Moogsploitation (AKA: Moog Music, Switched-On) refers to the Electronic music created by the Moog, the world's first commercial synthesizer, and the subsequent craze that followed the popularisation of the instrument with Wendy Carlos' Switched-On Bach in 1968.
Robert Moog debuted his eponymous synthesizer in 1964, a highly complex setup showcasing a distinct set of raw analogue sounds (alternately described as 'full', 'rich', 'fat', 'deep', or simply 'big'). Initial customers were universities, record labels and a handful of Experimental musicians, often to create Jingles, Library Music and Sound Effects. Following the Moog's breakthrough into mainstream culture, a wave of Novelty electronic records appeared in the late 1960s and 1970s centred on Moog arrangements of varying sources/themes, many of which derided as being kitschy and opportunistic "cash-ins". Several electronic musicians mixed the unique sounds of the Moog with Pop melodies, preceding Synthpop and frequently overlapping with Space Age Pop and other Easy Listening styles. Some of the most notable examples of this are Jean-Jacques Perrey's The Amazing New Electronic Pop Sound of Jean Jacques Perrey, Bruce Haack's The Electric Lucifer and Gershon Kingsley's Music to Moog By, the latter featuring the original version of perhaps the most well-known moogsploitation track, "Pop Corn", which prompted numerous covers spearheaded by Hot Butter's famous hit version in 1972. Due to the poppy novelty nature of much of Moog music, tracks are often short and melodic with a tone that is playful, wacky, goofy or funky, thanks to the bubbly bass sound of the synthesizer.
Concurrently, the Moog also started to be used outside of the realms of electronic music. It featured on tracks by several of the biggest pop and Rock artists in the late 1960s (often when incorporating Psychedelia into their work), including The Beatles, The Monkees and The Doors. The release of the more portable Minimoog in 1970 saw it become a staple of Progressive Rock groups such as Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, as well as substantial usage in Jazz and later on in the decade, Disco.
The era of Moog music ended after the 1970s with the invention of digital synthesizers and MIDI technology. Its usage since is often as a 'groovy' retro aesthetic, with some space age pop revival and Downtempo acts in the 1990s including analogue Moog sounds in their work, perhaps most prominently AIR and Cocktail Nation group The Moog Cookbook.
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