Steve Reich's loops shaped Radiohead and Bowie, minimalism turns 90
Minimalist composer Steve Reich turns 90 today, leaving a fingerprint on everything from David Bowie to Hans Zimmer's film scores.
Steve Reich turns 90 on October 3, marking nearly a century of rewriting music's rules. Reich and peers like Philip Glass emerged from 1960s New York experimental circles with a radical idea: simplicity itself could move people.
Minimalist composers built music from tiny repeated patterns and infinite loops that shifted slowly, allowing listeners to hear new things in small sounds. David Bowie's 1977 album Low and Radiohead's OK Computer both carry Reich's fingerprints.
Brian Eno's ambient albums borrowed the minimalist playbook. Film composers Hans Zimmer and Max Richter trace their art directly back to Reich and Glass.
Reich's 'Different Trains' made speech into music, using Holocaust survivor recordings layered into sound. Minimalism drew from jazz and Indian classical music.
Today's most-streamed classical composers, Ludovico Einaudi and Max Richter, are its direct descendants.
- October 3
- Steve Reich's birthday
- 90
- Reich's age today
- 840
- Repetitions in Satie's Vexations
- Low, 1977
- Bowie album with Reich's influence
Why it mattersUnderstanding minimalism shows why much music you already love, from film scores to electronic pop, sounds the way it does.
AustraliaAustralian listeners already hear Reich's influence constantly in soundtracks and streaming playlists; ABC Classic is marking his birthday with programming exploring the movement's reach.
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