Since the 50s, La Monte Young has been at the forefront of modern music, turning the hippies on to Indian raga, influencing the minimalism of Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Henry Flynt, the drone of Tony Conrad and John Cale (in Young's own Theater of Eternal Music/Dream Syndicate group), and the rock of the Velvet Underground.

Lou Reed credits Young's influence on Metal Machine Music; German Krautrock bands like Faust and Can have similarly listed Young as a pioneer. He also played a major role in New York's Fluxus group, trying the patience of avant artists with pieces that challenged the pianist to build a fire or push the instrument through a wall. Even Yoko Ono got tired of being showed-up.

Young's own work, despite its importance, has gone largely unheard due to several factors, first among them Young's refusal to re-release it. Most, if not all, of his work is nearly unfindable — that which is available goes for huge sums of money. (Thank you, Internet.) Another reason for the work's obscurity would be the length of the compositions. Most that are available in any commercial sense fill at least a vinyl side (20-30 minutes), and several full compositions are either hours long (or hours long snippets of infinitely long music). Young takes years to compose individual “songs,” releasing small pressings of works-in-progress, trickling psychical evidence of his ideas (and perversity) over decades.

Young's most famous piece, and one of his most economical titles, "The Well Tuned Piano," is five hours in length (at this point), was released once, briefly, in 1988, has been known about since 1965, continues to be tweaked, and realizes many of Young's obsessions. The title references Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, a series of works incorporating all 24 musical keys. Bach's original didn't expressly call for tuning adjustments between the pieces, but it is usually played that way. Young takes this a step further, presenting one long work utilizing Just Intonation, with every note on the piano being in key. This means that the sounds take on a slightly “off,” almost Eastern sound — yet, it all works together, producing not only complex harmonic relationships, but also an effect sometimes known as “ghost chords.”

"The Well Tuned Piano" is a drone, which pulses in long waves of slow build-ups and incredibly fast crescendos. As the piano lines crowd together, played faster and faster, the “ghost chords” develop, and the side effect of a combination of speed and Just Intonation — chords which are not played, but are heard — add a cloud-like second drone to the rhythmic/melodic pulse/drone/jumble which actually exists. This second drone exists in physical space as sound waves, but has no point of actual production from a human or instrumental source. It is a chance occurrence within the physical laws of the universe, and Young exploits and utilizes this mathematical anomaly to create beautiful music.