When did Electronic Music Start?

[tristan_geoff]

electronic music is defined by music made when atoms and molecules energy is transferred while in contact, creating electricity that makes things happen and then the music does every sound is electronic music

[Trollheart]

i would marry wikipedia

It will have to get a divorce from me first, and I won't make it easy!

I'm just not satisfied with using the definition of electronic music from Wikipedia and simply calling it a day - in fact I take great umbrage at the idea! After all, my teachers always told me that you can't rely on Wikipedia. They wouldn't accept it as a cited source on papers, so why should I accept it here?

I propose that we debate and nitpick each other's definitions for a while to get closer to a semblance of truth and shared reality.

What exactly are you going to do with umbrage? Can't you just borrow it instead of taking it? Seems a little greedy. Others need umbrage too, you know. I bet you also take offence, and then how am I going to keep the cows in?

[Lexi of the Dawn]

How the SGRinch Took Umbrage

[Lisnaholic]

Although the thread title asks "When...?", I think an equally relevant question is "How...?"
Genres like jazz, rock and folk were born in taverns, clubs, bars where people wanted to be entertained. You could do it a capela, invest in a penny-whistle or, for those with cash to splash, buy a guitar. The birth of electronic music was so totally different, as TH makes clear:-

You might, or might not, be surprised to find that the history of the synthesiser - or at least, the electric organ - goes back to the last years of the nineteenth century, when inventor Thaddeus Cahill (1867 - 1934) built what is widely regarded as the world's first electronic instrument, which he called the telharmonium, or the dynamophone. It was not quite what you would call portable, weighing in at approximately seven tons for the "lite" model, going all the way up to 200 tons for the top of the range, nor was it easily affordable to probably anyone other than the president of the United States, with a price tag of $200,000, which was massive money for then, about $5.5 million today. Yeah. Not the kind of thing you asked Santa to bring you for Christmas!

So, not to belittle all those early pioneers that have been mentioned, my interest in electronic music is from the moment when it left the academic/classical/novelty stuff behind, came of age and started competing, in terms of entertainment and availability, with other genres. That's when it took wing, and I give the prize for identifying that moment to Meatwad:-
 

Dr Who theme - Ron Grainer / Delia Derbyshire

To my surprise, it turns out to be seven years later that Kraftwerk began their career: here's a live extract from their self-titled debut album:-

And shout out to Wendy Carlos, who spent several years playing classical music on a Moog synthesizer before catching up with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (Dr. Who Theme) and creating her own self-penned electronic hit in 1971:-

1971 was also the year that the Zero Time album came out:-

Anyway, that's how I personally remember the development of electronic music, with T Dream, Bo Hanson and Jean Michel Jarre coming along a little later.