Poll: your musical influence for interest in synthesizers

[ninja6485]

Some amazing s**t has come out of EDM. I'm not a huge fan, because of lots of reasons...First off I think it's played WAY too loud at clubs...I digress. I think it, to me is akin to death metal. A lot of the players in death metal will amaze you with some stuff they pull off, but I don't think it's "worth a trip into the mine to get the gold nuggets".

Great poll, though.

S.

i would like to take a post to ressurect this thread because it was suggested in that litle box that sometimes apears at the bottom of the screen containing similar posts, and i diddn't realize it was so old. anyway, the poll is average at best, and both terms "edm" and "electronica" are meaningless s**t. it's like calling religion in india "hinduism." also, if this song let alone the band 'death' were the only gold nuggets deathmetal had to offer, the trip to the mine would still be worth it.

[Rosskey]

Well I'd probably go back to the early eighties to answer this topic question, both Quiet life-Japan and Planet Earth Duran Duran brought my attention to Synths. Ah, the aural delights of arpeggio's and swirling effects..now just trying to re-create the effects.

[sequentialsoftshock]

One word: Jump.

[ImperatorDX]

I chose everything else than hip-hop.

[Elandroth]

NIN is what sparked some sincere interest, and I got my Nord Lead 2x because of a Keyboard mag article about sound design during The Fragile recording sessions, I can't remember who (maybe Charlie Clouser) said that the Nord Lead was Trent's first stop when he had a new idea he wanted to flesh out. After I got my synth I started listening to more music with synth in it, and the music I already liked I started paying a LOT more attention to the synth parts instead of guitar. I never gave Depeche Mode the time of day ever in my life, but earlier this year when I got some older 80s stuff, I started feeling like I needed to explore some of the music that was made in that era a lot more, and now I love Depeche Mode. ^_^

[krzeppa]

I wish I could say there was one thing that influenced me, but I think it was everything I listened to my whole life. When I was really young, my father used to listen to 50's and 60's music (especially Motown), which I loved as a child. I also grew up in the 80s where I fell in love with New Wave. I also went throuh a Hair Metal Phase ....as well as a grunge phase. I also went through a Industrial/Goth phase as well (and I still go out to industrial/goth clubs once in a great while). I think everything influence me, and made me what to get into music. I started out with a guitar, but I just didn't really have fun with it, but I really wanted to make music. So I asked myself, out of all of the music that I have listened what do I identify with the most? I found that I really loved New Wave and Industrial/Goth. I thought it would be fun to try and create/recreate sounds on a synth, and it has been fun. I also like it because it is an endless cycle of learning. I always seem to find something new that I couldn't do before, and that makes the whole process exciting. I also like that fact that I can produce just about any genre of music with synths, and I can do it by myself without have a band to fight with all the time. So if I wanted to, I could make Oldie's, 80s, Industrial, Goth, etc. on my synths and never get bored. I really think that is why I am drawn to them...not because of a certain type of music, but because of every type of music I like.

[Plumpudding]

Any other form of music got me into synths. EDM may be one of the reasons why it took so long.

[rharris07]

john carpenter, pink floyd, tears for fears, and brian eno.

[Newtown]

I'd say both, actually.

I like anything as long as it sounds good, while my music project (which still hasn't gotten off the ground yet, lol) touches on minimal techno, ambient, drone, sound art, etc. Experimental and pretty much all over the place. Probably won't be all that good either. We'll see.

[impaler42]

For me it was electronic dance music. A lot of the sounds seemed to be so abstract and otherworldy that I was immediately drawn in by the filter sweeps and other subtleties of synths. I must say that Depeche Mode was an influence too. They had some very catchy synth melodies back in the day.

[balma]

KNIGHT RIDER THEME

GHOST BUSTERS song

ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK song

These music always intrigued me as a child. Those sounds are so good. I do not understand why I made of relation of those songs with the future and "cool" things.

But the day I watched DEPECHE MODE live on 1994, I decided I needed a synth very badly.

[Solderman]

Not sure how I missed this thread last year. In chronological order of disparate years up to 1989 the biggest influences were:

• "Love will keep us together" by The Captain & Tennille at age 3
• "Rockit" by Herbie Hancock (which got me into electro funk/soul) at age 10
• Commodore 64 SID tunes at age 14
• Live radio broadcasts from Club 6400 in Houston, Texas in 1988-1989 at age 15-16

Honorable mention goes to:

• Chris Granner's FM synthesis soundtracks for Williams pinball machines (age 14-17)

[Voodoo Ray]

Detroit Techno was the genre that first got me interested in music in general: as in taking an active interest rather than just background noise. Still love it to this day.

[cornutt]

If I was going to redo this poll, I'd probably divide EDM into the general categories of hip-hop/rap, house/techno, trance, and downbeat/ambient. And then I'd add synth pop, experimental, and old-school/pre-1980 as other categories. I think the reason the OP put it that way was that he was interested specifically into how many people got into synths via dance-oriented vs. non-dance-oriented music.