Meet the Women that Paved the Way for Modern Electronic Music

In the 1930s, Johanna Magdalena Beyer (1888-1944) became the first female composer to write for electronic instruments, an achievement that placed her at the cutting edge of musical innovation. Beyer’s embraced unconventional instrumentation, intricate rhythmic structures, and a fascination with percussive textures that prefigured the minimalist and avant-garde movements of the later 20th century.

Her compositions introduced sounds and techniques that would resonate with future generations of composers. Despite her trailblazing contributions, Beyer’s work was largely overlooked during her lifetime, a fate all too common for female composers of her era. It was only in recent decades that her music has been rediscovered online and celebrated, with scholars and musicians recognizing her as a crucial, if unsung, architect of modern experimental and electronic music.

Today, her influence can be traced in the percussive landscapes of contemporary electronic composers.

A composer, accordionist, and philosopher, Pauline Oliveros was at the forefront of electronic music and experimental improvisation, pioneering new ways of creating and experiencing music. In the 1960s, she co-founded the San Francisco Tape Music Center, a hub for sonic experimentation that helped shape the landscape of electronic music, alongside Morton Subotnick and Ramon Sender. Her groundbreaking work with tape manipulation, synthesized sound, and spatial acoustics cemented her legacy as one of the most innovative composers of the 20th century.

Yet Oliveros’ influence extended beyond composition — she fundamentally changed how we listen. Through her concept of “Deep Listening,” she encouraged a heightened awareness of sound, transforming listening into a meditative, communal, and deeply immersive practice. Today, her ideas continue to resonate, influencing not only composers and sound artists but also thinkers in fields as varied as mindfulness, acoustic ecology, and social activism.

As one of the earliest pioneers of modular synthesis, Wendy Carlos proved that synthesizers weren’t just tools for experimental sound but capable of breathtaking musicality. Her groundbreaking 1968 album, Switched-On Bach, reimagined the works of Johann Sebastian Bach through the lens of the Moog synthesizer, introducing the instrument to mainstream audiences and setting the stage for its widespread adoption in popular music.

Beyond her innovations in the studio, Carlos left an indelible mark on film scoring, crafting soundtracks for A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Tron — scores that remain deeply influential in cinematic music. Her meticulous approach to sound design, blending electronic textures with classical structures, helped shape the sonic landscape of both electronic and orchestral music for decades to come.

Carlos is also recognized as a trailblazer for transgender visibility. Her legacy is not just one of technical power and artistic vision but of profound cultural impact.

Born blind, Pauline Anna Strom developed an unparalleled ability to translate her inner world — rich with emotions, visions, and imagined landscapes — into sound. Under the moniker Trans-Millenia Consort, she composed and performed self-released albums and cassettes in the 1980s, blending elements of ambient, new age, and experimental electronic music into lush, kaleidoscopic soundscape.

Her music invited listeners to drift into ethereal realms, offering a glimpse of worlds beyond the visible. Despite her work being largely independent and overlooked during her active years, Strom’s innovative approach to synthesis and sound exploration left a lasting impact. After a long period of silence, her visionary music was rediscovered in the 2010s, reissued to a new generation of listeners who recognized her as a trailblazer in the electronic music world.

Suzanne Ciani’s legacy encompasses electronic and new-age music, sound design, commercial jingles, and film and television. A true pioneer in the field of electronic music, Ciani is best known for her mastery of the Buchla synthesizer — a complex “West Coast” synthesizer that enabled her to craft soundscapes that are both emotive and technically sophisticated.

While her own albums, like Seven Waves and The Velocity of Love, showcased her ability to blend atmospheric textures with evocative melodies, Ciani’s influence extends far beyond the music world. Her sound design work helped shape some of the most memorable jingles and sound effects of the 20th century, including the iconic “pop and pour” sound for Coca-Cola. She also lent her voice to Bally’s Xenon pinball machine.

Daphne Oram was a British composer, an early practitioner of musique concrète (a genre of electroacoustic music that is made in part from acousmatic sound), and a co-founder of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. She was the first woman to set up an independent electronic music studio and invented her own graphic sound design system dubbed “Oramics.”

This technique involved drawing intricate patterns on 35mm film, which were then read by a machine she designed to generate electronic sounds. This innovative approach made her a true visionary in the world of electronic music.

Her sounds have appeared in early James Bond films and her score for 1961’s The Innocents helped pioneer the use of electronic music in film soundtracks.

Laurie Spiegel taught herself music by ear on guitar, banjo, and mandolin before becoming one of electronic music’s early pioneers. Working at Bell Laboratories in the 1970s, Spiegel experimented with Buchla and Electronic Music Laboratories synthesizers and recorded the music that would be released as 1980’s influential album The Expanding Universe.

Spiegel also created the early algorithmic music software Music Mouse for Macintosh, Amiga and Atari computers in 1986. Her recordings have featured on the gold record launched into space with the Voyager spacecraft in 1977. She has also composed for solo guitar, piano, and orchestral arrangements.

Eliane Radigue is a French composer and student of musique concrète who first recorded synthesizer-based music 1970 with Spiegel on the Buchla synthesizers installed at NYU by composer Morton Subotnick. She has worked extensively with tape manipulation and modular synths such as the ARP 2500, and since 2000 has also composed for acoustic instruments.

Her 1998 work Trilogie de la Mort draws inspiration from her practice of Tibetan Buddhism and study of its book of the dead, the Bardo Thodol.

Else Marie Pade was a Danish composer and early electronic musician who spent WW2 in the Danish Resistance against the Germans, first distributing newspapers then working with an all-female explosives group to sabotage telephone cables. After spending the final year of the war in prison, Pade studied at Denmark’s Conservatory of Music and became the country’s first practitioner of musique concrète and electronic music.

Her early works, such as Symphonie Magnétophonique (1958), captured the sounds of Copenhagen’s daily life, while later pieces like Faust (1962) explored more abstract and experimental sonic textures. Pade’s music is characterized by its innovative use of sound manipulation, its exploration of timbre and texture, and its ability to create immersive sonic experiences.

A classically trained musician, Ruth White studied music composition at Carnegie Tech before expanding into the emerging world of electronic music. In 1964, she built her own recording studio, a testament to her independent spirit and forward-thinking approach to sound.

In 1971, White collaborated with Tonto’s Expanding Head Band on their landmark album Zero Time, marking a key moment in the history of synthesizer-driven music. That same year, she released her own album Short Circuits, which included experimental renditions of classical pieces like “The Flight of the Bumblebee,” showcasing her ability to merge the worlds of classical music and electronic experimentation. Like Carlos, White’s recordings helped establish the Moog synthesizer as a versatile instrument, influencing the development of electronic music while also expanding the possibilities for traditional musical forms.

Bebe Baron along with her husband and creative partner Louis, was a pioneering force in the world of electronic music. Together, they are credited with creating the first electronic music for magnetic tape in the United States with their 1950s work Heavenly Menagerie. Their innovative approach to sound design and composition helped lay the groundwork for the development of electronic music as we know it today.

In the late 1940s, the Barrons established a recording studio and the Contemporary Classics record label in New York City’s Greenwich Village, where they worked with avant-garde artists like Anaïs Nin and recorded the first-ever tape compositions by John Cage. But it was in 1956 that Bebe and Louis Barron truly made their mark on history by composing the first entirely electronic film score for the science fiction classic Forbidden Planet. The soundtrack set a new standard for the role of sound and music in film.

Beatriz Ferreyra’s  journey into the world of experimental sound began in 1963 when she joined the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in France, working alongside the legendary Pierre Schaeffer, a key innovator in the musique concrète movement. This experience marked the beginning of her lifelong exploration of tape manipulation and electroacoustic techniques, establishing her as a distinctive voice in the development of electronic sound.

Ferreyra’s work spans multiple disciplines, from film and television to ballet and therapeutic practices, showcasing her versatility and deep understanding of sound’s emotional and physical impact. She became known for her ability to blend complex sonic textures with narrative and sensory experiences, creating immersive auditory landscapes that transcended traditional forms.