In the 1960s, a young Columbia graduate met Robert Moog, with whom she later collaborated to create the first commercial synthesizer in the world.is wendy transgender The first transgender woman in electronic music was Wendy Carlos. By the time she recorded her first album, Switched-On Bach, which went on to win three Grammys and sell a million copies, she had already earned two Ivy League degrees. “[Wendy’s deadname] used techniques that had been available for years— but used them better,” Moog stated in an interview with Playboy.
In the same interview,is wendy transgender
Carlos talked about her recent gender reaffirmation surgery and came out as transgender. Before she could finally live authentically, she had to deal with gender dysphoria and suicidal thoughts for years. She commented, “There had never been any need of this charade to have taken place,” despite the fact that this was a remarkable announcement to make at a time when queer discourse was mostly restricted to the community. It had proven to be a terrible waste of my life’s time.
Carlos is remembered by queer electronic music artists many years later as a pioneer who spared them the trouble of answering intrusive and hurtful questions. According to Lorelei Kretsinger, co-founder of the queer and transgender music collective Un/Tuck, there is an “interesting tie” between trans and non-binary identities and electronic music. In point of fact, Shonalika, one half of the trans synthon duo Powderpaint, has also mentioned the connection between trans identities and the synthesizer. Kiran Gandhi, a Los Angeles-based POC electronic music artist and activist, attributes Carlos’s success to his role in opening doors for other underrepresented creators.
In an interview with NewNowNext
Magazine, Kiran stated, “Wendy Carlos] made people who were booking festivals more intentional about reaching out to gender-nonconforming and queer people…that I don’t think would have happened if she wasn’t one of the biggest contributors to electronic music.”
Being the first transgender person to work in any field is more evolutionary than it seems. Wendy explained to the interviewer in her Playboy interview what it means to be transgender and why the term “transgender” is more appropriate for her.
People who had sufficient access to resources to understand us better have repeatedly required transgender people to explain the fundamentals of our identities. Queer artists who came after her were given a place in public discourse thanks to her responses and patience. In fact, she talked about how the stories of famous trans people like Christine Jorgensen, who came out to the public before her, helped her understand her own experiences. It’s fascinating which she might have had a similar impact on the lives of other queer people.
It’s possible that this contributes to the trans community’s high regard for community elders. They fight to make our opposition less welcome. Ours is easier to blend in with the crowd because of their street gender nonconformity. They talk about their experiences so that we can learn how to talk about our own.
