Acoustic music  

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A Scheme for abolishing all Words is one of the wittiest and smartest comments on semantics. (Illustration: extreme close-up from the movie "The Big Swallow" (1901), produced and directed by James Williamson (1855-1933)
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A Scheme for abolishing all Words is one of the wittiest and smartest comments on semantics. (Illustration: extreme close-up from the movie "The Big Swallow" (1901), produced and directed by James Williamson (1855-1933)

Acoustic music refers to music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electronic means. Given that electronic instruments are a very recent invention in the history of music, almost all musical instruments are acoustic and subsequently almost all music. The term "acoustic music" is a retronym, coined after the advent of electric instruments, such as the electric guitar, Hammond organ and the synthesiser.

Acoustic music may still be amplified using electronic amplifiers. However, these amplification devices must be separate from the amplified instrument and need to reproduce its natural sound accurately.

Following the popularity of the MTV Unplugged television show, acoustic (though in most cases still electrically amplified) performances by artists who usually rely on electronic instruments have become colloquially referred to as "unplugged" concerts.




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Acoustic music" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on original research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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