-
In 1897, Thaddeus Cahill patented the Telharmonium, which went on to become the precursor of the modern synthesizer.
-
In 1910, the Mighty Wurlitzer was introduced. The Mighty Wurlitzer was an electronic organ, and replaced the Telharmonium.
-
In 1920, Leon Theremin invented a revolutionary electronic instrument, which is played without physically touching it.
-
The Ondes Martenot was invented by Maurice Martenot, and is similar to the Theremin in terms of technology used. The Ondes Martenot is an electronic organ.
-
The Hammond Organ uses technology similar to the Telharmonium. It is an elecronic organ.
-
Friedrich Trautwein invented the Trautonium in 1929. It is an electronic keyboard that uses a wire over a metal plate to produce noise, rather than traditional keyboard keys.
-
In 1941, the Les Paul guitar was invented, becoming one of the best selling guitars of all time.
-
In 1948, "Étude aux chemins de fer" was recorded from the sounds of a train by Pierre Schaffer and Pierre Henry. This was the very first "Musique concrete" song.
-
'Illiac Suite for String Quartet' was the first song ever composed entirely by a computer, and was the result of random generations of various musical elements.
-
Herbert Belar and Harry Olson created the RCA Mark II, which was the first programmable electronic music synthesizer. It weighed 3 tons.
-
Robert Moog's synthesizer, The Moog, became the first commercially available synthesizer in 1958. This was used by many popular bands, including The Beatles.
-
The Buchla Music Box, invented by Don Buchla, allowed musicians to "bend and manipulate" music all at once. Pitch, timbre, and amplitude could be changed with this synthesizer.
-
Multitracking was heavily used in the Beach Boys' hit "I Get Around". This brought attention to the use of multitracking as a way to create thicker textures in music.
-
In 1972, DJ Kool Herc began using the break technique that he invented in various ways. This became popular after the development of the "Merry-go-round" technique in DJ-ing.
-
The MIDI was invented in 1983 after being proposed years earlier. This allowed instruments of different brands to communicate with each other.
