Musique concrète (French pronunciation:[myzikkɔ̃kʁɛt];lit. 'concrete music')[nb 1] is a type ofmusic composition that utilizesrecorded sounds as raw material.[1] Sounds are often modified through the application ofaudio signal processing andtape music techniques, and may be assembled into a form ofsound collage.[nb 2] It can feature sounds derived from recordings ofmusical instruments, thehuman voice, and the natural environment, as well as those created using soundsynthesis and computer-baseddigital signal processing. Compositions in this idiom are not restricted to the normal musical rules ofmelody,harmony,rhythm, andmetre.[3] The technique exploitsacousmatic sound, such that sound identities can often be intentionally obscured or appear unconnected to their source cause.
The theoretical basis ofmusique concrète as a compositional practice was developed by French composerPierre Schaeffer, beginning in the early 1940s. It was largely an attempt to differentiate between music based on the abstract medium of notation and that created using so-calledsound objects (French:l'objet sonore).[4] By the early 1950s, musique concrète was contrasted with "pure"elektronische Musik as then developed inWest Germany – based solely on the use of electronically produced sounds rather than recorded sounds – but the distinction has since been blurred such that the term "electronic music" covers both meanings.[4] Schaeffer's work resulted in the establishment of France's Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète (GRMC), which attracted important figures includingPierre Henry,Luc Ferrari,Pierre Boulez,Karlheinz Stockhausen,Edgard Varèse, andIannis Xenakis. From the late 1960s onward, and particularly in France, the termacousmatic music (French:musique acousmatique) was used in reference to fixed media compositions that utilized bothmusique concrète-based techniques and live sound spatialisation.
In 1928, music critic André Cœuroy wrote in his book,Panorama of Contemporary Music, that "perhaps the time is not far off when a composer will be able to represent through recording, music specifically composed for thegramophone".[5] In the same period, the American composerHenry Cowell, in referring to the projects ofNikolai Lopatnikoff, believed that "there was a wide field open for the composition of music for phonographic discs". This sentiment was echoed further in 1930 byIgor Stravinsky, when he stated in the revueKultur und Schallplatte that "there will be a greater interest in creating music in a way that will be peculiar to the gramophone record". The following year, in 1931,Boris de Schloezer also expressed the opinion that one could write for the gramophone or for thewireless just as one can for the piano or the violin.[6] Shortly after, German art theoristRudolf Arnheim discussed the effects of microphonic recording in an essay entitled "Radio", published in 1936. In it the idea of a creative role for the recording medium was introduced and Arnheim stated that: "The rediscovery of the musicality of sound in noise and in language, and the reunification of music, noise and language in order to obtain a unity of material: that is one of the chief artistic tasks of radio".[7]
Possible antecedents tomusique concrète have been noted;Walter Ruttmann's filmWochenende (Weekend) (1930), a work of "blind cinema" without visuals,[8] introduced recordings of environmental sound, to represent the urban soundscape ofBerlin, two decades before musique concrète was formalised.[8][9] Ruttmann's soundtrack has been retrospectively calledmusique concrète.[10] According to Seth Kim-Cohen, the piece was the first to "organise 'concrete' sounds into a formal, artistic composition."[8] ComposerIrwin Bazelon referred to a sound collage in the filmDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), during the first transformation scene, as "pre-musique concrète".[11]Ottorino Respighi'sPines of Rome (Italian:Pini di Roma; 1924) calls for a phonograph recording ofbirdsong to be played during the third movement.[12]
In 1942, French composer and theoreticianPierre Schaeffer began his exploration of radiophony when he joinedJacques Copeau and his pupils in the foundation of theStudio d'Essai de laRadiodiffusion Nationale. The studio originally functioned as a center for theFrench Resistance on radio, which in August 1944 was responsible for the first broadcasts in liberated Paris. It was here that Schaeffer began to experiment with creative radiophonic techniques using the sound technologies of the time.[13] In 1948, Schaeffer began to keep a set of journals describing his attempt to create a "symphony of noises".[14] These journals were published in 1952 asA la recherche d'une musique concrète, and according to Brian Kane, author ofSound Unseen: Acousmatic Sound in Theory and Practice, Schaeffer was driven by: "a compositional desire to construct music from concrete objects – no matter how unsatisfactory the initial results – and a theoretical desire to find a vocabulary, solfège, or method upon which to ground such music."[15]
The development of Schaeffer's practice was informed by encounters with voice actors, and microphone usage and radiophonic art played an important part in inspiring and consolidating Schaeffer's conception of sound-based composition.[16] Another important influence on Schaeffer's practice was cinema, and the techniques of recording and montage, which were originally associated with cinematographic practice, came to "serve as the substrate of musique concrète".Marc Battier notes that, prior to Schaeffer,Jean Epstein drew attention to the manner in which sound recording revealed what was hidden in the act of basic acoustic listening. Epstein's reference to this "phenomenon of an epiphanic being", which appears through the transduction of sound, proved influential on Schaeffer's concept of reduced listening. Schaeffer would explicitly cite Jean Epstein with reference to his use of extra-musical sound material. Epstein had already imagined that "through the transposition of natural sounds, it becomes possible to create chords and dissonances, melodies and symphonies of noise, which are a new and specifically cinematographic music".[17]
As a student inCairo in the early to mid-1940s, Egyptian composerHalim El-Dabh began experimenting with electroacoustic music using a cumbersomewire recorder. He recorded the sounds of an ancientzaar ceremony and at the Middle East Radio studios processed the material using reverberation, echo, voltage controls, and re-recording. The resulting tape-based composition, entitledThe Expression of Zaar, was presented in 1944 at an art gallery event in Cairo. El-Dabh has described his initial activities as an attempt to unlock "the inner sound" of the recordings. While his early compositional work was not widely known outside of Egypt at the time, El-Dabh would eventually gain recognition for his influential work at theColumbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in Manhattan in the late 1950s.[18]
Following Schaeffer's work with Studio d'Essai at Radiodiffusion Nationale during the early 1940s he was credited with originating the theory and practice ofmusique concrète. The Studio d'Essai was renamed Club d'Essai de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française[citation needed] in 1946 and in the same year Schaeffer discussed, in writing, the question surrounding the transformation of time perceived through recording. The essay evidenced knowledge of sound manipulation techniques he would further exploit compositionally. In 1948 Schaeffer formally initiated "research in to noises" at the Club d'Essai[13] and on 5 October 1948 the results of his initial experimentation were premiered at a concert given in Paris.[19] Five works forphonograph – known collectively asCinq études de bruits (Five Studies of Noises) includingÉtude violette (Study in Purple) andÉtude aux chemins de fer (Study with Railroads) – were presented.
By 1949, Schaeffer's compositional work was known publicly asmusique concrète.[13] Schaeffer stated: "when I proposed the term 'musique concrète,' I intended … to point out an opposition with the way musical work usually goes. Instead of notating musical ideas on paper with the symbols of solfege and entrusting their realization to well-known instruments, the question was to collect concrete sounds, wherever they came from, and to abstract the musical values they were potentially containing".[20] According toPierre Henry, "musique concrète was not a study of timbre, it is focused on envelopes, forms. It must be presented by means of non-traditional characteristics, you see … one might say that the origin of this music is also found in the interest in 'plastifying' music, of rendering it plastic like sculpture…musique concrète, in my opinion … led to a manner of composing, indeed, a new mental framework of composing".[21] Schaeffer had developed an aesthetic that was centred upon the use of sound as a primarycompositional resource. The aesthetic also emphasised the importance of play (jeu) in the practice of sound based composition. Schaeffer's use of the wordjeu, from the verbjouer, carries the same double meaning as the English verbto play: 'to enjoy oneself by interacting with one's surroundings', as well as 'to operate a musical instrument'.[22] During this early development of music concrete, Schaeffer continued participation in his Club d’Essai. Prior to their collaboration on Timbres-Durées (1952), Schaeffer’s acquaintance and serialist composer, Olivier Messiaen, periodically participated in broadcasts, round tables, and critiques surrounding musique concrète.[23]
By 1951 the work of Schaeffer, composer-percussionist Pierre Henry, and sound engineer Jacques Poullin had received official recognition and the Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète, Club d 'Essai de laRadiodiffusion-Télévision Française was established at RTF in Paris, the ancestor of theORTF.[24] At RTF the GRMC established the first purpose-builtelectroacoustic music studio. It quickly attracted many who either were or were later to become notable composers, includingOlivier Messiaen,Pierre Boulez,Jean Barraqué,Karlheinz Stockhausen,Edgard Varèse,Iannis Xenakis,Michel Philippot, andArthur Honegger. Compositional "output from 1951 to 1953 comprisedÉtude I (1951) andÉtude II (1951) by Boulez,Timbres-durées (1952) by Messiaen,Étude aux mille collants (1952) by Stockhausen,Le microphone bien tempéré (1952) andLa voile d'Orphée (1953) by Henry,Étude I (1953) by Philippot,Étude (1953) by Barraqué, the mixed piecesToute la lyre (1951) andOrphée 53 (1953) by Schaeffer/Henry, and the film musicMasquerage (1952) by Schaeffer andAstrologie (1953) by Henry. In 1954 Varèse and Honegger visited to work on the tape parts ofDéserts andLa rivière endormie".[25]
In the early and mid 1950s Schaeffer's commitments to RTF included official missions that often required extended absences from the studios. This led him to invest Philippe Arthuys with responsibility for the GRMC in his absence, with Pierre Henry operating as Director of Works. Pierre Henry's composing talent developed greatly during this period at the GRMC and he worked withexperimental filmmakers such as Max de Haas,Jean Grémillon, Enrico Fulchignoni, andJean Rouch and withchoreographers including Dick Sanders and Maurice Béjart.[26] Schaeffer returned to run the group at the end of 1957, and immediately stated his disapproval of the direction the GRMC had taken. A proposal was then made to "renew completely the spirit, the methods and the personnel of the Group, with a view to undertake research and to offer a much needed welcome to young composers".[27]
Following the emergence of differences within the GRMC, Pierre Henry, Philippe Arthuys, and several of their colleagues, resigned in April 1958. Schaeffer created a new collective, calledGroupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) and set about recruiting new members includingMichel Chion,Luc Ferrari,Beatriz Ferreyra,François-Bernard Mâche,Iannis Xenakis,Bernard Parmegiani, andMireille Chamass-Kyrou. Later arrivals includedIvo Malec, Philippe Carson, Romuald Vandelle, Edgardo Canton andFrançois Bayle.[27]
GRM was one of several theoretical and experimental groups working under the umbrella of the Schaeffer-led Service de la Recherche at ORTF (1960–1974). Together with the GRM, three other groups existed: the Groupe de Recherches Image GRI, the Groupe de Recherches Technologiques GRT and the Groupe de Recherches Langage which became the Groupe d'Etudes Critiques.[27] Communication was the one theme that unified the various groups, all of which were devoted to production and creation. In terms of the question "Who says what to whom?" Schaeffer added "How?", thereby creating a platform for research into audiovisual communication and mass media, audible phenomena and music in general (including non-Western musics).[28] At the GRM the theoretical teaching remained based on practice and could be summed up in the catch phrasedo and listen.[27]
Schaeffer kept up a practice established with the GRMC of delegating the functions (though not the title) of Group Director to colleagues. Since 1961 GRM has had six Group Directors: Michel Philippot (1960–1961), Luc Ferrari (1962–1963), Bernard Baschet and François Vercken (1964–1966). From the beginning of 1966, François Bayle took over the direction for the duration of thirty-one years, to 1997. He was then replaced by Daniel Teruggi.[26]
The group continued to refine Schaeffer's ideas and strengthened the concept ofmusique acousmatique.[29] Schaeffer had borrowed the termacousmatic fromPythagoras and defined it as: "Acousmatic,adjective: referring to a sound that one hears without seeing the causes behind it".[30] In 1966 Schaeffer published the bookTraité des objets musicaux (Treatise on Musical Objects) which represented the culmination of some 20 years of research in the field ofmusique concrète. In conjunction with this publication, a set of sound recordings was produced, entitledLe solfège de l'objet sonore (Music Theory of the Acoustic Object), to provide examples of concepts dealt with in the treatise.
The development of musique concrète was facilitated by the emergence of newmusic technology in post-war Europe. Access to microphones, phonographs, and latermagnetic tape recorders (created in 1939 and acquired by the Schaeffer's Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (Research Group on Concrete Music) in 1952), facilitated by an association with the French national broadcasting organization, at that time the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française, gave Schaeffer and his colleagues an opportunity to experiment with recording technology and tape manipulation.
In 1948, a typicalradio studio consisted of a series of shellacrecord players, ashellac record recorder, amixing desk with rotatingpotentiometers, mechanicalreverberation units,filters, andmicrophones. This technology made a number of limited operations available to a composer:[31]
The application of the above technologies in the creation of musique concrète led to the development of a number of sound manipulation techniques including:[31]
The first tape recorders started arriving at ORTF in 1949; however, they were much less reliable than the shellac players, to the point that theSymphonie pour un homme seul (1950–1951) was mainly composed with records even if the tape recorder was available.[32] In 1950, when the machines finally functioned correctly, the techniques of the studio were expanded. A range of new sound manipulation practices were explored using improved media manipulation methods and operations such as continuous speed variation. A completely new possibility of organising sounds appeared with tape editing, which permitted tape to be spliced and arranged with much more precision. The "axe-cut junctions" were replaced with micrometric junctions and a whole new technique of production, less dependent on performance skills, could be developed. Tape editing brought a new technique called "micromontage", in which very small fragments of sound were edited together, thus creating completely new sounds or structures on a larger scale.[33]
During the GRMC period from 1951 to 1958, Schaeffer and Poullin developed a number of novel sound creation tools. These included a three-tracktape recorder; a machine with ten playback heads to replay tape loops in echo (the morphophone); akeyboard-controlled machine to play tape loops at preset speeds (the keyboard,chromatic, orTolana phonogène); a slide-controlled machine to replay tape loops at a continuously variable range of speeds (the handle, continuous, orSareg phonogène); and a device to distribute an encoded track across fourloudspeakers, including one hanging from the centre of the ceiling (thepotentiomètre d'espace).[25]
Speed variation was a powerful tool for sound design applications. It had been identified that transformations brought about by varying playback speed lead to modification in the character of the sound material:
The phonogène was a machine capable of modifying sound structure significantly and it provided composers with a means to adapt sound to meet specific compositional contexts. The initial phonogènes were manufactured in 1953 by two subcontractors: the chromatic phonogène by a company called Tolana, and the sliding version by the SAREG Company.[34] A third version was developed later at ORTF. An outline of the unique capabilities of the various phonogènes can be seen here:
This original tape recorder was one of the first machines permitting the simultaneous listening of several synchronised sources. Until 1958 musique concrète, radio and the studio machines weremonophonic. The three-head tape recorder superposed three magnetic tapes that were dragged by a common motor, each tape having an independentspool. The objective was to keep the three tapes synchronised from a common starting point. Works could then be conceivedpolyphonically, and thus each head conveyed a part of the information and was listened to through a dedicated loudspeaker. It was an ancestor of the multi-track player (four then eight tracks) that appeared in the 1960s.Timbres Durées by Olivier Messiaen with the technical assistance of Pierre Henry was the first work composed for this tape recorder in 1952. A rapid rhythmic polyphony was distributed over the three channels.[35]
This machine was conceived to build complex forms through repetition, and accumulation of events throughdelays, filtering andfeedback. It consisted of a large rotating disk, 50 cm in diameter, on which was stuck a tape with its magnetic side facing outward. A series of twelve movablemagnetic heads (one eachrecording head and erasing head, and ten playback heads) were positioned around the disk, in contact with the tape. A sound up to four seconds long could be recorded on the looped tape and the ten playback heads would then read the information with different delays, according to their (adjustable) positions around the disk. A separateamplifier andband-pass filter for each head could modify thespectrum of the sound, and additional feedback loops could transmit the information to the recording head. The resulting repetitions of a sound occurred at different time intervals, and could be filtered or modified through feedback. This system was also easily capable of producing artificial reverberation or continuous sounds.[35]
At the premiere of Pierre Schaeffer'sSymphonie pour un homme seul in 1951, a system that was designed for the spatial control of sound was tested. It was called arelief desk (pupitre de relief, but also referred to aspupitre d'espace orpotentiomètre d'espace) and was intended to control the dynamic level of music played from several shellac players. This created astereophonic effect by controlling the positioning of amonophonic sound source.[35] One of five tracks, provided by a purpose-built tape machine, was controlled by the performer and the other four tracks each supplied a single loudspeaker. This provided a mixture of live and preset sound positions.[36] The placement of loudspeakers in the performance space included two loudspeakers at the front right and left of the audience, one placed at the rear, and in the centre of the space a loudspeaker was placed in a high position above the audience. The sounds could therefore be moved around the audience, rather than just across the front stage. On stage, the control system allowed a performer to position a sound either to the left or right, above or behind the audience, simply by moving a small, hand held transmitter coil towards or away from four somewhat larger receiver coils arranged around the performer in a manner reflecting the loudspeaker positions.[35] A contemporary eyewitness described thepotentiomètre d'espace in normal use:
One found one's self sitting in a small studio which was equipped with four loudspeakers—two in front of one—right and left; one behind one and a fourth suspended above. In the front center were four large loops and anexecutant moving a small magnetic unit through the air. The four loops controlled the four speakers, and while all four were giving off sounds all the time, the distance of the unit from the loops determined the volume of sound sent out from each.
The music thus came to one at varying intensity from various parts of the room, and thisspatial projection gave new sense to the rather abstract sequence of sound originally recorded.[37]
The central concept underlying this method was the notion that music should be controlled during public presentation in order to create a performance situation; an attitude that has stayed with acousmatic music to the present day.[35]
After the longstanding rivalry with theelectronic music of the Cologne studio had subsided, in 1970 the GRM finally created an electronic studio using tools developed by the physicist Enrico Chiarucci, called the Studio 54, which featured the "Coupigny modular synthesiser" and a Moog synthesiser.[38] The Coupignysynthesiser, named for its designer François Coupigny, director of the Group for Technical Research,[39] and the Studio 54 mixing desk had a major influence on the evolution of GRM and from the point of their introduction on they brought a new quality to the music.[40] The mixing desk and synthesiser were combined in one unit and were created specifically for the creation of musique concrète.
The design of the desk was influenced bytrade union rules at French National Radio that required technicians and production staff to have clearly defined duties. The solitary practice of musique concrète composition did not suit a system that involved three operators: one in charge of the machines, a second controlling the mixing desk, and third to provide guidance to the others. Because of this the synthesiser and desk were combined and organised in a manner that allowed it to be used easily by a composer. Independently of the mixing tracks (24 in total), it had a coupled connection patch that permitted the organisation of the machines within the studio. It also had a number of remote controls for operating tape recorders. The system was easily adaptable to any context, particularly that of interfacing with external equipment.[41]
Before the late 1960s the musique concrète produced at GRM had largely been based on the recording and manipulation of sounds, but synthesised sounds had featured in a number of works prior to the introduction of the Coupigny. Pierre Henry had used oscillators to produce sounds as early as 1955. But a synthesiser withenvelope control was something Pierre Schaeffer was against, since it favoured the preconception of music and therefore deviated from Schaeffer's principle of "making through listening".[41] Because of Schaeffer's concerns the Coupigny synthesiser was conceived as a sound-event generator with parameters controlled globally, without a means to define values as precisely as some other synthesisers of the day.[42]
The development of the machine was constrained by several factors. It needed to be modular and the modules had to be easily interconnected (so that the synthesiser would have more modules than slots and it would have an easy-to-use patch). It also needed to include all the major functions of amodular synthesiser includingoscillators, noise-generators,filters,ring-modulators, but anintermodulation facility was viewed as the primary requirement; to enable complex synthesis processes such asfrequency modulation,amplitude modulation, and modulation via an external source. No keyboard was attached to the synthesiser and instead a specific and somewhat complexenvelope generator was used to shape sound. This synthesiser was well-adapted to the production of continuous and complex sounds using intermodulation techniques such as cross-synthesis and frequency modulation but was less effective in generating precisely defined frequencies and triggering specific sounds.[40]
The Coupigny synthesiser also served as the model for a smaller, portable unit, which has been used down to the present day.[39]
In 1966 composer and technicianFrançois Bayle was placed in charge of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales and in 1975, GRM was integrated with the newInstitut national de l'audiovisuel (INA – Audiovisual National Institute) with Bayle as its head. In taking the lead on work that began in the early 1950s, with Jacques Poullin's potentiomètre d'espace, a system designed to movemonophonic sound sources across four speakers, Bayle and the engineer Jean-Claude Lallemand created an orchestra of loudspeakers (un orchestre de haut-parleurs) known as theAcousmonium in 1974.[43] An inaugural concert took place on 14 February 1974 at the Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris with a presentation of Bayle'sExpérience acoustique.[44]
The Acousmonium is a specialisedsound reinforcement system consisting of between 50 and 100loudspeakers, depending on the character of the concert, of varying shape and size. The system was designed specifically for the concert presentation ofmusique-concrète-based works but with the added enhancement of sound spatialisation. Loudspeakers are placed both on stage and at positions throughout the performance space[44] and a mixing console is used to manipulate the placement of acousmatic material across the speaker array, using aperformative technique known assound diffusion.[45] Bayle has commented that the purpose of the Acousmonium is to "substitute a momentary classical disposition of sound making, which diffuses the sound from the circumference towards the centre of the hall, by a group of sound projectors which form an 'orchestration' of the acoustic image".[46]
As of 2010, the Acousmonium was still performing, with 64 speakers, 35 amplifiers, and 2 consoles.[43]
Although Schaeffer's work aimed to defamiliarize the used sounds, other composers favoured the familiarity of source material by using snippets of music or speech taken from popular entertainment and mass media, with the ethic that "truly contemporary art should reflect not just nature or the industrial-urban environment but the mediascape in which humans increasingly dwelled", according to writerSimon Reynolds. Composers such asJames Tenney andArne Mellnäs created pieces in the 1960s that recontextualised the music ofElvis Presley and the singer's own voice, respectively, while later in the decade, Bernard Parmegiani created the piecesPop'electric andDu pop a l'ane, which used fragments of musical genres such aseasy listening,dixieland,classical music andprogressive rock.[47] Reynolds writes that this approach continued in the later work of musiciansMatmos, whoseA Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure (2001) was created with the sounds ofcosmetic surgery, and the "pop-collage" work ofJohn Oswald, who referred to the approach as 'plunderphonics'. Oswald'sPlexure (1993) was created using recognisable elements of rock and pop music from 1982 to 1992.[47]
In the 1960s, as popular music began to increase in cultural importance and question its role as commercial entertainment, many popular musicians began taking influence from the post-war avant-garde, includingthe Beatles, who incorporated techniques such as tape loops, speed manipulation, and reverse playback in their song "Tomorrow Never Knows" (1966).[48] Bernard Gendron describes the Beatles'musique concrète experimentation as helping popularise avant-garde art in the era, alongsideJimi Hendrix's use ofnoise andfeedback,Bob Dylan's surreal lyricism andFrank Zappa's "ironic detachment".[49] InThe Wire,Edwin Pouncey wrote that the 1960s represented the height of confluence between rock and academic music, noting that composers likeLuciano Berio and Pierre Henry found likeness in the "distorting-mirror" sound ofpsychedelic rock, and thatconcrète's contrasting tones and timbres were suited to the effects ofpsychedelic drugs.[50]
Following the Beatles' example, many groups incorporatedfound sounds into otherwise typical pop songs for psychedelic effect, resulting in "pop and rock musique concrète flirtations"; examples includethe Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City" (1966),Love's "7 and 7 Is" (1967) andThe Box Tops' "The Letter" (1967).[50] Popular musicians more versed in modern classical and experimental music utilised elements of musique concrète more maturely, including Zappa andthe Mothers of Invention on pieces like theEdgard Varèse tribute "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet" (1966), "The Chrome Planted Megaphone of Destiny" andLumpy Gravy (both 1968), andJefferson Airplane's "Would You Like a Snack?" (1968), while theGrateful Dead's albumAnthem of the Sun (1968), which featured Berio studentPhil Lesh on bass, features musique concrète passages that Pouncey compared to Varèse'sDeserts and the "keyboard deconstructions" of John Cage andConlon Nancarrow.[50] The Beatles continued their use of concrète on songs such as "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" and "I Am the Walrus" (all 1967), before the approach climaxed with the pure musique concrète piece "Revolution 9" (1968); afterwards,John Lennon, alongside wife andFluxus artistYoko Ono, continued the approach on their solo worksTwo Virgins (1968) andLife with the Lions (1969).[50]
The musique concrète elements present onPink Floyd's best-selling albumThe Dark Side of the Moon (1973), including the cash register sounds on "Money", have been cited as notable examples of the practice's influence on popular music.[51][52] Also in 1973, German bandFaust releasedThe Faust Tapes; priced in the United Kingdom at 49 pence, the album was described by writer Chris Jones as "a contender for the most widely heard piece of musique concrete" after "Revolution 9".[53] Another German group,Kraftwerk, achieved a surprise hit in 1975 with "Autobahn", which contained a "sampled collage of revving engines, horns and traffic noise". Stephen Dalton ofThe Times wrote: "This droll blend of accessible pop and avant-garde musique concrete propelled Kraftwerk across America for three months".[54] Steve Taylor writes thatindustrial groupsThrobbing Gristle andCabaret Voltaire continued the concrète tradition with collages constructed with tape manipulation and loops,[55] while Ian Inglis creditsBrian Eno for introducing new sensibilities "about what could be in included in the canon of popular music", citing his 1970sambient work and the musique concrete collages onMy Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981), which combines tape samples with synthesised sounds.[56]
With the emergence ofhip hop music in the 1980s,deejays such asGrandmaster Flash utitlisedturnables to "[montage] in real time" with portions of rock,R&B anddisco records, in order to creategroove-based music with percussivescratching; this provided a parallel breakthrough to collage artistChristian Marclay's use of vinyl records as a "noise-generating medium" in his own work.[47] Reynolds wrote: "Assampling technology grew more affordable, DJs-turned-producers likeEric B. developed hip-hop into a studio-based art. Although there was no direct line traceable between the two Pierres andMarley Marl, it was as ifmusique concrète went truant from the academy and became street music, the soundtrack to block parties and driving."[47] He described this era of hip hop as "the most vibrant and flourishing descendant – albeit an indirect one – ofmusique concrète".[47]Chicago Reader's J. Niimi writes that whenPublic Enemy producersthe Bomb Squad "unwittingly revisited" the concept of musique concrète with their sample-based music, they proved that the technique "worked great as pop".[57]
In 1989, John Diliberto ofMusic Technology described the groupArt of Noise as having both digitised and synthesised musique concrète and "locked it into a crunching groove and turned it into dance music for the '80s". He wrote that while Schaeffer and Henry used tapes in their work, Art of Noise "usesFairlight CMIs andAkai S1000 samplers and the skyscrapers ofmultitrack recording to create their updated sound".[58] As described byWill Hodgkinson, Art of Noise brought classical and avant-garde sounds into pop by "[aiming] to emulate the musique concrète composers of the 1950s" via Fairlight samplers instead of tape.[59] In a piece forPitchfork, musicians Matmos noted the use of musique concrète in later popular music, including the crying baby effects inAaliyah's "Are You That Somebody?" (1998) orMissy Elliott's "backwards chorus", while noting that the aesthetic was arguably built upon by works including Art of Noise's "Close (to the Edit)" (1984),Meat Beat Manifesto'sStorm the Studio (1989) and the work of Public Enemy,Negativland andPeople Like Us, among other examples.[60]Chuck Eddy writes that, by 1991,heavy metal bands began absorbing a wealth of esoteric outside inspirations, citing the "found-sound jackhammer-and-national-anthem musique concrète" onSlaughter's "Up All Night" (1990) as a key example.[61]
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