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Music... I Sing the Body Electronica By Jimi Wilson Electronic music is here and itís here to stay. Some of you may bemoan that fact. But cheer up. Far from being all bleeps and synthesized voice boxes, some of the best, most original work out there today is electronic. Heck, even Bob Dylan knew he was on to something when he plugged in his guitar for the first time forty years ago at the Newport Folk Festival. Although it's difficult to pinpoint, the earliest electronic instrument was probably the Electromechanical Piano, invented by a telegraph manufacturer named Hipps in 1867, in Neuchatel, Switzerland. It was the forerunner to todayís electronic keyboards. The Theramin, named for its inventor, Russian physicist Leon Theremin, was invented in 1919. Still in use today, the instrument is composed of a wooden box containing vacuum tubes and two antennae. Players never actually come into contact with the instrument, which responds to electrical impulses caused by human proximity. Readers may recognize the Thereminís unique sound-which often mistaken for a womanís falsetto-from its frequent use in science fiction and horror movies such as The Day the Earth Stood Still. Itís most famous pop usage was in the Beach Boysí "Good Vibrations." In 1929 Laurens Hammonds began building the first of a long series of electric organs to help keep his clockworks afloat financially. His line was so successful that other manufacturers followed suit. His most successful model, the B3, was popularized by jazz man Jimmy Smith, and they are widely used in many popular musical genres. The electric guitar was invented in the 1930ís by Adolph Rickenbacker. His "Rickenbacker's Frying Panî had a rudimentary electronic pick up but its amplification system left a lot to be desired when compared to modern electric guitars, which didnít assumed the solid- and semi-solid body styles in the mid-1950ís. With these later developments came amped-up versions of rhythm and blues, from which rock and roll was born. With developments of electric organs came the electronic keyboard in the 1960ís. While electric organs were essentially amplified versions of older organs which still required reeds, the electronic versions did away with any non-electronic source of their sound, which was entirely synthesized. Although these were, by definition, synthesizers, however, the term didnít come into wide use until the mid-to late 1970ís. They gained in popularity with their liberal use in everything from soul to acid rock. One particular synthesizer that made a splash was the Moog. Named for its inventor, Robert Moog, this synthesizer became a mainstay of rock, disco and jazz fusion bands, most notably Electric Light Orchestra, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Pat Methany and Genesis. One Moog afficianado, Wendy Carlos, created Switched on Bach in 1968, the first entirely electronic album, including sythesized vocals. She swiched on Beethoven similarly when she created the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick's cult classic A Clockwork Orange. It must be noted, however, that the Moog was monophonic - that is, it was only capable of producing single notes at a time. Often keyboardists would stack sets in order to play them simultaneously, but they were still limited by the number of players and hands they could employ at once. This, however, changed with the fusion of digital computer technology and evolving electronic keyboard experiments. MIDI, or Musical Instrument Digital Interface, allowed performers full polyphonic ranges. Today, MIDI packages are not only favored by a majority of electronic-oriented bands, but they are also in cell phone ring tones. So while times have indeed changed, the uses and applications of electronic music have increased the range of styles and sounds. Besides, acoustic music never went away. Just think of electronica as an welcome addition to a happy family.

Brave News World is a general-interest magazine produced online by students in the course Online Journalism JRN 410 led by Professor Anthony Curtis, Department of Mass Communications, University of North Carolina at Pembroke. The cover, sections and pages were designed by students in the course and article topics were chosen and reported by the individual students who wrote them. We are eternally grateful to those agencies and institutions that have graciously provided images for this edition. Views expressed by individual writers in this magazine are not endorsed by the professor, the department, the university, or possibly anyone else. Your comments are welcomed by the professor who may be contacted at (910) 521-6616. Or you may e-mail the professor at acurtis@uncp.edu.