Wendy Carlos: Electronic Music's Transformative Pioneer

video upload by Resident Advisor

"'The word "pioneer' gets thrown around too liberally these days. But in the case of Wendy Carlos, the glove fits. The face of electronic music would look immeasurably different in 2025 without the American trans composer's groundbreaking achievements. Before she came along, electronic music was barely considered music at all—just "funny sounds," as Bob Moog once said.

That all changed in 1968. Produced in collaboration with Rachel Elkind, Carlos's debut album, Switched-On Bach wielded machines to produce sounds that could compete with the symphonic pop and rock of the era. The landmark LP won multiple GRAMMYs, played a key role in popularising the use of synths and became only the second classical music record to sell a million copies.

In our latest video essay, written by Sasha Geffen, we trace Carlos's story from her early experiments with Moog through to her impact on key electronic acts of the past 50 years, including Brian Eno, DJ Sprinkles and Octo Octa.

00:00 - Intro
00:54 - Switched-on Bach
01:57 - Carlos and Bob Moog
03:07 Contribution to synth development
04:36 - A Clockwork Orange Score & The Vocoder
07:20 - Personal Life
08:20 - Musical Development

Producer - Sophie Misrahi
Writer - Sasha Geffen
Editors - Sergey Poltorakov, Guy Clarke
Motion Graphics - Sergey Poltorakov, Dan Derham

Music in order of appearance:

 1.⁠ ⁠Wendy Carlos - Toccata Fugue In D Minor - Switched-On Bach 2000
 2.⁠ ⁠Wendy Carlos - Air On A G String - Switched-On Bach
 3.⁠ ⁠Delia Derbyshire - Quest - Electrosonic
 4.⁠ ⁠Wendy Carlos - Moog 900 series Demonstration
 5.⁠ ⁠The RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer - The Well-Tempered Clavier Fugue No. 2
 6.⁠ ⁠Wendy Carlos - Prelude And Fugue #2 In C Minor - Switched-On Bach
 7.⁠ ⁠Wendy Carlos - Title Music From A Clockwork Orange (From Purcell's Music For The Funeral Of Queen Mary - A Clockwork Orange Complete Original Score
 8.⁠ ⁠Wendy Carlos - Country Lane - A Clockwork Orange Complete Original Score
 9.⁠ ⁠Cybotron - Clear
10.⁠ ⁠Wendy Carlos - Genesis - Digital Moonscapes

Archive Credits:

Leonard Bernstein Young People's Concert
Sisters with Transistors Trailer
Discovering Electronic Music (1969-1983)
A Brief History of the Minimoog
British Library - Wendy Carlos, Moog and A Clockwork Orange
Roxy Music - Do The Strand (Live, 1973)
1964 Lutheran Church "Space Age" Conference by Ferox Aeternum
PBS' NOVA in 1989
33 1/3: Wendy Carlos's Switched-On Bach - Talk By Roshanak Kheshti - Perfect Circuit / @perfectcircuit
The RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer - The Well-Tempered Clavier: Fugue No. 2 (1955)
George Harrison on John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and the Beatles' Breakup | The Dick Cavett Show
Stevie Wonder Acceptance Speech at the 1989 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Making 'The Shining'
A Clockwork Orange
Moog 16 Channel Analog Vocoder - Perfect Circuit
The Secret History of the Vocoder - The New Yorker
Daft Punk - Epilogue
Herbie Hancock - I Thought It Was You
Laurie Anderson - O Superman
Daft Punk - Human After All
Daft Punk - Around the World / Harder Better Faster Stronger
Giorgio Moroder In The Studio
Brian Eno - Behind The Reflection"