2016/12/31 by Alexander C. Harden · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · Psychology · #Music History and Culture #Music Technology and Sound Studies #Musicology and Musical Analysis #Electronic music #Agency (philosophy) #Context (archaeology) #Performative utterance #Period (music) #Dream #Popular music #Space (punctuation) #Style (visual arts) #Amateur #Sociology #History #Visual arts #Media studies #Aesthetics #Art #Social science #Psychology #Archaeology #Computer science
paper · pdf · doi:10.5429/2079-3871(2016)v6i2.9en
openalex publication_date 2016/12/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/06
The electrification of music making in West Germany during the 1970s led to what is now often recognized as one of the most important developments in popular electronic music. In this article, the emergence of kosmische musik (“cosmic music”), a style of electronic music developed during the early 1970s, is contextualized within the social climate of West Germany and post-war attraction to emerging electronic music technologies. Beginning from accounts of the period, which associate kosmische musik with themes of space and otherworldliness, matters of production are positioned as a form of aesthetic demarcation that was encouraged by the technological and social context of West Germany. The approaches to acoustical space, sonic design, and performative agency are then explored in an analysis of Tangerine Dream’s “Phaedra”.