Dubstepforum.com

Posted: **Sun Nov 20, 2011 2:30 pm**

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone had any good books about the history of electronic music. I really wanna learn the roots and thought the best way is to learn it by books!
So.. Anybody got any recommendations?

Posted: **Sun Nov 20, 2011 2:32 pm**

I don't think it's about the roots of electronic music (haven't read it myself yet) but Kode9 has written a book called Sonic Warfare which is supposedly pretty impressive.
Still planning on reading it someday.

Posted: **Sun Nov 20, 2011 2:37 pm**

vishes wrote:I don't think it's about the roots of electronic music (haven't read it myself yet) but Kode9 has written a book called Sonic Warfare which is supposedly pretty impressive.
Still planning on reading it someday.

Yeah got that one on my to-read list to! Looks very interesting!

Posted: **Sun Nov 20, 2011 3:47 pm**

Try "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life" The comprehensive history of the Disk Jock.

Posted: **Sun Nov 20, 2011 5:54 pm**

There's lots of books about "classical"/experimental electronic music, but hardly any about electronic dance music, and the ones there are mostly use an ethnomusicology approach, ie they focus on dance music scenes as subcultures rather than actually studying the music.
A few books I found in my school library's catalog that may be of interest:
Manning, Peter - Electronic and computer music (mostly about the technological side, seems to be more about experimental music but does have a chapter on synths in rock and pop)
Lee, Iara & Shapiro, Peter - Modulations : a history of electronic music (this is probably more what you're looking for; there's also a movie apparently)
Kosmicki, Guillaume - Musiques électroniques : des avant-gardes aux dance floors (if you happen to read French)

There was one other one that I can't find at the moment that was more specifically about analyzing the music, mostly about techno. I'll see if I can find it later.

Posted: **Sun Nov 20, 2011 6:15 pm**

If you have any interest in Techno or Berlin, you've got to check out 'Lost And Sound' by Tobias Rapp.

Posted: **Sun Nov 20, 2011 7:01 pm**

this one was published recently - definitely high on my must-read list!
mind you it's very much forward-looking rather than historical stuff, but still very very interesting if you're excited about where electronic music is heading--

Infinite Music: Imagining the Next Millennium of Human Music-Making - Adam Harper

In the last few decades, new technologies have brought composers and listeners to the brink of an era of limitless musical possibility. They stand before a vast ocean of creative potential, in which any sounds imaginable can be synthesised and pieced together into radical new styles and forms of music-making. But are musicians taking advantage of this potential? How could we go about creating and listening to new music, and why should we? Bringing the ideas of twentieth-century avant-garde composers Arnold Schoenberg and John Cage to their ultimate conclusion, Infinite Music proposes a system for imagining music based on its capacity for variation, redefining musical modernism and music itself in the process. It reveals the restrictive categories traditionally imposed on music-making, replaces them with a new vocabulary and offers new approaches to organising musical creativity. By detailing not just how music is composed but crucially how it's perceived, Infinite Music maps the future of music and the many paths towards it.

Posted: **Sun Nov 20, 2011 7:41 pm**

Obviously Energy Flash by Simon Reynolds is THE BIG WUN.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Energy-Flash-Jo ... 0330350560
There's one addition that goes from the mid 80s to 1998, then there was an updated one which goes through to 2008, covering garage/grime/dubstep etc.

The American edition's shorter and called Generation Ectasy
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0415 ... 0CTC36E8ZV
But I think they're repressing the extended addition soon, so it might be worth waiting for that.

Absolutely classic book, well written, got amazing track recommendations etc.

Posted: **Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:26 am**

Thanks for all the replies!
Some very promising books.

makerowner wrote: Lee, Iara & Shapiro, Peter - Modulations : a history of electronic music (this is probably more what you're looking for; there's also a movie apparently)
There was one other one that I can't find at the moment that was more specifically about analyzing the music, mostly about techno. I'll see if I can find it later.

Thanks for the books! Modulations looks very nice will, i'll be sure to check that out.

bela wrote:this one was published recently - definitely high on my must-read list!
mind you it's very much forward-looking rather than historical stuff, but still very very interesting if you're excited about where electronic music is heading--

Infinite Music: Imagining the Next Millennium of Human Music-Making - Adam Harper

Probably will read that after i read something about the history, sounds very interesting. Thanks.

dat1 wrote: The American edition's shorter and called Generation Ectasy
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0415 ... 0CTC36E8ZV
But I think they're repressing the extended addition soon, so it might be worth waiting for that.

Absolutely classic book, well written, got amazing track recommendations etc.

Already found Generation Ectasy in some Dutch online bookstore!

Peace!

Posted: **Mon Nov 21, 2011 11:53 am**

Jurrecane wrote: Already found Generation Ectasy in some Dutch online bookstore!

Peace!

Do you mind sharing that information with a fellow dutchy mate?

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