I'm going to guess that parent meant "electronic music" rather than "digital music". I can see their point, at various times in the history of contemporary music, there has been a preconception that electronic music is worth less than music played by performers, or that it's only good for the dance floor but not for listening. Especially during the time that rock music was big, let's say from the late 50's to the late 70's.
EDIT: I don't know if Switched on Back was mostly sequenced or mostly performed by Wendy on a keyboard, Moog synths of the time offered both options - I'm guessing it was a mix of the two but I might be wrong.
Performed. (And a college professor told me she recorded at half speed.)
The sequences of the time weren't like a midi file is today. I'm used to hearing the repetitive sequences in 1970s music that were a few bars long; if there's any kind of example of programming a Moog to play something more than a few bars, I'd like to see it.
Thanks for the added details. Yes I'm familiar with those early sequencers, I believe that the idea was that you would use them for a musical phrase and then put them together as a longer sequence on tape. Roughly similar to clip mode vs song mode in a modern DAWs (but much more limited).
Its been years since I listened to Wendy's "Secrets of Synthesis," but I don't remember her discussing long sequences or techniques like you describe. The implication is predominantly live keyboard performances.
EDIT: I don't know if Switched on Back was mostly sequenced or mostly performed by Wendy on a keyboard, Moog synths of the time offered both options - I'm guessing it was a mix of the two but I might be wrong.