Failed Histories of Electronic Music

What is it about?

'Failed Histories of Electronic Music' gives accounts of historical precedents that have seldom received attention in electronic music histories: the electro-musical entertainments of Johann Baptist Schalkenbach, the first ever UK demonstration of live electronic sound in 1895, and the wireless oscillation outrages of the 1920s and 30s. The latter two episodes have never been discussed in any music or technology discourses ever before. Study of these narratives gives clues as to why they languished in complete obscurity when electronic music histories came to be written in the 20th and 21st centuries. The author's research and studies (most of which has been previously self-published in the face of wider indifference) progressed through channels distinct from those of high-academia - namely through bin-diving, house clearances, car boot sales, auction-houses and the second-hand book trade. Each of the aforementioned failed histories formed the cores of the author's failed PhD funding applications over the years, leading to the theorisation of 'failed histories' - the fact that certain things do not culturally adhere in certain zeitgeists - and the analogisation of these with failed subharmonics in dynamic systems.

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Why is it important?

'Failed Histories of Electronic Music' brings to light aspects of electronic music history that have never been discussed before.