What would electronic music sound like if computers had never been invented?

[cryophonik]

It's a pretty hard question to answer because it ignores the reality of progression. Things would not have stood still, so electronic music would have evolved in whatever direction an alternative technology would have taken it.

Also, I think you have to consider the role and huge influence that the enormous rise in home studio hobbyists have had on today's music. Before computer-based music production became widespread and affordable to just about everyone, there were a relatively small handful of people who could afford to make synth-based music, so their influences were dominant (not to mention that huge music labels dictated the music market). Nowadays, the financial barrier to entry is all but busted down, so just about anyone with a computer, a DAW, and some decent monitoring gear can crank out a dancefloor-ready hit if they put in the time to learn the craft. In some ways, it has become the modern version of folk music. It's hard to say if things would've played out the same way in the absence of computers and MIDI. Couple that with the huge boom in independent labels that arose from the number of independent artists making music and the number of streaming platforms that computer technology has created. It's opened a lot of doors for people's styles that might have never been heard outside their bedroom. But, it's impossible to say if the same thing would have happened without computers, or at least at the same pace.

Anyway, it's an interesting question for a complex situation and I'm personally just glad that progressive synth rock made by dudes wearing capes never became the status quo for electronic music.

[enCiphered]

I think it would be surprisingly the same.
Even a simle R-F circuit with a variable resistor can yield a nice filter sweep if done right.
Other analog circuits can do oscillators. In fact the basics of analog syntheis brings us most of our contemporary sounds.
Without digital editing, there was still tape edits and tape loops and the technology kept on improving.

Even without MIDI other similar sync tools existed. But yeah, if there was no MIDI that would be a real setback.
I think the music would be very melodic and synthpoppy.
But analog sequencers can do a lot too, so maybe we'd still have decent arps and drums and stuff.

I guess what maybe would have been the most different is the PRICE.
Computers and MIDI helped bring costs down tremendously.

Right?

Fair Point, analog alone can get us surprisingly far. But I still think things would’ve ended up way weirder. And instead of mass-produced genres, maybe we’d get super local, experimental scenes. Maybe something like modular folk music..
Sure we'd still have synthpop and arps and all that, but without the influence of precise editing, automation and digital layering, I think the music might've leaned way more into texture and physicality. But who knows..

[enCiphered]

What kind of music would have evolved?

Hainbach.

Yeah, exactly Hainbach is probably the closest glimpse we’ve got into that alternate timeline.
What I love is that his whole setup feels alive.

[enCiphered]

It's a pretty hard question to answer because it ignores the reality of progression. Things would not have stood still, so electronic music would have evolved in whatever direction an alternative technology would have taken it.

Also, I think you have to consider the role and huge influence that the enormous rise in home studio hobbyists have had on today's music. Before computer-based music production became widespread and affordable to just about everyone, there were a relatively small handful of people who could afford to make synth-based music, so their influences were dominant (not to mention that huge music labels dictated the music market). Nowadays, the financial barrier to entry is all but busted down, so just about anyone with a computer, a DAW, and some decent monitoring gear can crank out a dancefloor-ready hit if they put in the time to learn the craft. In some ways, it has become the modern version of folk music. It's hard to say if things would've played out the same way in the absence of computers and MIDI. Couple that with the huge boom in independent labels that arose from the number of independent artists making music and the number of streaming platforms that computer technology has created. It's opened a lot of doors for people's styles that might have never been heard outside their bedroom. But, it's impossible to say if the same thing would have happened without computers, or at least at the same pace.

Anyway, it's an interesting question for a complex situation and I'm personally just glad that progressive synth rock made by dudes wearing capes never became the status quo for electronic music.

Yes, totally agree. Once computers entered the picture, everything changed. Access, scale, distribution and who gets heard.
We would definitely still have evolution, just along a very different curve. Maybe way slower, maybe weirder.. but not necessarily less creative!