A History of Electronic Instruments & the Music They Inspired (Residential Course)

This course will explore the history of the electronic instrument within the 20th and 21st centuries and analyze how these instruments have evolved and impacted the way we make music across different genres and decades. We’re going to analyze how seminal pieces of music equipment influenced a variety of musical genres that could not have existed without them (e.g., hip-hop’s reliance on the MPC and 808, house and techno’s use of the 909 and the 707, etc.), while also making space for student creativity. This class is designed for anyone who wants to learn the practice and history of beat making and production, as well as the history of different electronic music genres like techno, house, dubstep, drum and bass, break beats, etc. While one module will cover early examples of electronic instruments, the class will mainly focus on modern-day examples. Because most of these instruments are rare and financially inaccessible, we will be focusing on accessible ways to produce music (e.g., open source and free software), while still developing our sonic literacy of these instruments.