How technology changed music: Pink Floyd's Nick Mason presents BBC World Service series

08 May 2019 - Press release

A new landmark nine-part Open University and BBC series on the BBC World Service, A History of Music in Technology continues on Saturday mornings, through to 22 June, at 1106GMT/1206BST each week.
Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason presents, charting the history of music and technology and exploring the world of legendary artists, producers, engineers and inventors. The series shines a light on game-changing innovations including the synthesizer, electric guitar, samplers, drum machines and the recording studio itself.

One of the academic consultants for the series and Lecturer in Music at The Open University, Dr Sean Williams, who researches electronic music and performance, says people will be fascinated by the series:

"This series is hugely ambitious in that it covers such a wide range of different music and traces some fascinating connections between different technologies. You can discover the history of sampling; how experimental French radio is connected to Hip-hop; why Steve Vai’s guitar has a hole cut in it; how a budget portable church organ changed popular music; and many, many more fascinating stories, many of them told directly by the people involved using new interviews or archive recordings."

The Open University has produced free resources and materials to go with the series, including an audio interview with Nick Mason:   https://www.open.edu/openlearn/tv-radio-events/radio/history-music-and-technology