i remember hearing this in the Montreal Expo of 1969. I was 5 yrs old and was mostly impressed by the big "box" covered in lamps blinking and by the unique sound. Took me years later to realize it became so popular.
Nothing else sounds quite like this. The 1972 version of Popcorn was a foreshadowing of how synthesized music would develop in the 1970s, but this version feels like it belongs to some other tradition entirely. It does foreshadow the beat of disco and its EDM descendants, and it has an eerie echoey sound similar to so much music of the 1980s, but it also feels old. It's futuristic and outdated all at once, like some haunting alternate future that never came to be. It's like the musical equivalent of Moonbase Alpha.
About a decade ago, in the Napster era, I used to collect versions of Popcorn. Although I loved them all, I never came across this one, even when specifically searching for the original. I was shocked when I finally found this understated masterpiece. It made my favorite versions seem so crude. Kingsley is a genius.
To put this in perspective, this song came out before disco, before YMCA (and most songs that were popular in the 70s), right when the carpenters & the Jackson 5 were starting to release their first songs, and at least 18 years before modern edm/rave music would begin to take form. This track is the most ahead of its time that any track will ever be for a long time. Not the first electronic music track, but definitely one of the first that made an impact on the future edm of the late 80s and beyond.
Electrónica Post Concreta, Moog, Experimental & Soundtrack de los 60s...el inicio de la Música Electrónica por parte de los pilares y fundadores de la Electrónica Moderna (2da ola de productores y máximos desarrolladores): Kingsley, Dissevelt, Scott, Derbyshire, Garson, Hodgson, Cecil, Henry, Prilly, Hyman, Carlos...está es la base que forma a los productores y máximos desarrolladores de la Electrónica de los 70s (3ra ola de productores y máximos desarrolladores): Moroder, Jarre, Lacksman, Tangerine Dreams, YMO, Schulze, Vangelis, Faltermeyer, Tonet, Gizzi, Pinhas, Martin W. & Ian C...(entre otros). Moroder gana la carrera de desarrollo en 1977 con el inicio de la EDM Concreta y los 3 Géneros primarios y matrices que se forjan de esta escena el NRG (HI-NRG), Synthpop y Electro. De la EDM Concreta y sus 3 Géneros Matrices + la Electronica Post Concreta, Moog, Experimental & Soundtrack del conjunto de productores citados y sus respectivas líneas (E. Munich, E. Berlin, E. Francia, E. Japón, E. Bélgica) + el E. Funk y la escena Disco se forma la base y molde pilar para la 2da generación de la EDM 80s y su ramificacion (1981-1989): House, Techno, Synthpop, NRG, Freestyle, Italo, New Beat, Trance, Ácid, Electro, Eurobeat...incluida la base electronica primaria de la "ebm" y lo más sofisticado de la Electro Industrial. Kingsley pionero, pilar, desarrollador y maestro de la Música Electrónica.
Por cierto este tema no es la primera Música Electrónica pero si es parte del conjunto de primeros temas en concretar la Música Electrónica y uno de los primeros en alcanzar alto grado de desarrollo, base y línea eléctronica concreta a molde futuro.
Genius, when you consider that this was handmade, with the guy having to overlay the tracks manually and make them fit, as well as discovering the sounds on the technology. Some of those sounds still sound futuristic.
Bet the two guys above me would have a hard time trying to name any modern piece of music with even half the compositional creativity as this. Let alone what Keith Emerson would go on to do with the synth.
@@pifflepockleDon't confuse lack of convenience with talent. All that matters are the notes, chords, and melodies. If you are more concerned with how they were recorded rather than how they were arranged then you are just a hipster.
How funny. I was around back then and even though this sound was cutting edge and meant to be futuristic, it sounds very much of that era to me. In the 80s I can remember how dated it sounded. I guess what goes around...
Even the original is a version. The moment anything but the original exists, all versions are versions. The word you're looking for here isn't "version" but rather "cover".
@@BerryTheBnnuy Yes, it is the original version, not just "a version". This "original version" expresión is used oftenly, even though the Oxford dictionary says: Version: a form of something that is slightly different from an earlier form or from other forms of the same thing. But we can consider Gershon did his own version of his own music sheet, and did some others as well, he not only played it once, so each time he played it he did a version... but they are all originals as he was the composer. Anyway, I think my comment was, long time ago, linked to another comment, but since it is 8 years old and RU-vid made that awful transition to Google+, all the responses to other comments that were posted before that transition, were unlinked from the original comment they refered to and they now look as individual comments. You can see that in very old videos, many comments make no sense on their own, they were replies.
This still sounds new and experimental. Imagine how it must sound like almost 50 years ago. This is where it began. Vangelis, Kraftwerk, techno, EDM, and so on. It started here. :-D
Not sure I agree that all current electronic music started with Popcorn. You can't lump everything into one bucket, so to speak. Lots of electronic music has its roots in the contemporary music from the 40s and 50s (which stretches even further back to classical music). Whereas other electronic music has its roots in rock, pop and disco (which goes back to soul, blues, and some forms of native music). Basically, there is no one single starting point, but many influences and styles and composers over lots of time :-)
No theremins on the Forbidden Planet score. Louis and Bebe Barron built what they described as cybernetic circuits based on the research by mathematician Norbert Wiener. The sounds from these where manipulated on magnetic tape to produce the score and many other early works of electronic music.
No SH!T...I had to listen to this for 3 hours straight as we were lost in the mountains in the mid 70's and my dad had no other cassettes and the was NO radio reception...Honestly, I'd do it again if he was still here...Miss ya POP... THNX for the video!!!
A lot of the equipment used to make electronic music today works on the same principles as the original Moog Modular used by Gershon Kingsley. My Mother32 runs the _exact_ same design of oscillators and filters that were used in this piece, just in a single standalone eurorack-compatible unit with a MIDI-in control port and a 16-step sequencer, and with modern versions of the various transistors, potentiometers, oscillator chips and other individual components used in its manufacture.
Someone wrote this is a remix. I found a cut from the "full album", which is ONE clip itself. Listen and compare. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Sp9ki2jPWdg.html I have my sound coming through cell phone, I think this is "sharper", so maybe...? 🤔🤔 Anyone?
@@annabackman3028 Hm, it's hard to tell from just the RU-vid videos, but putting on proper headphones helps. The audio quality differs widely: this video is mono and slightly muffled, the video you linked sounds pristine (and stereo), and some other videos I found sit somewhere in the middle (with clean sound but noticeable artefacts from compression, presumably present before uploading to RU-vid). I don't think this is a remix - at most the other version you found could be a remaster. (However, there is no evidence of an existing remaster - at least the entry for "Music to Moog By" on discogs reports that none of the reissues (RE) was clearly marked as remastered (RM). See [1], [2].) I think the difference is due to the way this video found its way to the internet: presumably it was first recorded on some analogue medium (video cassette?) and then converted to digital by a consumer. For the other versions, the audio was converted to digital by the record company for the CD re-release (which I guess already introduces a new round of post-production), and then transferred further in the digital realm. But this is all speculation. TL;DR: no idea! ;-) [1]: www.discogs.com/Gershon-Kingsley-Music-To-Moog-By/master/137913 [2]: www.discogs.com/help/formatslist
I don't see a lot of news sites talking about Mr. Kinsley's death. He pioneered electronic music. Without him, we wouldn't no Moby, no Fatboy Slim, no Daft Punk, no Chemical Brothers, no Basement Jaxx, and none of those other EDM DJs. RIP Gershon Kingsley
The best cover so far that ive heard is the boomtang boys version. But it still does not come close the the trancy vibe of the original. All the covers seem to be based on the hot butter version.
What really blows me away is the original Dr. Who theme music from 1961, before the first keyboard controlled synthesizer had even been built! It's all electronic as far as I know/can tell, and it sounds a lot like Pink Floyd, yet it was recorded in ¡1961!
I've heard this sampled and replicated so many times and had no idea that this was the source. It's electronic but still has a distinct 60s sound. Amazing.
Мелодия вне времени, вне границ, вне каких-либо ограничений. Каждый её знает, и регулярно она появляется в том или ином проявлении!) Платиновый фонд музыки человечества!)
I would say this was more hardcore house of the early nineties trance of the late 90s early 00s was too poppy and soft this is too raw to sound like trance
Gershon Kingsley is one of the music geniuses that created a limitless piece of modern 20th Century music that is forevermore tangible; in-which we are eternally grateful for.
Man I have been looking for this tune forever, I keep hearing it in alot of songs. And now I find it by chance. This must have inspired tones of music.
In 1969 i was born. My father was a Marine, and my mother was one of the nurses that saved his life. Flash forward to 1989, and i was at a warehouse party (pre raves) dancing to a remix of this track i'd heard all my life. And now in 2020 it's still ahead of its time. The youngsters today think they made all the cool dance/trance music.
@@teguhilhami5894 actually, in the old version of youtube you have ro reply but in comment, put the sort comments with "new" or "old" and now it makes sense.
Wow. I am totally blown away by this. Not only does it sound great, it blows my mind to think it's from the late 60's. Could easily pass for much newer.
also try this one -- As a tribute to Mr. Kingsley, who passed away this week at the age of 97, I made this version -- hearthis.at/carbinax/popcorn-carbinax-remix-2/
Love this. Moog is the Godfather of all synths. I first heard Popcorn while sitting in The Auditorium Theater in Chicago in the 60s. Unforgettable. Thank you for posting this.
I have listened to so many different versions of Popcorn 😹😹from this one in 1969 the one in 1972 which I have the single of, hearing it yet again re-mixed in the 80’s and yet again in the 90’s and now there is a new re-mix done Heavy Metal style which is just as good. It’s one of those tunes, that youngsters hear one day and it gets popular all over again😹😹😹
As strange as it might seem, the first time I heard this was in 1983, in an arcade videogame called Pengo! I had no idea this was an actual piece of synth music! A true masterpiece.
This song is on Gershon Kingsley's album "Music To Moog By". Releases in 1969. It has 10 tracks on it and runs for about 26 minutes. The album has 7 of his own creations along with 2 Beatles covers and one Simon & Garfunkel cover on it. I own this on CD.
Today on Spotify I created a playlist with about 30 versions of Popcorn and it's taken me a good couple of hours to listen to them all. Some amazing covers, and a few rather odd ones too, lol. I'm 59 and first time I heard this was magical.
The more I listen to this, the more I like it. I grew up listening to Hot Butter's version, but this is just so much more complex in terms of the instruments. Gershon Kingsley RIP, you're a legend
his family just anounced on facebook that mr kingsley passed away few days ago: "Gershon passed away peacefully in his sleep on the morning of December 10th, surrounded by loved ones at home." --godspeed Herr Popcorn, and thank you for the music!
An iconic, groundbreaking tune, and this version (the original) is the best in my humble opinion. Later remixes miss a couple of key chord changes and often shift the key the song is played in. R.I.P Gershon Kingsley.
No it's just Mr. Kingsley. He's German American and there's no mention of being knighted by the Queen in the biography on his website www.gershonkingsley.com/biography.html
Wow, this is SO much better than the Hot Butter version. Good volume balance, the melody and bass tones work well with each other, upbeat without feeling rushed; very nice.
I was 4 when this came out. Heard it many times since, not necessarily the original version though. Never knew the name of the song until today in 2023! Amazing what he did with what would have been cutting-edge (for the time) technology that we couldn't properly comprehend nowadays! Came from TikTok to look for it. Listened to JMJ's version first. Didn't know it was a cover! AWESOMELY AMAZING!!!😊😊😊😊
Let's all celebrate 50 years of electro music! Grazie, Signore Gershon Kingsley. :) Without you, this kind of music may not have been expanded this far as it has today.
Wow !!! Simply incredible, the early days of trance music was born in the sixties. Way ahead of its time, forget rock n roll this was the real dance music of the future 🙏❤️🇬🇧🇬🇧❤️🙏 Nov twenty two
the song gives the feeling of the euphoria you get when you discover something that changes your life for the better, like discovering something as a kid that fills you with fascination and happiness that never leaves you and is always calling you everyday of your life
