Switched On: Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution

by Albert Glinsky

The Moog synthesizer "bent the course of music forever" Rolling Stone declared.

Bob Moog, the man who did that bending, was a lovable geek with Einstein hair and pocket protectors. He walked into history in 1964 when his homemade contraption unexpectedly became a sensation---suddenly everyone wanted a Moog. The Beatles, The Doors, The Byrds, and Stevie Wonder discovered his synthesizer, and it came to be featured in seminal film scores including Apocalypse Now and A Clockwork Orange. The Moog's game-changing sounds saturated 60's counterculture and burst into the disco party in the 70's to set off the electronic dance music movement. Bob had singlehandedly founded the synth industry and become a star in the process.

But he was also going broke. Imitators copied his technology, the musicians' union accused him of replacing live players, and Japanese competitors started overtaking his work. He struggled to hang on to his inventions, his business, and his very name. Bob's story upends our notions of success and wealth, showing that the two don't always go together.

In Switched On, author Albert Glinsky draws on exclusive access to Bob Moog's personal archives and his probing interviews with Bob's family and a multitude of associates, for this first complete biography of the man and his work. Switched On takes the reader on a roller coaster ride at turns triumphant, heart-breaking, and frequently laugh out loud absurd---a nuanced trip through the public and private worlds of this legendary inventor who altered the course of music.

Genres: Music

489 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 2, 2022

Reviews

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Albert Glinsky’s Switched On: Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution is much more than a biography of the inventor behind one of the most transformative instruments in modern music. It is a story about invention, artistic experimentation, entrepreneurship, and the unpredictable path by which technology becomes culture.

What makes the book particularly compelling is the access behind it. Drawing on Moog’s archives and original interviews, Glinsky is able to follow Robert Moog from his childhood in Queens through his personal relationships, family life, business ventures, and eventual death in 2005, while also tracing the extraordinary afterlife of his invention.

The synthesizer itself provides the book with a remarkable historical thread. An invention that initially emerged from Moog’s technical and experimental interests would eventually electrify the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and become embraced by artists ranging from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to Billy Joel and Dr. Dre. That progression demonstrates how technological innovation can move from a specialized experiment into the center of popular culture.

I also appreciate that the biography does not romanticize entrepreneurial success. Moog’s business ventures frequently lost money, revealing the complicated relationship between creative innovation and commercial sustainability. His story therefore becomes relevant not only to music historians, but also to readers interested in invention, technology, entrepreneurship, and the economics of creative industries.

The book should appeal strongly to music history readers, synthesizer enthusiasts, electronic music communities, technology historians, cultural historians, musicians, producers, and readers fascinated by influential inventors. Its subject also gives it a natural bridge between older generations who experienced the synthesizer revolution firsthand and younger musicians discovering analog and electronic sound today.

Ultimately, Switched On succeeds because Bob Moog’s achievement was never simply the creation of a machine. He helped change the possibilities of musical expression itself. Glinsky’s biography captures the human, technical, commercial, and cultural story behind that transformation.

[Trace Reddell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glinksy is a great biographer and a really enjoyable writer all around. I loved his book on Theremin, and now his book on Moog. While there was more intrigue in the Theremin book, the book on Moog nonetheless was also a real page turner for me. Glinsky deftly balances the content between Moog's domestic life, his designs, his business, and eventually, his philosophy. I've always been intrigued by accounts of Moog's thinking about creativity, the birthplace of ideas, inspiration, intuition, and the electric cosmic design network. I'd come across it first in Pinch and Trocco's "Analog Days," and Glinsky also provides some insights. But I think I need to track down more of Moog's own talks and writings to dig deeper. Also, Glinsky ties in the narratives of other fascinating folks here, which really gives a sense of the network of people with whom Moog intersected. Fascinating read! Highly recommended.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed biography of who was widely considered the inventor of the music synthesizer. Robert Moog was a genius in science and electronics. He also struggled in both his business and personal life, some of which was his own doing, only to overcome them in his final years.

[Austin Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiring and cautionary tale.

It was a page turner for me, but that doesn’t mean it was fun throughout.

It was sadder than I expected. There were so many money woes.

It’s a tragic, angst-ridden story with a happy ending.

It was well told.

[Jeremy Bullian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerhouse bio that also reads like a tour through electronic music and pop culture. I loved Glinsky's book on Theremin and he's outdone himself covering Moog.

[Claiborne Slaughter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great biography, everything you’d want for a wholistic depiction of Moog.

[Silas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very thorough biography, as well as documenting Moog's contemporaries along the way, to better understand his place in the landscape of synthesizers at the time. It begins with his father, and continues with quite a bit of detail through his youth and school years, into his marriage and the start of his business and its eventual rise in popularity. The book does not shy away from his failings, both in business and his personal life, and I was surprised by how tumultuous his marriage was, for example, as well as the challenges he faced in business for a product I have known for a long time. There is plenty of star power once Moog instruments become popular, and they became popular in a lot of ways that I had never heard of before, which was quite interesting. I was similarly surprised by how many companies had a piece of the Moog brand along the way, and was quite interested in the story of how Moog eventually got it back near the end of his life. The epilogue was surprisingly touching, and made me want to go play a synthesizer for a while afterwards. I had already watched a few documentaries about the history of the Moog company, as well as taken the factory tour, but I learned quite a bit about the history of Moog and other synthesizers from listening to this, which quite interested me, as well as a great deal about Bob Moog's life. I would definitely recommend this book, but be prepared for some of the personal things to take a little bit of the reputation of someone who is likely a personal hero if you have any idea who this is about.