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| New Sounds | |
|---|---|
| Name | New Sounds |
| Type | Musical movement/genre |
| Origin | 20th century |
| Notable artists | John Cage, Miles Davis, Igor Stravinsky, Steve Reich, Sun Ra, Brian Eno, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez, Philip Glass |
| Notable works | 4'33", Kind of Blue, The Rite of Spring, Music for 18 Musicians |
| Cultural origins | New York City, Paris, Berlin, London |
New Sounds is a term applied to a broad set of musical experiments and movements in the 20th and 21st centuries that challenged established practices in classical music, jazz, electronic music, and popular music. It describes innovations by composers, performers, producers, ensembles, and institutions that reshaped timbre, form, rhythm, and production. The label encompasses work associated with avant-garde composers, modernist orchestras, experimental jazz collectives, electronic pioneers, and crossover collaborations.
The origin narrative links early modernists such as Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern with later figures including John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgard Varèse, Olivier Messiaen, and György Ligeti. Movements associated with the term include serialism advocates around Darmstadt School, American experimentalism centered in New York City with institutions like Columbia University and ensembles such as The New York Philharmonic championing premieres. Influences reached from Bebop innovators like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie to Free Jazz proponents including Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, and from electronic studios such as WDR Studio and BBC Radiophonic Workshop to commercial laboratories like Bell Labs and EMS Stockholm.
Stylistically, practitioners drew on atonality from Arnold Schoenberg, rhythmic innovation from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, minimalism from Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and Terry Riley, timbral exploration from Edgard Varèse and Harry Partch, and improvisational frameworks linked to John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. Electronic textures borrowed techniques from Pierre Schaeffer's musique concrète at Groupe de Recherches Musicales, Kraftwerk's synthesis culture, and studio practices at Motown Records and Sun Records. Cross-cultural influences include collaborations with artists connected to Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Fela Kuti, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and ensembles like The Kronos Quartet.
Defining recordings include 4'33" by John Cage, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich, Gesang der Jünglinge by Karlheinz Stockhausen, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady by Charles Mingus, Switched-On Bach by Wendy Carlos, and landmark releases from Brian Eno such as Another Green World. Ensembles and artists central to the narrative include Sun Ra Arkestra, Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Velvet Underground, Talking Heads, Aphex Twin, Sonic Youth, John Zorn, Arvo Pärt, Helmut Lachenmann, and Meredith Monk.
Reception ranged from scandalized responses to the premiere of The Rite of Spring at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées to critical reappraisal in publications like Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Wire. Institutions such as Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Lincoln Center, Tate Modern, and festivals like Donaueschingen Festival, WOMAD, Woodstock, Montreux Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, and Glastonbury Festival provided platforms. Critics and scholars at Juilliard School, Royal College of Music, University of California, Berkeley, Yale School of Music, and Princeton University produced research that linked innovations to sociopolitical moments including responses to World War I, World War II, Cold War cultural policies, and postcolonial dialogues exemplified in programming at Smithsonian Folkways.
Technological advances from magnetic tape development at RCA and EMI to synthesizers like the Moog synthesizer, ARP 2600, Fairlight CMI, and instruments from Yamaha and Roland transformed timbre. Studio pioneers at Sun Studios, Abbey Road Studios, Motown's Hitsville USA, and Trident Studios experimented with multitrack recording, tape splice edits, phasing techniques from Steve Reich, and sampling methods later codified by producers associated with Hip hop collectives like Public Enemy and The Bomb Squad. Research labs including Bell Labs and academic centers like IRCAM advanced digital signal processing, granular synthesis, and algorithmic composition used by artists such as Iannis Xenakis and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Key labels promoting new work included Columbia Records, ECM Records, Island Records, Mute Records, Nonesuch Records, Blue Note Records, Factory Records, Warp Records, Touch, and Sub Pop. Festivals and venues such as Tanglewood, Carnegie Hall, The Hollywood Bowl, The Barbican, MoMA PS1, South by Southwest, and SXSW provided discovery channels. Distribution evolved from vinyl pressings at Capitol Records to cassette culture promoted by DIY networks, to digital platforms including Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music that reshaped access and monetization.
Legacy threads run through contemporary artists and institutions from Björk and Radiohead to ensembles at Bang on a Can and contemporary festivals such as Pitchfork Music Festival. Academic programs at Berklee College of Music, Columbia University, and Royal Conservatory of The Hague continue to train composers and producers who integrate machine learning research from Google DeepMind and MIT Media Lab into composition. Current intersections span collaborations with NPR Music, BBC Radio 3, Tiny Desk Concerts, and multimedia projects at TED and SXSW that maintain the experimental impulse in new forms.
Category:Music genres