Secret History of Rock. The Most Influential Bands You've Never Heard Read Free Page B

of tones found between the notes on the scale.
    Not all developments in art music have directly impacted popular music; for instance, the vast majority of rock (aside from more extreme noise bands) still conforms to keys and traditional tonality. Indeed, it could be said that popular music (including folk, jazz, and rock) has had a much larger impact on art music than the other way around. Still, most major trends are in some way relevant to rock, whether they have trickled down from art music to pop, been soaked up from popular music by classical, or have impacted the entire spectrum of Western music. Key developments have included:
    The introduction of industrial sounds and noise: Composers have always incorporated the sounds of their environment into music, and with the advent of the industrial age, a new sonic landscape presented itself. As early as 1915, Luigi Russolo’s treatise “The Art of Noises” (a name later appropriated by a well-known ‘80s industrial pop band) defined a new esthetic where everyday street sounds – engines, sirens, clanging metal – would become music to our ears. Now, decades later, the proliferation of screeching electric guitars and booming drums (not to mention actual samples of these industrial sounds) in rock seems to be a logical end to a century dominated by noise.
    The influence of Eastern sounds and philosophies: Traditionally, Western music, high and low, has been programmatic – that is, built along some defined course from beginning to end (as in a song or a symphony). Recent strains of music (including aleatory music and minimalism) have adopted Eastern ideas that focus on exploring indefinite paths to see where they lead rather than arriving at a predetermined destination; they emphasize concept rather than result. The influence of non-Western music has meant a greater use of rhythm (particularly percussion) and repetition (the basis of minimalism). These developments have fed back into popular music through what we call “world music,” while newer drone rock and electronic dance music has adopted the East’s more linear, exploratory approach to composition.
    The emergence of electronic music: Recording technology, a 20 th -century development, has changed the way we hear music in unimaginable ways. Recordings enable us to experience music from all over the world, and from every time period, repeatedly and inexpensively. This, perhaps more than any other factor, has shaped the way we make, hear, and think about music today. Beyond sound reproduction, electronic technology has also created new tools and techniques for composing music. The invention of tape recordings led to musique concrète , or tape music, where prerecorded sounds are manipulated and combined to make new music. The ideas of tape music pioneers such as Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer are now used routinely in pop music through samplers, loops, and DJ turntables. More recently invented instruments such as synthesizers, capable of creating sounds electronically, are now commonplace in popular music as well.
    The distinction between high and low music is less relevant than ever: Current composers not only draw from popular music (as composers have done for centuries), they actually work within it: Philip Glass plays in a band, Glenn Branca writes symphonies for electric guitar, John Zorn improvises freely, Cornelius Cardew composes for untrained musicians. On the other side, as popular music searches for new directions, rockers familiar with classical ideas (from the Beatles and Frank Zappa to Sonic Youth and Soul Coughing) allow what they’ve learned to inform their own music. And as new connections are made between long-separated musical traditions, outdated cultural barriers will surely fade away.

    ERIK SATIE
    Erik Satie, from “What I Am”:
    Everyone will tell you that I am not a musician. That is correct. From the beginning of my career I classed myself as a phonometrographer.
    Erik Satie was the