By the late 19th century,
jazz and
blues had heavily influenced popular music, encouraging musicians to experiment with rhythm, repetition, and
musical improvisation. With the advent of sound recording on
gramophone record, invented in 1887 and first marketed in 1889, came the
tape recorder and the development of pure
electronic music. On 1 October 1947,
Bing Crosby became the first American musician to release music via tape broadcast. In 1953,
Les Paul demonstrated live looping on the television show
Omnibus. In 1963, musician and performer
Terry Riley released an early
tape loop piece called “The Gift”, featuring the trumpet playing of
Chet Baker. It was the first piece ever based on a tape delay/feedback system with two
Revox tape recorders. This name did not catch on amongst other performing musicians.)
Digital delay systems in the 1980s were experimental and not intuitive, but the equipment's limitations inspired innovators of the technique to find creative applications. Even by the early 1990s, when dedicated loop machines first went on sale, the term "live looping" had not yet been coined. The first dedicated loop device was the Paradis LOOP Delay. The Paradis and other models had volatile memories, forcing composers to develop fresh loops live in front of their audiences — and thus, live looping came into existence. Roland and
DigiTech loop pedals entered the market in 2001, around the same time
DJ mixing gained popularity. When the 2002 Repeater introduced real-time studio looping, looping devices became affordable enough for aspiring at-home composers to enjoy. As laptops gained popularity in 2004, computer software began to emulate the 1990s effects of early looping devices. == Modern live looping tools and applications ==