The person that I chose to write about has had a huge effect
on early electronic music and especially experimental electronic music. Karlheinz Stockhausen is one
of the composers that almost every sixties and seventies electronic musician
was influenced by. Stockhausen was a German avante garde composer who wanted to
redefine music to something that people had never heard before both sonically
and composition wise. One of the biggest influences on modern electronic music;
kraftwerk cites Stockhausen as one of the primary inspirations for their music.
When you listen to some of his music you can definitely tell that a lot of
people making ambience music or soundscapes were influenced by Stockhausen. His
music seems to have no beat or any type of organization or themes yet when you
listen to it it still makes sense and most of all it sounds good. It is his compositions
that I feel really let to influence people on those ideas. Another thing about
Stockhausen that really influenced people I think is just his mentality about
music in general. He clearly isn’t looking to make something that is going to
sell a lot of records. They might sell today but he was making them in the
sixties and seventies. Hi mentality was much more that of someone who is
experimenting and trying to do something innovative. This I think inspired musicians
after him to be able to take what he did and then add more musical components
to it to create things that people actually will buy. I consider Stockhausen’s
music to more art than music for the reason that there is no theme or motif or
really any elements of music besides the sounds. As a listener the impression
he leaves on me really is that his music is just something to put on in the
background. There really isn’t anything that makes these songs amazing. His
actual compositions on the other hand I think are great. As an audio
professional I can hear him when I listen to a lot of electronic music and I wouldn’t
have thought that by just hearing it without hearing Stockhausen.
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you that Karlheinz Stockhausen is a very influential person when it comes electronic music, and especially experimental electronic music. I especially liked how you mentioned how he was being experimental and innovated, and how he really wasn’t out to get rich or sell records. Personally I love hear experimental music and find it very influencing, and I agree that he personally inspired artist such as Kraftwerk. The only thing that needs some work on your post would be some of the grammatical errors. Other then that it was a solid post and a good read.
Reilly Parsons