I have often held the belief that Pete Townshend and The Who were the first ROCK artists to use a synthesizer on a rock album with "Who's Next" in 1971. Is this true? I know other people were using the synthesizer prior to this but mainly as a noise box to produce sound effects. Pete Townshend was the first artist to use it as an actual instrument. Again is this true, or were there other mainstream groups using the synthesizer in the same way that Townshend was. By the way to here what I mean by saying "Using the synthesizer as an actual instrument" listen to "Baba O'Riley" or "Won't Get Fooled Again".