musical innovation
Fresh compositional approach
Musical innovation is the introduction of new sounds, techniques, instruments, or approaches in music.
It can mean a specific breakthrough—the electric guitar, Auto-Tune, sampling—or describe a general quality: The album was celebrated for its musical innovation.
What counts as innovative depends on context; a technique revolutionary in one genre may be commonplace in another.
- autotuneAudio pitch-adjusting software
- synthesizerElectronic sound-generating instrument
- drum machineElectronic percussion simulator
- MIDIElectronic music data standard
- avant-gardeInnovative cultural pioneers
pitch shifting · sampling · polytonality · musique concrète · jazz fusion · genre bending · serialism · minimalism · punk rock · improvisation · microtonal · hip-hop · virtual instruments · protest songs · theremin · neoclassicism · electric guitar · vocoder
musical innovationmusical tradition
Inherited style of performance
traditionalism · conventionality · standard practice · orthodoxy · classicism
musical innovationimitation
Copy of the original
derivativeness · unoriginality · pastiche · rehashing · recycling