A lot of big things happened in music in 1983. It was the year Michael Jackson’s album Thriller hit number one across the world, compact discs were first released in the US, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers formed. Yet there was one obscure event that was more influential than all of them: MIDI 1.0 was released. MIDI stands for “Musical Instrument Digital Interface” and, after 37 years, it has finally received a major update. MIDI 2.0 is live, and it could mean the end of the keyboard’s dominance over popular music.

Whether you know it or not, MIDI has changed your music listening life. MIDI is the protocol by which digitized information is converted into audio. When a musician plays into a MIDI-enabled device, like a synthesizer or drum machine, MIDI is used to digitize the different elements of the music, like the note and the power with which it was played (a softly plucked C, for example, or a full-on fortissimo F-sharp). This allows music producers and technicians to adjust aspects of the music later on. For example, they might choose to change the pitch of certain notes or even switch the sound from a keyboard to a trumpet or guitar. Basically, it is what musicians use to program music. Ikutaro Kakehashi and Dave Smith, the leaders in creating MIDI in the early 1980s, rightfully won a Technical Grammy for their work in 2013.

The digitalization of music existed before MIDI, but creating a universal standard was a hugely important step, according to the composer Adam Neely. Instruments and computers made by different companies could easily communicate with each other using this agreed to protocol, simplifying the creative process and giving musicians choice of what instruments to use. If you want to use a Roland or Yamaha keyboard, or an Apple or Microsoft computer, MIDI can work with all of them.