Minimalist Musical Culture, Techniques, And Composers Minimalist music has its roots in the experimental decade of the 1960's. The musical culture of that time was a relatively avant-garde one. Artistic experimentation and exploring new methods of composition were encouraged, and fashionable. Popular music included much Rock 'n Roll (this was the decade of the "British Invasion," and the heyday of the Beatles; the Rolling Stones, and others). Classical minimalist composers, during the 1960's, included La Monte Young; Steve Reich; Philip Glass; Terry Riley; John Cage, and others. Young first pioneered minimalist composition. The first American minimalist composers were mostly "born between 1935 and 1937" ("Minimalism in Music and Painting").

Minimalism itself "is...

The term was first used by Michael Nyman in 1968" ("Minimalism"). Minimalist composers were essentially rebelling against modernist compositional techniques because they:
. . . felt constrained by the formulas of serialism. . . They looked to world music and to jazz, rock, and other popular styles . . . anxious to break down the barriers that both separate musical styles and separate music from other forms of artistic expression. They also wanted to reduce elements of composition so that simple sound was the focus.

Furthermore, as to their respective compositional styles:

La Monte Young and Terry Riley explored the sustaining of sounds…