How were you introduced to electronic music?

I'm afraid I'll have to be boring and say that my route into electronic music was via the mighty BoC. I heard ROYGBIV and was instantly taken by it, and it was the gateway into the music that I now listen to.

I was mostly listening to hip-hop beforehand, but it was my friend who was heavily into the electronic music scene that put a mix tape together for me and the above track was the first thing on it.

  On 10/23/2012 at 2:50 PM, Higgins VanHiggins said:

I'm afraid I'll have to be boring and say that my route into electronic music was via the mighty BoC. I heard ROYGBIV and was instantly taken by it, and it was the gateway into the music that I now listen to.

 

I was mostly listening to hip-hop beforehand, but it was my friend who was heavily into the electronic music scene that put a mix tape together for me and the above track was the first thing on it.

That's a pretty good place to start. You could have had to have suffered through years of trance music searching for something better like some of us! lol

jk I enjoyed my musical journey. can't help but look back on some of it with a smirk though

I got into Hardcore/Rave stuff when I was teenager. I used to sit by my stereo on a friday night with my finger by the record button listening to Pete Tong play all this quality stuff. First heard Orbital and FSOL this way as well.

[youtubehd]6qnY5wyXOoY[/youtubehd]

I heard NIN - Kinda I Want To on the radio and was really attracted to the production, so my friend got me The Downward Spiral for my brithday. That lead to me seeking out industrial music, most of which i thought was too simplistic or ruined by the vocals, but I was impressed by some Skinny Puppy, some Frontline Assembly, some Haujobb, some Wumpscut... but I wanted to hear something more complex and forward pushing in electronic music because it seemed like there was so much room for exploration there. I eventually picked up Druqs, since the remixes he did for NIN were pretty sweet and kept hearing him name dropped as someone doing incredible things with electronic music. I didn't really like the production at first but it intrigued me because it was unlike anything else I'd heard. Though I didn't fall in love with it immediately, I was always compelled to listen to it again and again just because there was so much there, until it became one of my favorite albums. Then I picked up Autechre - Confield and had my mind blown wide open upon my first listening. It was magic from the first sound to the last, and so far removed from anything else I'd heard. Those would be the key defining electronic music moments for me.

I'm surprised you all have such distinct memories. My answer would have to be that I don't know, electronic music was always just sort of there, and I was always sort of into all genres of music. I mean, I had a phase where I was more of a rock band kid but then I also remember popular stuff like 2 Unlimited, Dr. Alban and Leila K being number one and as a primary school kid I ate it up. And already before that, most 80s pop—good or bad—was pretty electronic in nature, there was the b-boying craze, new beat et cetera. Then there was MTV that would play those weird mix videos at night where I didn't have a clue who the artists were (Club Zone? Chillout Zone? X-Mix? I forget. It was back in the days when all MTV ever played was either music or ads for MTV itself).

Just saying if anything made me who I am in terms of musical tastes it was this whole mess and not some other kid handing me one particular album or whatever.

I have been thinking about it and I'm pretty sure in was with Wipeout, the Playstation game.

This amazing track pretty much informed my electronic sensibilities 30 odd years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFm2-eXmfWg

Grooverider - The Prototype Years :)

Extacy.

I was in a Cauldron. Alone. Naked. Many Potions of vile Stuffs were descending from pon high. Various rotten Herbs, Roots, Mandrakes, Oils, Feral Things, Yew Berries, Wolfsbane, and even a Bull Wallet were to violate my Mortal Envelope then. I cried out for help but no answer was received. I gnawed, gnashed, pissed and shat. Forever, it seemed. A boiling Liquid did emerge below my Feet, scouring my Flesh until I could cry out no more since my Eyes became Waxy Discharges and naught else. Just at that moment I heard a Lush Track, "Second Bad Vibert" and I hopped the fuck out of that shit and have been chill as fuck ever since.

oh shit woah alcofribas your earth shattering verbiage unlocked repressed memories of mine, that is actually exactly how i came to love eclectronick musak as well, small world really

It was 1999 after listening to FFWD and FSLOl for a times.

I was sat at computer looking for Fripp abient musics when napster rings.

'afx_twins_xtal_ambient_chill_like fripp_fsol_rad.bigtitty,mp3 is download'

'no'

  On 10/24/2012 at 1:49 AM, Salvatorin said:

oh shit woah alcofribas your earth shattering verbiage unlocked repressed memories of mine, that is actually exactly how i came to love eclectronick musak as well, small world really

I remember you. This WAS in Alaska.

also lol baph

  On 10/23/2012 at 9:32 PM, Wyern said:

I have been thinking about it and I'm pretty sure in was with Wipeout, the Playstation game.

wipeout fusion you mean? i used to play the FUCK out of that game.

The first wipeout game had a good sndtrk too.

I feel like growing up in the 80s, there was a lot more "electronic music" all over the place. In advertising, cartoons, video games, MTV, etc.

Pop music had a lot more wicked synths and drum machines.

I remember really being into instrumental tracks that I heard on the radio that contained samples.

Particularly this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGPhUr-T6UM

A few years later, I feel like MTV blew up with a bunch of instrumental, electronic tracks that weren't by Art Of Noise.

... like this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIXqmt0zw3Y

Also, I grew up near Chicago and on the weekends, there were house DJs like Bad Boy Bill mixing live on B96 fm all of the time.

I remember in middle school, "Houser" was an actual self descriptor that was common among 12 and 13 year-olds, almost like calling yourself a Headbanger or a Dead Head.

Through NIN, I got into industrial music like Pigface, KMFDM, Coil, Skinny Puppy, MLWTTKK and the like. Again, in Chicago, there was a bigger industrial scene than most other places.

Shortly after, I got into Moby's early stuff, Warp's first Artificial Intelligence comp, Aphex Twin, The Orb, The Prodigy, FSOL, etc.

From there, I got into Jungle and after going to raves in Chicago, learned a lot about the UK drum and bass scene through checking out mixtapes.

  On 10/23/2012 at 10:39 PM, ravedamage said:

This amazing track pretty much informed my electronic sensibilities 30 odd years ago:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFm2-eXmfWg

 

Two different but equally hot potatoes!

like chips.... and..... crinkle-cut chips

Over afternoon tea, by a bearded gentleman.

  On 10/23/2012 at 9:15 PM, manmower said:

Then there was MTV that would play those weird mix videos at night where I didn't have a clue who the artists were (Club Zone? Chillout Zone? X-Mix? I forget. It was back in the days when all MTV ever played was either music or ads for MTV itself).

MTV had at least Chill Out Zone. That's where I heard Aphex Twin and Autechre for the first time. Some guy's been hosting a site about the show. It looks absolutely horrible and will burn your eyes but it's pretty informative since it has the playlists. You can see for example that the first video they played was Aphex's On, followed by the likes of 808 State, Dead Can Dance, FSOL and Orbital.

Yeah A&B Sound!!! I miss going to record stores so much! Was such a good feeling...

Before I was really familiar with AFX or Bjork, I had downloaded Bjork's - Vespertine, and the version I downloaded had a track labelled Sun In My Mouth, but was actually Come To Daddy (Little Lord Faulteroy Mix). I remember thinking "This album is sweet, but this Sun In My Mouth track is fucking incredible!"

Also around the same time I heard a Drum n Bass remix of a nu-metal band Mudvayne, which was basically just an amen break over the main guitar riff... but it sounded so fresh. It was like the american frontier for my ears and brain.

These..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb2jDNZ5JuQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6yP5mYXGGk&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LyQPbAUuY8

  On 10/24/2012 at 9:03 AM, mokz said:

  On 10/23/2012 at 9:15 PM, manmower said:

Then there was MTV that would play those weird mix videos at night where I didn't have a clue who the artists were (Club Zone? Chillout Zone? X-Mix? I forget. It was back in the days when all MTV ever played was either music or ads for MTV itself).

 

MTV had at least Chill Out Zone. That's where I heard Aphex Twin and Autechre for the first time. Some guy's been hosting a site about the show. It looks absolutely horrible and will burn your eyes but it's pretty informative since it has the playlists. You can see for example that the first video they played was Aphex's On, followed by the likes of 808 State, Dead Can Dance, FSOL and Orbital.

Aahh Chill Out Zone, that was awesome! MTV was so good back in the day. If only they still played music.

I used to play a lot of Team Fortress and I asked some guy in my clan what music he was into, he mentioned Aphex Twin, I loved it and looked around for similar stuff then stumbled onto this site when it actually had content and discovered the rest. As if my awkward life wasn't bad enough by being in a TF clan, I then had to start listening to this bollocks.