Did the synthesiser ruin music?

[Ousetunes]

Sat hear listening to the Eurythmics on Classic Gold, 'Love is a Stranger', and it's made me think just how harsh some of the synthesiser sounds to these ears, 22 years on.

 

The early 1980s saw some great synth-orientated pop music: Soft Cell, Orchestral Maneouvres In The Dark, Flock of Seagulls, Depeche Mode, aforementioned Dave and Annie, Gary Numan and our own Human League.

 

Ofcause, none of these were the first to use the synthesiser on record and I don't really wish to go into the merits as to whom was the first (though George Harrison used the Polymoog in the Beatles on tracks like 'Here Comes The Sun' in 1969).

 

Duran Duran made great use of the Fairlight synth on songs like Rio (the bridge section where it sounds the whooshing of sea waves on the beach) and it would be difficult to listen to Soft Cell sing Say Hello, Wave Goodbye without David Ball's masterly use of the synth. (David Gray gave us an acoustic version of the song but I sent it back with a threatening reminder: Do not touch what you cannot afford.)

 

Having moved on a long way since the 1980s, I think it's fair to say that the synthesiser has taken more of a back seat and is used in songs more subtley. Infact, if anything, the piano is back thanks to Keane and Coldplay. When I listen to some 1970s and 1980s music, the synthesiser is almost the tour de force but these days some of the sounds are incredibly harsh and grating. (They usually surpass the EQ limitations when transferred to CD.)

 

But there are a few examples where the synth has been used to great effect. The swirls on Make Me Smile (Come up and See Me) by Cockney/Rebel; David Bowie on Ashes to Ashes and on some of Kim Wilde's earlier songs like Cambodia and Chequered Love. Maybe Ultravox got the blend of synth and guitar spot on. Infact it's difficult to tell which is which on songs like Sleepwalk. Queen went all synth in 1984: I Want To Break Free and Radio Ga-Ga.

 

Do we reckon the synth as pop music's main instrument has had its day? Have we gone back to the guitar and piano line-up, or will there come a day soon when 14 year old kids no longer aspire to own a Fender or Gibson (shock! horror!) and instead make their way to Fox's to glean over the Yamahas and Moogs and ask Dad for a £1500 loan?

[JoeP]

I think the inappropriate use of synths has had a detrimental effect on music.

 

In my teens I built a couple of synthesisers for local wannabe prog-rock bands. These were analogue boxes where programming was setting various variable resistors to set attack, decay, frequency, etc. However, they still had guitars, drums, pianos, dustbins (I kid you not) and all other sorts of musical instrument you could name.

 

I think the problems have started when the synths have been used as substitutes for existing instruments - they'll never be as good, no matter how accurate the modelling.

 

But synths used to produce the sounds that only a synth can produce - excellent! The harshness of some synth sounds from the 80s was probably a feature of the technologies used - I think that that's when digital techniques staretd being used to synthesise tone and even a sine wave had it's jaggies!

 

Joe

[metalman]

As a fan of most electronic music, prog rock, krautrock, industrial noise and so on rather than chart pop, I have to disagree and say that it opened up a whole new universe of musical possibilities, and thereby expanded the breadth of music available like no other instrument since the electric guitar.

[Phanerothyme]

Nah. Synthesiser is just another instrument - use it or abuse it.

 

Without it, a great deal of stunning and thought provoking music would not exist.

 

Likewise the sampler and the sequencer and MIDI.

 

Please all now pay homage to Raymond Scott - one of the godfathers of synth.

[Guest Ant]

Yeah, I agree with that. We went through a long period (as I recall in the early 90's?) where EVERYTHING in the chart was sampled and looped over a tinny drum riff (Jack And Jill In The House, Humpty Dumpty In The Jack House, Jerk With Humpty Dumpty In The Hip-Hop House), those years were hell.

 

Things have settled down now, and "real" bands have started kicking ass again. Synths are obviously more heavily used in tracks than they used to be, and its obvious that genres like dance are here to stay. But I'm not as bored with the music scene these days now the synth has found its place.

[PhilMurray]

people who sing to backing tapes have ruined live music most are cheap n tacky..............the ones that play at my local on a thursday night i've seen more talent in a lampost............synthesisers are ok we've used em now n again in our band just add a different dimension.

[Lickable]

Greed, large corporate labels and laziness ruined music. Computers and synths were just used as the tool to do it. You can easily make pathetic 4 on the floor music, ripping a track from the 80s and sticking a model miming it in the video. It takes effort, time and skill to produce a track thats groundbreaking.

 

The Prodigy sound nothing like Crazy frog. Prodigy take 3 years for an album. Crazy frog will have one in around two weeks!

[timo]

Synthesisers, and other electronic devices can be used to make excellent, intelligent music. Aside from the better examples of modern dance music, the work of Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Miles Davis, Weather Report [Joe Zawinul's keyboards], Philip Glass, David Bowie ,Can, Cluster, and especially the 'garage electronics' of Cabaret Voltaire, early Human League and The Normal, stand as good examples. In the world of 'Electro-Acoustic' modern classical music, Stockhausen, Cage, Berio, Koenig, Trevor Wishart etc have all used synthesisers/electronics in interesting, exploratory ways.

 

The 'gimmicky' use of synths/electronics such as early seventies recordings by Hot Butter, The perfectly dreadful 'Switched On' Moog interpretations of classics etc, and the 80s work of Gary Numan etc are to be deplored. Massive Attack and the previously-mentioned Prodigy certainly use synthesisers to great effect. In the case of Massive Attack, they are probably the most sophisticated [with the exception of Brian Eno] manipulators of electronics in modern, popular music. The textures they produce are often incredibly sleek, sensuous and beautiful.

 

It is true that there are some things which only an orchestra can do. Nevertheless, when listening to Massive Attack, I reflect that there are some things only a synthesiser can do. It is the person behind the instrument that ultimately counts. A talented artist can make interesting, rewarding art with any medium.

[Damon]

Spot on timo - great post.

 

I'm currently devouring Simon Reynolds' hefty book 'Rip It Up And Start Again' about the music of the immediate post-punk period. There's a great chapter on Sheffield's ground-breaking scene, particularly emphasising the Cabs and Human League, and it encouraged me to revisit my old Cabaret Voltaire vinyl. While once the likes of Nag Nag Nag soundtracked my headlong tumble into adolescence, they now soundtrack an evening's washing up, but the sound is no less thrilling for that. It's a real tribute to the power of electronics coupled with unfettered imagination.

[LordSnooty]

It's true, Timo, that a person with talent can produce something good from any instrument. I love synthesisers and think that the early 'eighties were a kind of golden age of pop, due to the proliferation of daft bands/duos who turned out a few great, quirky singles, a crap album, then departed (for example, 'Living On The Ceiling' by Blancmange).

 

But there is, of course, a dark side to the synth. That is the 'sawtooth' wave Moog solo, as used by Proggy Horror Bands like Genesis, Yes and er....all the others. I rather like Led Zepellin, but cannot abide their last proper LP 'In Through The Out Door', especially the second to last song, which is ruined by the most prissy, powder-puff Moog break wou will ever have the misfortune to hear (a shame, because there are some great guitar fills by JP on the same track using a B-Bender Telecaster).

 

Likewise, 'The Band' sounded ridiculous when Garth Hudson threw out his Hammond B-3 and Hohner Clavinet for a PolyMoog, or whatever it was he bought to make those parping, twiddly noises with. Tony Banks of Genesis is the worst 'Moog Man', however. It must have really p****d the others off with him piping up all the time, 'hey guys, I've had a great idea what to do with this seventeen minute gap on side three', 'don't tell us, Tony, another extended Moog solo', ' er...yes, actually'........