave. This is music’s current pinnacle of live performance. No longer do we listen with just our ears, but now our bodies. No longer is music limited to this state of reality, but now it can be consumed in many different states of consciousness. At the heart of these raves is the music, known as Electronica. It is an art that knows no bounds, barriers, or obstacles. Its progressive nature is an inevitable evolution of past generations plight to push the envelope. Electronica is the next step in our perception of sound and music, and how they affect culture. However, if Electronica is the heart of the rave, then synthesis is the brain that keeps the heart pumping.

            The synthesizer is the single greatest achievement in the history of musical instruments. In comparison to its acoustic siblings, its versatility, expressiveness, and integration with our modern technology reign supreme. The most obvious contributing factor to this is its ability to change timbre. Surely a guitar can sound different within itself. It can be plucked, picked, or bowed, but can it ever sound like a tuba? Can the piano sound like a Ludwig kick drum? Beyond imitation, could a violin ever sound like the neurons transmitted that paint the dreamscapes within our minds? The answer is no. A synthesizer allows you to create your own instrument. It allows you to engineer your own creation each time you want to express an emotion, feeling, or idea. This is unparalleled by any other instrument. Also, it is because of this intrinsic value that the synthesizer allows for so much emotive content.

 A guitar’s strings can be bent, bowed, slid upon, and tapped to get certain points across. This is a great quality for certain things. In a blues song, there are few things that get the point of aching sadness across better than the scream of a heavily bent note. It just so happens a synthesizer is one of those few things. While you could simply pitch bend a note on a synth, you might also open up its filters to release an audible screech. Perhaps you even sample your own tears and use additive synthesis to manipulate them into the perfect dystopian tragedy. The possibilities are endless, allowing for infinite ways to express yourself. On a more technical note, all of this can be captured perfectly with our modern technology, allowing for an accurate representation of the performance and the composers goal for the work.

When a drummer goes into a studio countless time and money is spent trying to setup an environment in which he can perform and still get the message across. Sticking a punk drummer in a cathedral, while a fun idea, wouldn’t get the notions of aggression and rawness across as much as a project studio or simple garage setup. However, the latter is not always feasible. Instead, an engineer has to recreate this environment within the confines of a recording studio, and then alter the signal digitally or by an analog means. This procedure is called “mixing”, and it makes up the better half of the music making process. It is nearly abolished in its current state when it comes to Electronica. The “mixing” process is no different than the synthesis process. In a way, the composer mixes as he goes. He creates the soundstage, manipulates the sounds correlation with its counterparts, and adjusts the levels in a process called sound design, which is another word for synthesis, except with a more musical connotation. Sound designing is a much more natural process than mixing as you do not have to compete with the outside environment. A recorded sound will always have a reverberation, delay, and other harmonic information that is not natural to the source. However, a sound designed digitally, or on an analog device directly inputted, will only transmit the exact sound you’ve created. Thus, shaping it is more like coloring in a blank piece of paper, rather than trying to color over someone else’s’ drawing. These qualities make synthesizers the pinnacle of modern music’s efforts to create the perfect instrument. Although, the synthesizer is just todays answer in a long line of attempts to do so.

In the beginnings of Classical music, harpsichords dominated the musical landscape. They would later be replaced by pianos, which offered more expression due to the dynamic timbre of its keys. While a harpsichord could only play at a sustained resonance and volume, a piano could be played loudly and softly at the performers will for emotional effect. Later on, electric pianos would arrive to offer pitch bending, and modulation wheels that could affect the timbre. In the 1900s, it was predicted that a new super instrument would arrive to surpass the piano. John Watkins, in his article “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years”, illustrates the demand for a multi-timbre instrument. He speaks of an instrument with “electric keys”, and states, “The piano will be capable of changing its tone from cheerful to sad” (Watkins, 1). This is a clear sign that the idea of electronically created music and evolutionary instruments, such as the synthesizer, were being discussed over 100 years ago.

If we look beyond the synthesizer, at an archetypical electronic song, we also see a difference in how it is approached. Electronic composition is much more similar to the Romantic and Classical periods in Europe than it is to its immediate rock and pop contemporaries. Electronic songs try to master the art of tension and release, rather than the onslaught of a rock song. They also tend to be much longer in length than the average pop song. This could be due to lack of human limitation, or simply because Electronic music already draws so heavily from its Classical forefathers. Electronic Dance Music, and specifically Trance, relies so heavily on the ideas of emotional observation presented in Romanticism, that one might almost consider it a sub-genre. The multiple layers of saw and square wave voices are extremely reminiscent of a symphonic orchestra. Similarly, the idea of the composer is brought back to life in Electronic music. In a band of 4 people you get 4 different perspectives during composition, as well as 4 different interpretations while performing. Electronic groups usually consist of only one person. Therefore, instead of the compromise found in a band, you get an authoritative and decisive extreme, a glimpse into the neurosis of one individual who has tailor made a specific instance in their reality for you. Consequently, because it only takes one individual, people don’t have to find others to play with them to make music. All you need is a computer to make an entire work. This makes the music highly accessible to make, creating a truly free atmosphere. It takes the creation of music from the hands of high society, and puts it in the hands of the common person to express themselves. Also, many electronic composers release their music themselves, or on independent labels. This allows for complete creative freedom. In addition to that, Electronic artist release compositions rather than albums. While it is common to release an EP or an album, the songs are usually closely related to each other, and form a much bigger work. This allows the composer to put together and get across one goal in totality, rather than trying to put out a 12 song album that tries to please everyone and touch on a multitude of topics.

Electronic music connects on a much more spiritual level as well. Music originally developed as a shamanistic ritual for dissociation (Karim, 1). The primitive art was a repetitious percussive loop, that ancient peoples thought encouraged emotional awareness and dissociation (Karim, 1). These exact same qualities can be found in Electronic Dance Music, or, EDM. In this case, Electronica can not only be seen as an evolution in technical terms, but a hearkening back to the original intention for music. Similarly, one could say it is a great progression, distinct from contemporary music, which takes our minds to a new level of perception. Besides the hypnotic rhythms, EDM also utilizes multiple layers of melodies and noise to create a very wide, yet singular, body of sound. It is this method of sound design that arouses the senses. While most music is listened to rationally, with listeners hearing individual instruments and lyrics, EDM forces the listener to perceive the work as a whole piece. Consequently, the music is a sensory experience, being perceived for the emotional intent and atmosphere rather than any individual instrument’s melody or singers words (Karim, 1). All the above factors make EDM and Electronica a great force in the grand scheme of music, and therefore, culture.

Electronica is the latest in many cultural revolutions based off music. Just like the hippies and hard rockers before it, it symbolizes a raging need for expression, rebellion, and freedom in modern society. What sets it apart from these other movements is the music. Hard rock was no stranger. In fact, rock music as a whole has been a gradual progression. If one were to listen to early blues records, and then even earlier folk records, they could see its natural development and subsequent unoriginality. Conversely, Electronica is a completely new concept. The way it is consumed, created, and performed is completely different than anything before it. This is mostly due to it being born out of the computer and MTV age. Whilst there were streams of Electronica before 1980, specifically in the German scene, it did not arrive into popular demand until New Wave hit in the 1980s. It is the post internet and MTV age that make Electronica so unique. It is the music of a generation connected through Ethernet cables. The music of an age based off of visual as well as audible elements. This is echoed in many Electronic artist personas. While most musicians come as they are, Electronica artist tend to become a part of their music, developing personas to match the abstract concepts they are trying to get across. A great example would be Kraftwerk’s android like performances, and Daft Punks robotic costumes. This holistic view of image, performance, and music, while picked up by other genres, is a natural part of the Electronic scene. Also, while speaking of the scene, Electronica actually has no scene. It is a global majority. It is a movement that transpired everywhere at once. While rock traces its roots to blues and thus the American south. Electronic music happened simultaneously and at once. It is the first music genre brought forth and sustained because of globalization and the internet. However, not everyone sees Electronica as a positive movement.

The United Kingdom and United States have gone through many measures trying to prevent and inhibit the spread of Electronic music. What they’ve failed to realize is their efforts to silence the movement have only acknowledged its existence, thus legitimizing it. In 1994, the United Kingdom banned independently organized raves, or, “Free parties” (Legislation). Similarly, they profiled and arrested any persons looking like they were going to a rave (Legislation). The U.S. has a similar policy. America, which has kept Electronica at bay mainly via music industry politics, also has recently taken measures to silence the movement. Jack O’ Shaugnessey does an article on the U.S. and EDM entitled, “Growing Pains: US Dance Festivals Meet the Mainstream”, which chronicles the U.S.’s opposition of EDM. Despite both governments plans however, Electronic music is at a higher point than ever, with increasing popularity across the board.

The qualities of Electronica run the gamut. Its technical aspects are a return to form with classically influenced structures, and completely original instrumentation. Just the same, its mere existence is a progression from the acoustic dominated world we lived in. On an intellectual level, it is a spiritual science. It balances the composer’s emotional intent with our own inherent instincts and brain chemistry. From a musical standpoint, it is the crowning achievement in instrument engineering. Synthesizers allow for endless timbre control, as well as being the ultimate for performing expressiveness. While it has met some opposition, like all major movements before it, I believe it will prevail, and become a stalwart of our culture, directly influencing everything that comes after it.

Works Cited

• Watkins, John Elfreth. "What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years." Ladies Home Journal Dec. 1900. Print.
• Karim, Jamil. "Trance Music and Altered States of Consciousness." Suite101.com. 31 Mar. 2010. Web. 24 Feb. 2012.
• O'Shaughnessy, Jack. "Growing Pains: US Dance Festivals Meet the Mainstream." Resident Advisor. 17 Jan. 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2012.
• Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, §§ 1-1-24 (1994). Print.