Ongoing History Daily: The arrival of the MiniMoog

Fifty years ago this month—January 24, 1970, to be exact—a new invention was unveiled by Dr. Robert Moog that would eventually revolutionize popular music.  It was a miniature keyboard synthesizer. 

Up until then, synthesizers were the size of refrigerators and pianos and the only way to get sounds out of the things was to make connections with dozens of patch cords.  Dr. Moog’s synthesizer was small, reasonably priced compared to the old monsters, and relatively easy to operate.  It became known as the Mini-Moog.

This was the beginning of a revolution that allowed many musicians to move beyond the basic guitar, bass, and drums set up.  Eventually, the synthesizer changed the way music sounded and the way it was made.

Check out Friday’s post “Ongoing History Daily: Poverty-Stricken Clash.”  And don’t forget to check out my podcast The Ongoing History of New Music where you listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google, Stitcher or wherever you get your on-demand audio.