The Electronic Renaissance Part I: The Decade That Should Have Been

The following article is part of an eight part series exploring my thoughts on the state of electronic music in the current decade compared to the 1990's and 1980's.
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The year is now 2006 and we are more then half way through the decade of the 2000's. At the beginning of this decade I was graduating high school, beginning college and really digging into my own personal growth on a multitude of levels. I had high hopes, based on the fantastic music that came out in the 1990's, that the next decade of electronic music would really be the Golden Age, taking the electronic scene to the forefront of music culture and also creating new sub-cultures and genres for all sorts of artists. I believed that electronic music as an art form would penetrate and assimilate in the various levels of society from the political to the spiritual. I thought the internet and computer would really spark the creative juices of every bedroom artist in the world to bring something new and refreshing and help create the new subculture that expanded beyond just music, and touched people in all facets of life. As the decade has rolled by however there really does not seem to be the Golden Age and maturation of the electronic music scene that I was hoping for.

The modern form of electronic music emerged mostly out of the 1970's and took its most identifiable form as we know it now in the 1980's with synergies from rock and disco. It wasn’t until probably the mid 1980’s that most electronic music began to become accessible to the public musically. The development of MIDI, the personal computer and the internet really helped to bring along the sound through the mid eighties and through the 1990's decade to develop what is commonly thought of as modern electronic music. Looking back now at the music that has come out through the late 80's, 90's and the first half of the 2000's I am beginning to see that perhaps electronic music has already had its Golden years and is quickly fading out. It is my opiion as a musician and as an avid listener that electronic music needs a renaissance.

Other Chapters in this writing:
.:Part I:The Decade That Should Have Been:.
.:Part II:Where Electronic Music Was:.
.:Part III:Who is to Blame?:.
.:Part IV: The Sound:.
.:Part V: The Tools:.
.:Part VI: Internet:.
.:Part VII: The Artists:.
.:Part VIII: The Birth of the Renaissance:.

Stay Tuned for Part II: Where Electronic Music Was


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