Contemporary electronic music in terms of melody and harmony often yield to pop or even rock music. Why is that so? It seems electronic artists must be well grounded in theory of music as they do all the work by themselves. Paul Mauriat or any other famous academic composer can permit himself not to play music, but only write notes and conducting. In electronic music even sound engineering function often lies on author.

It’s a common knowledge that simplification is characteristic for all non-academic styles of music, because it depends heavily on social environment. Grants are typical for academic music, and sometimes pop melody can be arranged by famous orchestra, like Paul Mauriat Orchestra, and become well-known in the whole world. In electronic music trends, technologies and market mechanisms play an important role. That’s why it simplifies, adapts to society, and actually this is not so bad, if we take a look at this not from absolute point of view. Beside that, it’s important to understand that electronic music operates on wider sound field, and harmonic changes not always for good. Chords, which work for acoustic instruments, won’t work for analogue synthesizers, for example, because of different nature and solidity of sound. That’s why chords simplify with gaps and blanks, which can be filled not with concrete notes, but with noises or textures from our wealth. The result will appear as balanced, finished composition, wanting nothing to add.

It is hard to imagine any pop or jazz album with noises of trains or cicadas as creative tools, whether it’s Love Is Blue or Kind Of Blue. In electronic music even insignificant details, noises, pops, or clicks become a creative tool. One can say, it’s sound meditation, and that’s true, many successfully looped sounds are truly meditative.

And undoubtedly, even if you have a certain taste, thinking, and nature, this music must be used to. It’s stretched in time, and possibly, electronic music forms our perception of time.