Electronic @ The Design Museum
Ten Second Review: A well rounded deep dive into the history and culture of electronic music, the breadth of this exhibition means some people will be unhappy on what gets left out.
I wanted to get one more exhibition in before the UK goes back into a national lockdown. As it’s been a good while since I’ve been to a club, a musical journey stretching from “Kraftwerk to Chemical Brothers” felt like just what I needed. As you approach the exhibition’s entrance you can already hear it’s content. A low thumping echoes into the Museum’s foyer creating that same anticipation you might get standing in line for a club. It was certainly off to a good start.
Kicking off with some crowd photos that juxtapose our current moment quite dramatically. The exhibition opens with a timeline of electronic music from the beginning of the 20th century to now (a little further back than its Kraftwerk tag line suggests). Accompanied by some short documentary clips and musical selections (be sure to bring your own wired headphones for hygiene reasons), this is a great opening to give any visitor a general and brief history to the technology and culture of electronic music. This section also features a lot of the instruments, samplers and technology that the exhibition discusses. A nice touch in grounding a music that to many seemingly springs from a screen by using its real life hardware.
The exhibition goes on to detail some of the biggest moments and movements in a range of genres under the electronic banner, but doesn’t sacrifice telling some of the smaller more human stories. Many of the eras are anchored by the stories of their pioneers, contributors and fans, and this makes the whole exhibition feel a lot more personal. Many genres of electronic music meet arguments that they are plagued by auto generated monotonous computer sounds, but this exhibition puts the work in to present a more nuanced view.
Rounding out the exhibition with some more visual and experiential content that includes a mesmerising piece of light engineering from 1024 Architecture, an interesting (if not wholly successful) display from the Chemical Brothers and a look at some of the politics of dance music, the exhibition certainly tries to cover as much as possible.
This may be its weakness to some viewers who don’t see their favourite music represented or as widely featured as they hope. I can imagine some younger visitors wanting to see more about current electronic music. Unfortunately this is the problem with any wide ranging historical exhibition and really only serves to highlight how diverse and personal electronic music is to so many.
Some blank spots within the exhibition and confusing use of space sees the exhibition miss perfection, but by and large this feels like a must see for fans of electronic music and a strong suggestion for those who don’t enjoy that type of music to get a feeling of why many do love it so much.
