Raymond Scott

Composer, bandleader, and inventor Raymond Scott is a pioneer of contemporary experimental music, a figure whose genius and influence have seeped almost subliminally into the mass cultural consciousness. His best-known compositions remain at large thanks to their endless recycling as soundtracks for cartoons, but he never once wrote a note expressly for animated use (aside from commercial jingles). And although his experiments with electronic music pioneered the ambient aesthetic, the ambient concept itself was not introduced until years later. After decades of obscurity, Scott's work was rediscovered in the 1990s and 2000s as interest in space-age pop, exotica, and early electronic music resurged. An influence on figures ranging from Frank Zappa to Brian Eno to Philip Glass, he's also been sampled by hip-hop producers J Dilla and El-P.