Secret History of Rock. The Most Influential Bands You've Never Heard Read Online Free PDF

-century experimental music. Studied in universities and performed by classical musicians all over the world, his work has shaped the course of modern music. Although Cage had no direct dealings in the world of rock music, his influence was so great that his presence – and that of his many disciples – is pervasive. So closely is Cage identified with the avant-garde as a whole, his name – as it shows up in R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” or in Stereolab’s “John Cage Bubblegum” – has come to signify an entire musical movement.
    Like his hero, Erik Satie , Cage was colorful and good-humored, and often branded a charlatan by the classical orthodoxy. As perhaps he would have admitted, his work often seems more like a stunt than an actual composition; the ideas always stood out more than the music. Conceptually, though, Cage represents a complete break with the Western classical tradition, a total liberation of sound. His fundamental philosophy that “any sound is musical” would forever change the way we hear music.
    Though nearly all Cage’s work reinforces an “anything goes” ethic, his explorations took a number of distinct paths. As a young man in the early 1930s, he studied with two major composers, Arnold Schönberg and Henry Cowell. Schönberg, who sparked a revolution in classical composition with his use of 12-tone music (using all available notes rather than only those in a particular key), influenced Cage’s earliest work. Cowell, however, would have a more lasting influence. Cowell was among the first to bring rhythm – which had long played a large role in Eastern music – to higher prominence in the West. Asian musical forms and Buddhist philosophies would play a central role in Cage’s work. As much as any American artist, Cage presaged the flirtation of future generations – beatniks, hippies, and rock musicians – with Eastern culture.
    Thurston Moore, Sonic Youth:
    He was omnipresent as an influence on everybody in the arts, more as a theorist and teacher – his Eastern, Buddhist concepts – than for his actual pieces. Later I did go directly to his books and works, though. His inspiration is ready sublime in a way, you can’t minimize his influence, even on people who don’t know it.
    In 1937, Cage brought rhythm to the forefront by founding one of the country’s first all-percussion ensembles. The physicality and tonal complexity of percussion attracted him; he believed that drumming was closer to natural human actions (hitting, tapping), and therefore a more direct musical expression, than other kinds of playing. He also recognized that percussion comes closer to the unintended sounds we hear in the world around us, otherwise known as noise. The eventual acceptance of noise elements into art music would have a significant impact on both modern jazz and rock.
    Many of Cage’s earliest works utilize percussion, most notably his First Construction (1939), which may be the first “industrial” song in its use of exclusively metal instruments (gongs, bells, metal sheets). From the beginning, Cage’s rhythmic percussion works were closely tied to dance; in the ‘40s he began a lifelong collaboration with influential modern dance choreographer Merce Cunningham.
    In search of a more economical way to present the varied sounds of a percussion ensemble, Cage began experimenting with the manipulation of piano strings. By attaching various small objects – bolts, nails, rubber bands – that distorted the notes and made them more percussive, Cage invented the “prepared piano,” an instrument with a variety of exotic timbres. Cage’s major prepared piano work, the trancelike Sonatas and Interludes , is perhaps his most beautiful and well-known piece. But the true significance of the prepared piano was, again, philosophical. The idea that not only was any sound permissible, but so was any instrument – or any use of an instrument – would inspire countless