Introduction

Abstract This chapter provides a brief overview of Wendy Carlos’s career, placing her and her album Switched-On Bach at the center of the Moog synthesizer’s popularity in the late 1960s. Carlos, who had been assigned the male sex at birth, had transitioned to female by the time Switched-On Bach reached the zenith of its popularity. Carlos remained in hiding for nearly a decade out of fear for her personal safety and professional reputation. Once she disclosed her transition in a Playboy interview in 1979, she was able to talk publicly about her music. At the same time, her gender—not her music—became a focal point for many scholars and journalists.