According to the article by Ria Andriani, in the 1960s a small group of New York composers—including Steve Reich and Philip Glass—redefined what music could sound like, becoming the key figures of the minimalist movement.

ABC Classic presenter Ed Le Brocq explains that minimalism emerged as a reaction against the increasingly complex music of the 1950s, seeking to "return to the purity of a single sound."

Le Brocq also highlights Reich’s invention of phase music, where identical patterns slowly drift out of sync, and cites Reich’s piece Different Trains as a particularly moving example of this technique.

Those ideas quickly spread beyond the avant‑garde. Brian Eno’s ambient albums, Radiohead’s song “Let Down,” and film scores by Max Richter and Hans Zimmer all borrow the repetition, looping and gradual harmonic change that Reich and Glass pioneered.

To celebrate Reich’s 90th birthday on 3 October, ABC Classic launched a four‑part series that explains minimalist music and shows how its fingerprints appear in everyday listening.

Because loops and slow shifts are now common in pop, electronic, and cinematic music, the minimalist experiments of the 1960s shape the soundtracks of our daily lives, even when we don’t notice them.