• In 1877, Thomas Jefferson recorded and then reproduced his own voice on a tin-foil cylinder. Less than twenty years later, a German inventor went a step further and developed the gramophone. This technology was successfully marketed in 1894.
• In 1927, J.A. O'Neill patented the first magnetic tape. Because of the need for more sophisticated surveillance methods during WWII, this technology was further developed to a level suitable for musical recordings.
• By 1947, the first commercial tape and recorder appeared in recording studios. In 1949, the stereo tape machine emerged revolutionizing recording technology. The ability to record sound in a multitude of locations and configures had greatly increased.
  

Throughout the mid 1950's, electronic recording devices became the sound generating musical instrument. Slowly they began to carve a niche in the musical landscape of art music. A variety of ways were implemented to interrupt or manipulate the sound wave, creating pitch and timbre variances never before heard. It was also around this time that the Hammond organ found its way into the entertainment scene. It became the first commercially available electronic instrument.

The plucking of the string displaces air (compression) and creates a sound wave.

Generally, electronic sound producers and sound recorders were employed to copy or imitate already composed art music or sounds. French composer, Pierre Schaeffer founded the Studio d'Essai in Paris, France. He and composer Pierre Henry created a number of tape pieces made from recorded train sounds and presented these at a live performance. Schaeffer labeled this new style of music, musique concrete. Concrete music, as it became known in America, is musical sounds on tape with manipulated waveforms.

American composers followed closely behind. By observing and imitating, they eventually created their own instruments that altered waveforms and created sound timbres. Electronic music studios sprang up all over the world. From these studios came new networks of like-minded musicians, many of whom were experimenting with new technology to help satisfy the widening possibilities.

A. The pitch C from a piano
B. The pitch C from a clarinet
C. The wave from of an oboe
D. The irregular wave pattern of noise