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Technology itself has been a
driving factor in the music industry. Crude technology produced the first acoustic guitars, and the calculus-based geometry and number sequences that allow it to sound good, and be played relatively easily. Later, as the need for more volume became an issue, electricity was merged with these instruments to make the electric guitar. A new era of music was created. Later, musicians realized that electricity could not just amplify their guitar's sound, but could change the sound itself. "I Feel Fine" was the first song to make use of feedback, which involved feeding a guitar signal into the amplifier repeatedly, building the sound louder with each cycle. Songwriters began to incorporate sounds that were commonly frowned upon in the audio world, such as distortion and echo, into their works in an ongoing pursuit to expand the tone of their music. The band Boston built effects that specifically and systematically altered the sounds that came from their instruments, this in turn led to alternative music, grudge, and in the end, "heavy metal" a term rooted in the song "Born To Be Wild." However, bands began to realize that electronic effects could only modify a guitar's sound so much. They began to experiment with other instruments such as electric harmonicas, electric organs, pianos, and they even stretched out so far as to use a sitar, as The Rolling Stones did in "Paint it Black." |