What is Electronic music?
'''Electronic music''' is [[music]] which is made with electronic equipment such as [[synthesizer]]s or [[computer]]s. Sometimes electronic music artists create special sounds using [[tape recorder]]s too. After [[World War II]], when tape recorders had been invented and were becoming popular, [[composer]]s started to use them to make music. The tape recorder was needed for the performance. Composers used them to combine lots of different sounds. Sometimes it was music played on ordinary (acoustic) instruments which was then changed in some way by the tape recorder. Sometimes they took sounds from everyday life such as the sound of [[water]], [[traffic]] noise or [[bird song]]. All these noises were put together in the way the composer wanted by using the tape recorder. Tapes of sounds were often cut into pieces, then the pieces were 'spliced' – put back together in a different order. The results were often very interesting, but there were [[problem]]s. Some people asked: “Is it music?” Others thought it was boring to just look at a tape recorder during a [[concert]] instead of being able to watch live [[musician]]s play. Composers in [[Paris]] were experimenting with electronic music in the 1940s. They called it “Musique concrète” because they used natural, concrete sounds. (“Concrete” in this sense meant the opposite of “abstract” music which was written down for performance). The sounds were played back at different speeds, combined in lots of ways, played backwards or played continuously (repeated in a 'loop'), or played into a mixer and re-recorded onto another tape recorder. The sounds could be filtered. Effects such as [[vibrato]] or echo could be added. Sometimes composers used [[synthesizers]] which were machines that could make electronic music in real time. They sounded more like normal instruments than the sound effects on a tape recorder. Computers have often been used for composing electronic music. ==Classical music== Composers who have used these ways of making music include [[John