History of the Boombox

"Before iPods (or even CDs) there were boomboxes. It's been 20 years since they disappeared from the streets, but the nostalgia they evoke is about more than stereo equipment. We've changed the way we listen to music — and to each other. Watch a video about the history of the boombox."

History of the Boombox

History of House Music

UK's Channel 4 released this three-part documentary called "Pump Up The Volume" some years back. Features interviews with Paul Oakenfold, Jamie Principle, Vince Lawrence, Joe Smooth and many residents of some of the scene's most influential clubs, such as the Warehouse in Chicago.

Part I


Part II


Part III


Jamie Principle & Frankie Knuckles - Your Love (1985)


Oldschool classic featured in the film. Sounds like a contemporary track until the vocals kick in and give away that it's from the 80s.

Computer Music in 1985

Found this neat clip from mid-80's BBC tech show Micro Live. The presenter uses what looks like an 80's version of Fruity Loops to make a beat on a Sinclair Spectrum. He then has another guy demonstrate another music system for the C64. To top it off, they introduce the freshly developed concept of MIDI.

Wawawappwapp

Here's a cool short bbc documentary about the origins of dubstep and what makes it so unique. Features interviews with some of the scenes big names, like Kode 9 and Skream. The clip was made around the time the genre became hugely popular in the UK and has some of its solid insiders explaining the phenomenon behind it.



A few classics mentioned in the vid:

Skream - 0800 Dub



Skream - Midnight Request Line

right click to download

Kode 9 & Spaceape - Nine Samurai

Delia Derbyshire

The forgotten genius. Born in Coventry, England, in 1937, this is the lady responsible for the awesomely magical theme song of famous 60's-80's TV show, Dr. Who. She has had exploratory sessions with Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd and Yoko Ono, her songs have been covered tons of times and she's been credited and mentioned by many big artists, including Aphex Twin and The Chemical Brothers. It is safe to say that this misses is one of the true pioneers of electronic music.

Before joining the BBC in 1960, Derbyshire was rejected by Decca Records due to their policy of not hiring women. The guy who turned her down also rejected The Beatles. She became part of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the early 60's. After more than 10 years of successfully producing and recording countless songs, tv themes and sound effects, she stopped recording music and left the BBC in '73 - apparently because she was worried about the future of electronic music, due to what was being released at the time. She returned for some collaborations with Sonic Boom (who btw is coming to Boston) in the late 90's, before passing away while working on an album in 2001.

After she died, people discovered hundreds of unreleased recordings in her attic that she had made over the last 35 years. Considering alot of them were created in the 60's, some really were quite a while ahead of their time. One of them kind of sounds like Bjork to me.
Check out this article with some of those tracks.


Here's a clip of her in action.


I'll leave you with a cool little documentary about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. You'll be able to hear what inspired Aphex Twin with much of his music.