TOP 20 Inventions that CHANGED Music
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- čas přidán 11. 04. 2021
- In this episode I countdown the TOP 20 INVENTIONS THAT CHANGED MUSIC.
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I'm honestly surprised the microphone wasn't even on the list, I expected it to be top 3. Not only do you not have over half this list without the microphone, it absolutely revolutionized singing. Before the microphone, opera singers were trained in bel canto, the one specific technique that allowed them to project their voice over the orchestra to a concert hall without amplification. With the invention of the microphone, contemporary vocal styles could be recorded and performed, spawning literal hundreds of genres and styles just from this alone. The microphone enabled live gigs for larger crowds of people for genres other than classical music. Microphones allowed you to record music, opened up millions of creative doors, enabled sharing of music and immortalizing artists better than even musical notation can (you have bach's notation, but you don't know the nuances he envisioned, you don't know how he played it, but you will always know how bohemian rhapsody is supposed to sound like because you have the original recording of the artist as a reference). AND it enabled music production/mixing/recording as a field. All its science stems from the invention of the microphone.
Basically, I'd argue can potentially be the #1 invention, but musical notation is also a pretty good point. Still, microphone is definitely worthy of being on here. And as others have pointed out, speakers are the other end of it, so just as important
Very well articulated, Sir!
I think you'd really enjoy Tantacrul's video on Reification.
That's an excellent point. Not just microphones, but electronics in general completely open up new ways to use dynamics.
I agree with this statement.
I was waiting for this one, and the closer it got to #1 the more I thought it would be.
You forgot the PENCIL (mid-1800s). With a standard HB wood pencil, you could repair a cassette tape when the tape looped outside of the casing. :D
I love it! and wonder how many have no idea what you talking about
Ballpoint pen was better as could be gently wedged for smooth reeling.
@@rogerpattube A Bic pen!
HB pencils work to lubricate your nuts too, the one on the neck
above the first fret on your guitar, not the ones chafing off their epidermis outrageously in those wetsuit-tight 3-sizes-too-small black Levis..! y'know? Peace, respect & be nice to ya missus!
@@romelovesdan Doubled as a spit wad shooter!
The ability to turn sound waves into electrical waves by the microphone allowed for amplification and enabled all recording to take place. I loved your list and enjoyed having this topic on your show! But, the microphone is epic in the reproduction of music!
I was expecting the microphone to be number one on the list.
Interesting list guys. I suggest another item that is fundamental to music since the early 20th Century. The generation and availability of electricity. :)
That is the most important thing is Rock music. No electricity No Concert.
Outstanding.. very good point. Electricity was a novelty until the pursuit of the electric lightbulb,which changed the world as well. Understanding electricity included so many sciences..Including transmitting signals across a wire,such as the telegraph ect.
The microphone and the speaker. Completely changed live music and made recording possible.
I agree they should be on the list, they aren’t strictly speaking necessary for recording. I believe the earliest phonographs just use a big horn attached to the needle to both carve into the wax and to play back. It can be done completely mechanically without any electrical signal.
@@DavidLC11 but they are required for half of the other things on this list. Electric guitars and daws, especially.
Wow, this is the obvious stuff that gets missed. I believe that even without notation and duplication of sheet music way back when we’d still have good tunes now...but not without speaks and mics
Speakers and mics were essentially outgrowths of the phonograph. That’s were it all started. And without vacuum tube driven amplifiers would have been useless.
Something funny: the (dynamic) mic and speaker are the same schematic, have very similar construction. In a pinch, you can hack one to be the other.
These are all very nice, but the most important invention was the volume knob that could go to 11.
Not to mention the cow bell.
It was Number 0.
I agree, Sir - but perhaps even more important was the invention of the mute button
@@brianpickrell2477 A top xx list that goes to 0. Nice.
That, and the SUSTAIN!!!
I know you mentioned keyboards, but the invention of the synthesizer was an absolute game changer. The Mellotron was just a gap-filling extension of that technology, and a very important one, but the synthesizer deserves its own mention.
The earliest known organ was the hydraulis of the 3rd century bce, a rudimentary Greek invention, with the wind regulated by water pressure. The first recorded appearance of an exclusively bellow-fed organ, however, was not until almost 400 years later.
@@CherieO an organ is not a synthesizer though. This is a common misconception. A synthesizer will literally take a wave of sound and craft sounds by modifying that wave of sound. It doesn’t use air or water. It uses vibration itself.
Bob Moog would be turning in his grave! Synths / drum machines fundamentally changed the landscape on how music is made
Synthesizer was a conjuntion of creations made from, perhaps, 1928 when the Theremin was invented. The word Synthesizer was proposed by Pierre Schaeffer in 1964.
I'm so glad you guys said Music Notation was #1. In a way you could say that was the very first means of "recording music".
Yes, I guess when songs were spreading just from person to person, the melody probably changed on the way...
The microphone, turning sound into signal. Other than that, brilliant list.
The phonograph may be close since it did utilize the “phone” to capture sound.
No microphone, no crooning Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole or Frank Sinatra
@@MyRackley Yes! Here's a fun little experiment for the uninitiated who loved to record their records onto cassettes back in the day: Set up your recorder (ProTools or whatever you use), put a record on the platter, set the needle at the end and let it run into the "dead wax", the "run out groove". Now, with your head a foot or two from the cartridge, start talking… and then talk louder and louder until eventually you are yelling. Stop recording. Go back and listen to it… what do you hear?
That's why I never have the amp / speakers playing when I digitize my old vinyl: acoustic feedback.
Great comment(s)↑↑↑
@@TimSamoff phone is from φωνη/fo-nee in Greek meaning voice
So in this context phone=sound
Do a Top 20 on "Mistakes left in the mix"
That will be really sick
Good one!
Paul cursing on Let it Be is one of my favorites
Edit: I meant Hey Jude. My bad
Somebody knocking the studio door before van halen’s solo on beat it is my favorite one
@@redgamer821 on hey jude?
Totally agree, just might add that I believe the first time music was heard without the actual players being there was not by gramophone records but by piano rolls, that's what made Scott Joplin famous and ragtime kinda the first mass-appeal popular music.
I heard a piano roll of George Gershwin playing solo piano for Rhapsody in Blue. They played it slow to make sure only 10 fingers were there. It was a demo of a program that converted piano rolls to MIDI files on a C64
I’m shocked that the synthesizer wasn’t on this list somewhere. It’s everywhere now. It absolutely changed music forever. Yes, the keyboard was incredibly important. Where would we be without the piano? And, of course, the keyboard is the most common way to interface with a synthesizer. But, the synthesizer had an impact on music that just cannot be underestimated. Music sampling technology should be on that list as well. The prevalence of drum machines and keyboards that can replicate the sound of acoustic instruments is everywhere.
I agree, but it's actually a gradual invention. Experiments happened soon after electronic computers were invented, and arguably before, and gradually got better with time as electronics got cheaper and faster. But the Moog synthesizer is what really made synthesis take off, largely by making such accessible outside of a wire-filled lab: it was a desk-sized box musicians could purchase. I would also add the organ to Rick's list, invented by ancient Greeks. Speaking of Greeks, Pythagorean tuning ratios perhaps also should be included, as they are foundation of modern chords. I'd like to see Rick revisit the subject.
Agree! While neither was the "original inventor", Bob Moog's work was instrumental, and the Fairlight CMI was a key player in moving to digital synthesis.
They included the keyboard” which, kind of, includes the synthesizer, buy I know what you mean.
I would add synthesizer and probably the most important turning point in music was founding out that human being can make a rhythm, so any percussions made of stone, wood etc. are very important.
My thoughts, precisely. :)
TB303, mini moog, Korg M1 and an 808/909. 40 years on and we are still using them in dance music
This was pretty much the exact comment I was about to leave
Yeah. I'm a metalhead but the 808 and similar has to be in there. They changed the game.
Can't believe they left out the Moog
I was waiting for you to say microphone was #1 👀
Me too. Felt good thinking I had #1 halfway through and turns out it’s not on the list
@@danwhitehurst9592 Yeah, me too. I figured that was number one. I mean, you wouldn't have any recordings without microphones, so...
Microphone is excellent. No recordings without microphone. What about amplified music, which includes electric guitar and stage sound systems.
Me too!
Stupid fun fact: Headphones and microphones share a common denominator. Both headphones and microphones contain a diaphragm. Both devices trade in vibrations, it's just that headphones vibrate the diaphragm to create sound while microphones monitor vibrations from sound in order to record it.
How to turn headphones into a microphone - Instead of plugging the headphones into the headphone jack of your computer, plug it into the microphone jack. Then you just simply hold your headphones up to your mouth and speak into it. The sound quality produced from the headphones is not very good, but it works.
It's a great list - very thought provoking! Watching this made me think of an old PBS show called "Connections" (1978) - a sort of history of science and technology focusing on how the intertwining of different and disparate technologies brought us to the contemporary world we live, in good and bad ways. That being said, I would have gathered the several types of recording media (wax cylinder, tape, record, CD, etc.) into one category - technology that made it possible for people to listen to recordings. I might also add some of the hardware of used by musicians (amps, PA's, microphones, etc.) to literally broadcast sound. I would also put the transistor in the top ten of the list - it has revolutionized EVERYTHING, and been the basis for the several items in the list - the iPod, the personal computer, workstations, Napster; it could be grouped with the vacuum tube for doing the same jobs (amplification, switching, logic, etc.), but for doing them faster, cheaper, and on the head of a pin. And perhaps a nod to architecture, urbanism, and social organization in the form of the concert hall, the opera house, the community center, the dance hall - the physical place, and the idea of making a space within which people consciously listened to music, and thereby making music into a thing, a place, a destination both concretely and conceptually; and by extension the creation of the audience.
Amplification is what helped bring bass to live music, because without it we couldn't hear what the bass player was ever doing
@@plrndl You’re obviously bad at making assumptions
Your assumption that “we couldn’t hear what the bass player was doing” is not only patently incorrect, but also so lacking perspective that it’s laughable. Amplification certainly allowed different styles to emerge and for different roles for instruments to develop, but to claim bass could not be heard before is incorrect. As a double bass player, I can tell you definitively that you are wrong. Not to mention the organ, trombone, baritone, tuba, octabass, etc. there’s a reason there are many more violins than basses in an orchestra…
The microphone surely needs to be in there. Certainly more worthy of a place than effects pedals.
And the other end, the speaker.
In a way that's connected to the phonograph, which had to include both a microphone and speaker.
As the video advanced I thought that microphone was going to be the number one ! 😅 You couldn't have half of the things on this list if it weren't for the mic !
@@adrianmandado2892 I thought so too. The mic also changed the way people sang. Before the mic singers had to be trained, as opera singers were, to sing loud enough that their voices could carry over an orchestra. After the microphone singing styles could be much quieter and more intimate.
I just wrote the exact same thing how do you not have the microphone or the speaker?
Not to forget: the invention of the MP3 by the Fraunhofer Institut, which gave the music industry a lot of headache in the 90's and was the base for Napster and many other filesharing softwares, MP3-Players and so on. Also giving the opportunity to backup and transport all your music in very small (compressed) files.
Yep. Without this, there would have been no iPod or Napster. You can't mention the IPod and Napster without acknowledging the technology that those two developments took advantage of.
As far as I understand they started research in '82, it took some time until it worked. Tom's diner was released '87...
Is the Mp3 though a technology? Can one classify a codec as a technology?
@@nelsonc6173 The way compression was achieved is definitely a technology.
Indeed... the MP3 should definitely be in the list.
The electric bass! The foundation of popular music since the late 50s!
No more struggling to hear an upright in the mix, and the foundation of entire genres, like funk, where slap bass and 16th note grooves could be played at an audible level
Bass is a subset of guitar.
@@JustinLesamiz exactly what I was going to say
The transistor radio belongs on the list. It changed radio from a family group experience with family oriented music to a personal experience. It is partly a chicken and egg situation, but the teens were the ones to adopt the new tech of transistor radios, which meant the forward looking people such as Todd Storz and Gordon McLendon could develop the new sounds of Top 40 radio to meet the new audience. The more teen-oriented music, the more they bought transistors to listen to it. The more transistors sold, the more ears to listen to the new music so more was created (all driven, of course, by the teens now buying the radio advertised products.) Even Elvis could only reach a very small number of people in live concerts, but the number of teen girls listening to DJs playing his music late at night with the transistor hidden under their pillow was nigh infinite.
My grandmother loved to tell the story of when she got her first radio, that she heard The Beatles for the first time outside of bad TV concerts through TV's with shitty speakers. She describes it as if the world fell into some hysteria or mass elation, and electrical engineers such as my father already began to consider portable such devices. So you are correct, the transistor radio truly changed music forever by essentially creating the very foundation for what would later be called popular music.
It was number 2!
They were basically talking about the same thing with the Walkman. because the original Walkmans were radio's before they were cassette players. which basically were subsets of the original transistor radio's.
Radios existed in tube form very early on. It's the transistor that made portable radios practical. I owned a portable tube radio, but it wasn't practical. So, I think it's the transistor that should be on this list, because it enabled the widespread use of portable radios.
Agreed but it is an evolution of the radio, which was covered.
The modern drum set! As said by others, a combination of African drums, Asian cymbals, and European military snares, all playable by one person and their four limbs. Made all of modern music possible, - rock, jazz, metal, funk, blues, etc.
Just the drum
The influence of electronic drum machines today.
Which drum on the set is an inspiration from African drums? Toms are derived from chinese Toms, snares and bass drums from the millitary (so not just snares) and if we go deeper we can say that bass drums are inspired by middle eastern and Turkish cultures, since their predecessors were Davuls/Tupans. Not too sure about the origins of cymbals, but the China cymbal was derived from a Chinese Bo. If anything the drum set is a mixture of drums that range from Asia to the middle east/Asia minor (even the snare, since snares originated from tabors which, I believe, came to Europe from the middle east.
The drum kit is probably one of the key major inventions that influenced music, since all prior music required different specialised drummers for each drum, and now meant only one drummer can play all those drums, decreasing the need for so many people in one band.
Other revolutionary inventions IMHO, in no order whatsoever, are the Electric/Electro Acoustic pickup system, since it allowed many acoustic instruments, like guitars, to amplify without feedback, and use effects. Also the Sampler, since it allowed people to recycle sounds used in songs to make their own music.
Agreed. Drums became such important elements of popular music that whole genres emerged from changes in beats and tempo. Hip hop, jazz, rock, and R&B are probably the most obvious examples. Funk! Reggae! And once you get out of the northern hemisphere, percussion instruments are integral to cultures going back centuries, if not millennia.
Beat me to it! I think set drumming is one of the most overlooked musical inventions.
The invention of the kick-drum pedal by Edward 'Dee Dee' Chandler in 1894, followed by the high-hat, changed 'the drums' from being section to being one instrument played by a single musician using all four limbs.
Exactly. That's more important than the fuzz pedal.
yeh but ... drums pft we're talking music :P
You know what they call the guy that hangs out with three musicians?
Drummer.
How do you know when a drummer is outside your door?
He knocks out of time and does know when to come in......
Stuart Copeland did a great drum documentary not too long ago that featured Dee Dee Chandler’s kick pedal that paved the way for ‘one’ drummer playing a ‘drum kit’ that led to everything we know and love about drums and drumming today. Before Chandler, there were snare drummers, bass drummers, and cymbal players. Suddenly one person could do the job of 3. Maybe this was No.21 on a list of 20!
Thanks, I didn't know who was responsible of this. A capitalist, destroying jobs.
Do you know when the high-hat appeared ? It seems the cymbals were close to the floor before someone had the idea of putting them at reach.
This is a great post. I expected that it was going to feature things like “the hihat stand” and “electric pickup” but the important inventions in music as shared here is really the history of information recording and transmission. It makes me think that as soon as people needed to share information, they either used music to share the information or music was the information they wanted to share. Thank you for making this!
Weed is the most important thing in music 💩.
Just kidding. Love you guys, great video!
Without the invention of the microphone, we would not have heard anything Rick said in this video!
Wow, I would agree with you here.
How you guys think Edison recorded voice? Via Blue Yeti?🤣
And speaker to actually hear it.
You forgot to mention the van. Without it, no band would have ever got out of the garage. :)
Most under-rated Post !!!! I loaded up the Van so many times (so many times)
@@Andrew_M_Ward so..... many...........times.........
Yes. The "Van". What band didn't play "Gloria". However, as popular as "Gloria" or "Brown Eyed Girl" were, they didn't rank in the top 20. We Irish thank you, none-the-less.
Wait a minute... ooops!
Wrong "Van". Sorry... you can strike my comment... lol.
All kidding aside, your point is well taken!
Cats van bags
How would hippys get to music festivals without a VW van?
You guys are becoming important historians of music, particularly of modern music. A really excellent and thought provoking video, it must have been hard to know what to leave out.
Oh, the vacuum tube.
I'm old enough to remember when "CRT" meant "Cathode Ray Tube".
Most kids only know "YT" nowadays ;).
Couple of things: Musical notation in the western world dates back at least to the mid-800s, not to 1400. Modern notation dates back to about 1300, though the diamond-shaped noteheads of what's known as Trecento notation do look a bit different from the oval noteheads we use now.
There's one thing I teach as "the most important technological innovation in the history of music," and that's the magnetic transducer. This one component, basically just a coil of copper wire around a magnet, ends up being the basis for a bunch of the inventions mentioned, here, and a bunch of others: electric guitar pickups, microphones, speakers, the pickups in Hammond organs, Rhodes electric pianos and various other electronic keyboards, radio antennas for both broadcast and reception, tape heads, and record player cartridges. Basically, the transducer has been the foundation of most other technological advancements in music since its inception in the early '20s.
Maybe "speaker" alone should be somewhere before headphones, but I think this list is pretty accurate
@@africkinamerican I think that there are many things that largely contributed, and change not only music, but also everything else..I'm not shure where to draw the line, if we would count wire and electricity, we can continue with metalworking and maybe even weel/fire..I think it should be mostly specifically related to music/sound
Speaker/microphone are essentially the same device used in reverse of each other.
@@MyRackley LOL
totally agree with your number one selection! bravo! i was surprised that microphone wasn't on the list -- it's how we can capture all the glorious sounds that we then use with all the 20 other things you listed.
Very solid list. Nice seeing you two do some more videos together
Microphone needs to be an honorable mention, but definitely notation deserving #1!
Digital Audio also. I don’t know how you can say “midi”, which is an 8 bit control language - snd leave out digital audio. I’m guessing that this was overlooked due to the inclusion of the computer, but a computer ain’t the same thing as Linear PCM, for example. The list seems a bit convoluted.
Totally agree
Also the speaker
Agree
@@robertreynolds5663 I'd argue that digital audio went with the introduction of the CD since that is 16 bit red book audio format.
just for sake of argument 😉
You guys forgot the drum. The first instrument outside of the human-body. Uses acoustics and reverbration to communicate ideas over an incredible distance with remarkable volume. Establishes the idea of rhythm and tempo as the primary forces behind music. Almost anything can be used as a drum. Utilized in spiritual-rites, social-gatherings, ceremonies, warfare, enchantments, and leisure throughout the world.
Agreed. That instrument would likely go back to pre-recorded history.
@@apexerman1 It does. We have found evidence that prehistoric humans played drums
I assumed #1 was gonna be the drum when we got there.
If it were two drummers hosting this, it would have been #1 for sure and they would have skipped everything else 😁
The drum was the beginning of music. That and the human voice. So maybe the drum didn't change music because it was the absolute beginning of music.
Since you include the printing press, I was surprised you didn't include electricity or at least a reference to alternating current. Anyhow, great stuff as always, love your content and passion Rick!
I think electricity was more a discovery than an invention. Maybe the dynamo?
That was so much fun to watch, and I pretty much agree with all of your choices….great video
The microphone and the amplifier both need to be on the list. Yes, you mentioned amps when you listed tubes, but the amp separately in and of itself is as important as many of the other things that made the list. Hard to argue with most of your choices. Another great video, Rick!
The amp is partially mentioned (with vacuum tubes).
the tube is technically the signal amp. unless you are considering the speaker part. In that sense, the microphone and the speaker are basically the same things, and probably are worthy of an inclusion as a single entry. They could have probably lumped audio compression(mp3), napster, and the internet into one entry.
@@muddro420 yes, hence, why I said "you mentioned amps when you listed tubes".
Pythagoras and the relationship between tone and half tone, octaves, pitch... The base of ocidental music.
✌️
More of a discovery than an invention though..
@@bombercountyblues yeah ! But was amazing ! Using "basic" algebra and...
Badass ! 🤘🤘🤘
One could argue that it was an invention as prior to Pythagoras music was different, less mathematical
@@thumper8684 yeah geometry was his gig.
@@thumper8684 still amazing. YKWIM... This Dude was a fkng genius ! Like Erastótenes ! A stick... Paper... This minus that is X so... Earth circunference equal 48.000 km ! Mistaken by kilometers ! These guys blow my Mind.
When I think I have caught up on all of Rick's videos, I find one, a little gem, that I have not seen. This one was recorded over a year ago and I'm only now listening to it. This is awesome!
Thank you for having musical notation as number one. Having done research related to music history for a country that came to music notation incredibly late (China) it is maddening to try and nail down what a song should have sounded like even when they reference each other, but only include lyrics “to the tune of” and no notation. Notation really is the most important invention for the spread and history of music.
1) Drum (rhythm, tempo and dance), 2) Harp: invention of scales, chords, and self accompaniment
3) Whistle/flute: keys, scales 4) Guitar: Now one musician had it all: rhythm, chord progressions and melody
Somewhere down the list: Tempered scale-music theory The Synthesizer - analog and Digital
I was thinking that the list is about the most important inventions related to music except for instruments themselves. And barring instruments, then yeah, the list seems pretty much right. (And the keyboard doesn't count as an instrument since it's more like a general type of interface with a family of instruments and a way of standardizing notes and such.)
But as far as instruments go, it would be hard to argue against the idea that the drum is the most important instrument. It's the basis of rhythm and probably the earliest ever instrument. Even when cavemen were just banging on sticks and rocks, the principles of the drum were there.
Strings might be second, and whistles third, or vice versa -- it's hard to say.
Actually, I would have to think the whistle predates the string due to its simplicity, and would have been the next type of musical instrument created after drums, and it might have predated strings by quite a bit in most or all areas due to its simplicity. So the whistle would probably be the second most important type of instrument ever invented, since it would have been the first to enable a distinct melody to accompany a drum rhythm. (And I'm including later woodwinds and brass, as well as just blowing along reeds, in the overall class of "whistles.")
I read all the comments saying drums, I think of Australian Aboriginals singing dream time stories, held together by two carved knockers tapping a rhythm, 40k or 60k years old.
@@michaelayliffe7238 I'd classify that as "drums" or in the same family as drums, since it makes punchy, percussive sounds. Drums are an elaboration of that principle, just as flutes and such are elaborations of whistles, and the earliest string instruments may well have had their origins in bows used for shooting arrows, when people noticed that a taut string can make a resonating sound when plucked or rubbed.
Yes. The invention of Drum kit is very important. In every nation, every culture, we had drums. It’s not much of revolution. But put them all together so a single person can play all of them was a brilliant idea.
The list is lacking many things. How can they miss synthesizer ?
A big Thank you to Anna-Magdalena, Bach's Second Wife, his principal copyist. Without her work, most of his music would have been lost to time.
Wow, I know of Anna-Magdalena from the beautiful simple pieces that Bach wrote for her but not about her copyist work. Hugely grateful to her!
Although AMB was a great support to JSB, there is little actual evidence she was principle copyist in the literature we have to hand, and only a scant number of works 0.35% that are in AMB hand. The most prolific copyist for Bạch we can prove was Kuhnau, which makes a lot of sense as he was a organist and son of the man who JSB took over from. There are even some contemporary accounts that she wasn’t a particularly good copyist. It is true she preserved a lot of his compositions and handed them over to the library which had them preserved, but she didn’t copy them out.
@@Andrew_from_Oz_Vinyl_Landscape Interesting, thanks for the detailed info!
Learn something new everyday
@@Andrew_from_Oz_Vinyl_Landscape Thank you for this clarification. I should not have said Pirincipal. I was just overly exited at seeing her apparent support of this great man. Having so much work before him, especially with the Cantatas. His grueling schedule of both Composition and weekly Performance would have undoubtably necessitated the labour of many hands. It would have course have been to much for any person alone. AMB had a hand in it, and any of those other Nameless Helpers and Patrons, will always have my greatest respect. If but I had been there to help him myself, with more poor abilities. Thanks again.
Rick and Rhett, Thank you for this instructive and perhaps provocative video. Looking at the comments, perhaps this will turn out to be a work in progress. But hats off to the pair of you. Such an excellent production. Please keep up the great work...
We take 'music notation' for granted that it was an "OH YEAH" moment when you mentioned it.
2021 is the 40th anniversary of MTV. I would like to thank them for 10 years of music.
_oof_
That one hits hard but it’s so true. I figured music videos would have been mentioned. Peter Gabriel’s sledgehammer certainly made an impact on me.
10? It was that long? I miss VJ's!
@@Timinator2K10 At least 10 years...more like 15, actually. I started watching MTV in '81 and stopped leaving it on 24/7 about Jan of 1997. That was when Real World had just finished it's 4th season, I think.
MTV was like huey lewis news sports album, bruce spingsting music. flock of seagulls fad gadgets 'I'm feeling japanese' (do you really really think so) kills me too this day hilarious ). I remember waiting till 4 am too watch heavy bands iron maiden blue cher . I was lucky if rainbow or April wine daytime 'Zebra' was good band. It seemed like MTV thought heavy metal listeners were either criminals up on drugs or deliver newspapers. Around 1984 mtv wanted ban all heavy metal videos. In my opinion Mtv had access too all kinds of music video, different genres never gave music a chance. When vh1 came out durin90s vh1 played good videos that MTV SHould've or could easily have played 10 or 15 years earlier. MTV would not touch which is not good.
You missed the synthesizer, a Canadian invention at the National Research Council of Canada. Maybe it doesn't rank in the top 20 but it has had a big influence on music since the early days of Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Thanks to you both for this delightful & informative top 20!
Yes, it has played a major part in the development of popular music for decades. I’m surprised you’re the first one I seen who’s mentioned this.
Ah I was wondering if I'd missed it!
I was waiting for the dx7
@@joseemanueel Lots of DX7s, and old athletic shoes.
Dude, they missed the fucking microphone.
Right on! Music notation/sheet music is number one! Especially before we were able to record sound waves.
Great list with a meaning behind each one.
12 tone tempered scale, early instruments, microphone. There are so many things, it is hard not letting something go
Yeah, just what I thougt
When they were leading up to telling what #1 was, I honestly thought it was going to be the microphone. So many other things on the list (all types of recording media, DAWs, etc) would be useless (and presumably would not have been invented) without the microphone. Not that it necessarily should have been #1 as music notation is of course important too, but the mic is pretty damn important!
@@moi01887 I was thinking the microphone should have been mentioned with headphones (speakers) as they both use the same principles to convert sound to electricity and the reverse.
Strings.
12 tone tempered scale. 12 tone scale at all. I'm still gratefull for Pythagoras anD J.S. Bachs work.
Another "honorable mention": the acoustic theater, which allows performance to a large audience/ It goes fairly far back, to at least the ancient Greeks. Much of music history in many cultures had music and musical theater performed in such places.
sO OBVIOUS THEY MISSED IT!
Great as always!. The list is good the way its :) Love the "oh yeah" for the 1st. place hahaha
I love this video. Great job guys!! (As usual)
I guess good old Electricity should be in there as well !!
Yes, We couldn't do many on the list without it!
That should of been there instead of just the electric guitar............or even just a magnetic coil pickup I think.
Perhaps it is most specifically the harnessing of electricity?
@@mrcoatsworth429 Fine. How about the dynamo then? Faraday's invention made the delivery of electrical power feasible. Nothing on this list is possible without it.
@@q45ij54q I'd argue with that point since many of the inventions in the top 20 were invented before electricity came about - harpsichord and musical notation to name but two
"hey everybody i'm rick beato" A sentence I will never forget.
I liked this video, but I think you really missed a big one. As much as I hate it, MTV is definitely a paradigm changer in the world of music. Definitly in the top tem, right up there with Social Media, Internet, Television, Phonograph, etc.
@@KeithHedger What did this guy have to do with anything lol
@@KeithHedger did you accidentally reply to this instead of commenting?
@@KeithHedger they already mentioned television... without which there'd be no MTV.
Even reading it, I hear it in his voice!
That was great! Well done.
That is a tough list to do... however, I would agree with all those choices you both did... THnx for sharing that quality material!
Most important invention in music was, when the monks in the medieval decided to sing a 2nd voice beside the cantus firmus. With this decision started the history of european harmonics.
Yes. It’s called polyphony.
Yes. Huge.
That's not important invention but some nerd crap.
@@user-ky9qn4pg3w harmony is nerd crap?
@@user-ky9qn4pg3w that's probably the most hilarious comment I've read on CZcams since 2005
A gigantic one, I believe, was overlooked. It is essential to radios, tvs, walkmen, iPods, PCs, instrument amps, etc. etc. It will likely be irreplaceable for years to come. You simply can't even hear music reproduced electrically without... a speaker.
I was just about to comment that!
Dude, this! I came here to write about the omission of the speaker. I watched this on my TV and came to my Chromebook to write. When was the last time you listened to recorded music without a speaker?
Let's hear it for transducers pun intended
The phonograph is both a microphone and a speaker!
it is a list of 20 so you can't add all of it. but Phonograph covers speakers and microphones..
Great list, guys!! I like that the notation of music is the most important technological advancement in the Music Industry :) Phonograph, Protools, Magnetic Tape, Keyboard, all good!
Excellent video as always
The drum. Arguably the first ever musical instrument, apart from the human voice.
Then it didn't change music...it created it. This list is of things that CHANGED music.
No, by that argument I would say the voice created music. The Drum, in whatever form you want to imagine it, and as impossible as it is to date, is for sure #1.
Definitely should have been on instead of pro tools.
Banging on logs with sticks.
@@metacated drums allowed maintaining the "beat" of music. Rhythm would have been chaotic.
Nomination for honorable mention: Spandex. It made all those high notes possible.
😆😆😆
or a rolled up sock!
🤣😂😅
And Aquanet
Mullet haircut too
As you were going through the top 10 I was thinking "notation, they forgot notation. How could they forget notation". What a relief to see it there. There would have been centuries of music lost before we had the ability to record sound without notation.
Very solid choices. Bravo.
The invention of wiggly air is still unmatched.
Hah! Well played 😆
Doesn’t match against the invention of Simply Piano ! Surely that’s an act of God
Wiggly air could perhaps be rivaled by the invention of time :)
@@jakesandeen Best comeback to the best answer 🤣
sure... but is it an invention? or rather a discovery?
If you include the Walkman, maybe the Transistor Radio deserves a shoutout!
Portable and affordable, it took music listening out of the furniture in the living room
and into our pockets.
That's a good one. Also radio's in cars. Now you can take music with you while you drive or make out in the back seat.
Probably included in “The radio”
@@ernieblanchard8879 The difference was , it was portable, so good for outdoors and travel. Car radio similarly.
If you've never read I suggest the IEEE Spectrum article The Secret Six-Month Project, (1985) which was TI (Texas Instruments) crash product development to get the first shirt-pocket transistor radio, the Regency TR-1 into customers hands for the 1954 Christmas season.
@@vcv6560 Was it developed so early? I didn’t have one until 1960 at least. Before that I even experimented with Crystal receiver sets and ham radio!
Great video! Too many essential inventions to count. Others I would have included:
1. Fundamental instruments like strings/lyres, drums/drum heads, and whistles/flutes
2. as others have mentioned, the microphone (and speaker, which is like a backwards microphone)
3. Acoustic theory, from simple amphitheaters to complex mastering booths
Again, great video! Need a top 50 haha
Great piece. Love the history.
The drum? The stringed instrument? The wind instrument? The reed? The bow? The 12-note scale? Hate to go all old-school in y'all, but damn.
Music notation, being one of the oldest and probably most important inventions in music, is in a way a part of language/written language in general, which is probably the oldest and most important invention in human history.
I will claim that the standard music notation also has had, on the other hand, a giant detrimental effect to involving people in music. It is hard to imagine a less intuitive system.
@@flashpeter625 I'd have to disagree with this. I've managed to bring a programmer -- who had never learned to read music before -- sufficiently up to speed to send him scores instead of MIDI files. This took maybe two or three hours. I did limit the crash course to the essentials, because I could explain any new details as we went along rather than trying to teach the programmer to handle every possible event without knowing which ones mattered.
It was much faster to teach the programmer to read (limited) sheet music than it was for me to learn how to program a Mockingboard. So I'd say it's not _that_ counter-intuitive. Being able to write ideas down in readable notation that carries the right connotations (of tonality, of rhythm, etc.) is much more difficult than reading it back, but this is because so much of the "language" _isn't_ precisely defined -- and if it were so defined, it would very quickly fall out of sync with music as actually performed, because styles change.
@@mal2ksc I have STEM background, I do understand what the symbols and positions mean in the notation, but I simply can't read even a simple score and imagine the sounds it represents. I do better even if given plain numbers to represent pitch and spacing, no matter if on a linear or a logarithmic scale, and that's obviously not a very good system. The standard notation, I feel, requires a specific kind of prior understanding of music. But that kind of understanding is just assumed. So it is a Catch 22 for me, and since my childhood it has absolutely prevented me from pursuing an interest in music. I acknowledge that many people, when they are just explained what the notation means, can use it right away. I can't, and many other people can't either. My estimate, just from watching my surroundings, is that about a half of all people are unable to use the notation to any effect - and it is clearly not that they do not understand the notation mechanistically (because everyone learns that in elementary school), it is that the notation is not meaningful to them as a representation of sounds and music.
Loved. Very interesting. Tks.
Great list. One of the directions that music has gone towards when it became popular with the masses and not just for church and entertainment for the wealthy was to become louder for larger venues and more responsive. The first jump was back in the 1800s when they started making instruments louder. Examples of this was the metal frame for the piano and how they reworked the Stradivarius violins to be louder. Another issue happened when they introduced sound in the movies (talkies) because the sound track put a lot of musicians out of business that would have played in theater bands. A third move was of course the change from big bands to small ensembles with electric guitars. This invention put a lot more musicians out of business. The history is a mixed bag of improvements but with less and less artists able to succeed.
Stewart Copeland of The Police has a great video where he proposes that the bass drum pedal is the single most important invention in Western music, and that once you have one person playing the bass and snare drums, the beat gets tight as is needed for rock n roll.
I was waiting for the bass drum pedal to be mentioned. Still waiting.....
That's disappointing and an extremely narrow perspective. I thought he was smarter than that. Also, it's just wrong. Any symphony percussion section can be as tight. Having one person just makes it economically advantageous.
@@bryanleggo3489 That's the point. A few friends could make a big sound. Hello garage bands.
@@BillKilmerslayer I wasn't talking about a big sound and neither was Copeland according to Simonchez. He was talking about tightness. Besides, amplifiers are what the sound big for garage bands.
Slim Jim Phantom of The Stray Cats made an entire career out of exactly that philosophy.
The drum. More than likely the first instrument ever.
nope. human voice.
Yeah, I was so annoyed it didn't even make the list.
The stick... to hit against a tree repeatedly
That would be the hollow log.
@@charleslee5773 Bah. Music isn't what it used to be in my time anymore 👴
Hi Rick, I'd like to add another amazing invention that surely changed everything in music: the equal temperament! Thank you!
My comment as well.
It also severly limited music at the same time. All those marvelous tempermants that proceded it. Not to mention how it overran all the international tunings around the world.
Cool discussion you are creating here.
I'd say sampler / sampling technology, and compression (mp3 etc.) is one big invention. Essential for any music distribution (CD, streaming, etc)
You guys nailed it. For me, the battery powered pocket sized transistor radio. They were the first affordable way to listen to music anywhere we went.
Good point about the transistor radio. I think it was more foundationally important than the Walkman.
I would add the PA System. It was really that which gave the ability to scale small performances to huge ones which created that hype for festivals and large scale shared experience.
Outstanding list!
I was going to say music notation as well. I'm glad you mentioned it. I also would add the metronome to the list.
metronome? heresy!
I was waiting for you to name two things in top 3. One was already mentioned by many and that is a microphone. And another thing is equal temperament. Introduction of equal temperament gave life to all the notions which have shaped European (and later American) music for the last 500 years or so: intervals, tonalities, keys, transposing and so on.
That's another top twenty idea. Not quite in the same league as these other things.
Kinda weird that you mentioned effect pedals, but left out microphones.
The bass drum pedal is the important one developed by William Ludwig.
They produce music, they don't sing it😁👍
I think you nailed #1, without exception.
Thank you for having notation on this list. I was waiting for the synthesizer though. Perhaps another list of what was left off this one..... Great stuff
I can't imagine jazz or popular music without the drum kit developed by Ludwig.
I'm a drummer since I was 9 years old. Thank you.
Ludwig didn’t invent the drum kit...
@@kevinbothwell8425 I believe it was a Ludwig
I was surprised Rick didn’t give some sort of place to a rhythmic or percussive development, although half of musical notation is rhythm.
I would also add cymbals to the list. Maybe have the drum kit and cymbals share a spot.
I feel like multitrack recording and overdubs deserved more than a passing mention.
I see that as more of a process of the existing technology rather than an independent invention. But yes, it is important.
Mike Oldfield wants to know your location...
That was my first thought too! Otherwise, I thought this was a great discussion.
I too believe in this one, I recorded !980 changed my life for acoustics to the ear.
The invention of the kick drum pedal and the evolution of the drum kit changed music for ever. Top ten for sure.
Drums, for sure. The kick pedal itself, no. Probably top twenty though.
Great selection. I think the Moog synthesizer in the 60s and later, the sampler keyboard in the 80s, would be important items in the +20 list.
I don’t know if it’s an invention, but the 12 tone equal temperament scale is the foundation of all Western music, and before it was invented, it was difficult or impossible to harmonize across octaves.
Yes and yes. Modern harmony is not possible without it
came here to say this! 12-TET is the basis of most music today
It's an invention. Left off the list. Changed music forever.
My music teacher pointed out that because scales of the east were invented differently than the west is why we think their music sounds so strange.
@@davidkeller9469 yes, David, I was just thinking the same thing even before I watched Rick's video.
As an electronic music professor I think this is a really good list.
Here’s what I think it missed.
1. Tied for #1 or should have been #2 was the development and adoption of Equal Temperament, which standardized the 12 chromatic half steps.
2. Synthesizers, particularly The Telharmonium in 1905 invented by Thaddeus Cahill. Using electricity to spin an oscillator to create an pitch was a revolution.
Cahill is also a pioneer of subscription music services that predates Muzak and Spotify.
3. The Telephone which enabled the electronic transmission of sound over distance.
4. Don Buchla in California, Bob Moog in New York, and EMS Studios in London inventing the personal synthesizer, bringing synthesizers to the masses.
I think that’s it for me. I’m sure I’ll think of something else later.
Great video, great comment section. Enjoyed this!
Wow! Two of my favorite guitarists in the same room!
You mentioned the harpsichord. But there is a keyboard musical instrument that is before the harpsichord (and clavichord) and that is the pipe organ! It was the primary instrument of the Baroque period and much earlier. The pipe organ was the “synthesizer” of the past eras. The pipe organ has a very special place among keyboards, tuning, temperament, musical notation and all the rest. And guess what-the pipe organ is the king of instruments and should be right in there with all the early keyboards. Thank you.
Definitely agree, it's like a mechanical additive synthesizer, really able to create a kind of sound that I don't think anybody could've heard before, and also with a user controllable timbre very much like the modern synth. And the sound of the church organs could be absolutely massive, heard across the entire town, and also allowed a single operator to play with their hands and feet at the same time, allowing for incredible arrangements performed by a single musician (if we don't count all the people operating the air pumps and such in the background back in the pre-electric days).
They also forgot one of the first analog synths, The Mellotron.
agreed
I'm Dr. Dave also !!
The first sampler! Also, Hammond organ and Telharmonium were arguably synthesizers.
Seems like a Sampler should be on here somewhere given how often they've been used for the last few decades.
sampler, drum machine, mixing console.
I feel like leaving the microphone out was a pretty big miss, other than that, I thought this was a well educated list! Well done Rick and Rhett!
Maybe add
1. Multiple performers - the invention of the orchestra, band or group
2. Chords, polyphony, harmony & counterpoint
3. The piano roll - an early sequencer without which no Cubase or Logic
4. The Jukebox - spread music everywhere
I always thought the speaker was a pretty important part of music
I was waiting for speaker to ne number 1! That or transistors. Without transistors we'd have no personal computers, no portable radio.
Technically, one could argue it formed part of the phonograph - along with the microphone.
I can't believe you forgot Mr. Microphone. "Hey good lookin, We'll be back to pick you up later."
LOL! "Hey! I'm on the radio!"
"He's in for some lovin'" (Homer Simpson)
Damn your old!!! yet I remember that wonderful commercial
...immediately followed by an ad with scrolling song titles from a compilation LP or cassette by K-Tel.
What about the transistor. I guess they more of less picked some examples from classes: transistor goes with the vacuum tube, speakers go with headphones and radio, microphone goes with radio. Ipod, Walkman and Smartphone should have been in one class. DAW belongs to the recording and mixing hardware/software. Piano goes with the acoustic instruments like snare instruments, percussive instruments, copper instruments, wind instruments. CD, MP3, cassette, reel-tape, vinyl, solid-state memory all are storage. Midi, jack XLR, WIFI, Bluetooth, USB, Internet etc are exchange format related.
What it counts is the idea to do this show video , and I'm delighted ,
Thank you very much, very stimulating , I'm sure next is the top 40 ,
Nice list! I like how your entries get more and more broad and general as you approach #1. With that in mind perhaps you should add "the nature of matter and electro-magnetism in the universe", which (among other things) allows certain materials to vibrate at specific pitches with many hidden resonances, and allows a vibrating metal string to generate small electrical currents in a coil of wire wrapped around a magnet. This, plus the process of fermentation and the existence of THC-bearing plants might be proof of the existence of a higher power! Doug Robinson, Ithaca NY (friend of Steve's)