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by pvaldes 2137 days ago
> How music evolved over the 20th Century?

Music married with electricity and that helped to create a cambrian explosion of creativity. This is the major contribution from the 20th Century to the history of music and nothing will be the same after this.

That spawned 1) Rock first, based in the electric guitar, and 2) an sea of Electronic music later, based in the synthesizer.

To focus in the second part, here you have a selection of albums to experience several flavours of electronic and experimental music, from dark wave to big beat, space rock or synthpop. Just one album representative of each group was chosen; not necessarily their best or the easiest to listen, but all deserve to be here for different reasons.

Kraftwerk - The Man-Machine

Yello - Stella

Pink Floyd - The Dark Face of the Moon

OMD - Dazzle Ships

Tricky - Maxinquaye

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

Bjork - Homogenic

The Prodigy - The Fat of the Land

Moby - Play

Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole

Pet Shop Boys - Please

Fatboy Slim - You've Come a Long Way, Baby

Depeche mode - Violator

Radiohead - Kid A

Gary Numan - Hybrid

Jean Michel Jarre - Oxigene

The Cure - Disintegration

1 comments

Whilst it may not have been as popular back then, electronic music actually predates Rock. The Theremin for instance, invented in 1922 was not the first electronic musical instrument, but it is one of the few from that era that still makes an appearance these days. https://120years.net has more on electronic instruments through the years.