1897: Telharmonium
The Telharmonium, patented by Thaddeus Cahill, becomes the first significant electronic musical instrument. The invention, the size of a train carriage, takes up an entire floor of Telharmonic Hall in New York.

1939:
John Cage composes 'Imaginary Landscape No.1', using test-tones from recordings which are played on variable-speed turntables. This is considered the first composition to treat "found sounds" as musical materials. In 1937 Cage is quoted as saying, I believe that the use of noise to make music will continue and increase until we reach a music produced through the aid of electrical instruments.

1950:
After experimenting with a musical form called Musique Concrete, which involved re-arranging and altering recordings from the environment and mixing them with sounds from instruments, Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry Jacques Poullin compose 'Symphonie Pour Un Homme Seul' (Symphony for a Man Alone). Many credit this as the birth of sampling.


1961:
Robert Moog and Herbert Deutsch create a voltage-controlled synthesiser. The modular idea comes from the miniaturisation of electronics. The Moog synthesiser is released in 1964, becoming the first of it's kind available on the market.

1968:
King Tubby begins experimenting with mixing Jamaican reggae with delay and reverb effects, turning the mixing desk into an instrument itself. This was the birth of dub, and the concept of re-mixing existing pieces of music.

1970:
The Minimoog synthesiser is put on the market. It’s the first portable synthesiser with a built-in keyboard. German band Kraftwerk used the Minimoog.

1971:
In Germany, two students of the Düsseldorf Conservatory of Music, Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider, form Kraftwerk. After releasing their ground-breaking work, all based on the concept of movement and travel, they are soon credited as the forefathers of techno.


1973:
Hip Hop DJ Kool Herc hooks two turntables together to play music at his sister’s birthday and develops a technique called "break beat". By using identical records on each turntable and then delaying the spin of one of the records he extends the break in the music, which increases the dance melody and sends the audience wild.


Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' is released, a state of the art recording and huge commercial success, which makes extensive use of the VCS3 synthesiser.


1974:
Kraftwerk's 'Autobahn' is released, laying the foundations for electro-pop.

1975:
Munich-based producer, Giorgio Moroder, co-writes Donna Summer's single 'Love To Love You Baby', that becomes a blueprint for electronic disco. Two years later they release 'I Feel Love', which is one of the first extended mix 12" singles.

1977:
Kraftwerk release 'Trans-Europe Express', which combines driving electronic rhythms and metallic percussion sounds.


DJ Charles Johnson, under the pseudonym Electrifying Mojo, begins a show called the Midnight Funk Association, running five hours every night from 1977 into the mid-80s on a variety of Detroit radio stations. During these hours he introduces the audience to a huge variety of electronic sounds. When Kraftwerk released 'Computer World' in 1981, Mojo played the album in its entirety almost every night.

1979:
In 1975, Australians Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie set out to make a digitally-controlled musical instrument. By 1979 they sold their first  Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument (or Fairlight CMI as it was known) to musicians Stevie Wonder and Peter Gabriel, amongst others, and the machine became famous for being the first commercially available digital sampling instrument.

Disco commotion Rock evangelists run a campaign to discredit the disco scene. It is viewed by many as an attempt by macho rock lovers to stamp out the gay liberation and black pride movements. One of the more famous events of the campaign is the Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois, on July 12, 1979. Football fans bring along their unwanted disco records and burn them. It is such a commotion that the game is cancelled. Similar outbursts occur in the UK.

1982:
Africa Bambaataa's 'Planet Rock' is released, which sampled the melody and rhythm from Kraftwerk's 'Trans Europe Express', and becomes the first electro record.

1983:
Responding to the need for a digital standard, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is developed by the top three synthesiser makers. This enables keyboards and other devices to be controlled from one mother keyboard, but most importantly it enables music to be recorded onto a sequencer.


1984:
The Roland TR-909 drum machine is a hybrid analog-digital rhythm machine that later became the backbone of techno rhythms and electronic dance music. It features digital components for control and analog components for sound generation, and also allows MIDI control. The 909 creates the ultra-fat, way-too-resonating kick drum sounds ("thicker" than the 808), plus "grungy" snare, claps and open hi-hat sounds (found in house, industrial and techno music).


1987:
Derrick May, aka Rhythim Is Rhythim, releases Nude Photo and Strings Of Life. These tracks become recognized as the original techno sound, and earn May the title of the "innovator".