Pop Music - Technology and Creativity: Trevor Horn and the Digital Revolution

by Warner,Timothy

• ISBN13: 9780754631323
• ISBN10: 075463132X
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2003-06-11
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This highly original and accessible book draws on the author's personal experience as a musician, producer and teacher of popular music to discuss the ways in which audio technology and musical creativity in pop music are inextricably bound together. This relationship, the book argues, is exemplified by the work of Trevor Horn, who is widely acknowledged as the most important, innovative and successful British pop record producer of the early 1980s.

Author Biography

Timothy Warner is Lecturer in Popular Music and Head of Music Technology and Studio Production at the University of Salford, UK.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	viii
General Editor's Preface	ix
Acknowledgements	x
Introduction	xi
Part One: Pop Music	1	(38)
1 Characteristics of Pop Music	3	(15)
Pop and rock	3	(2)
Pop as a format: the single	5	(1)
Short and sweet	6	(1)
The art of the familiar	7	(2)
Simplicity and repetition	9	(1)
Round and round, like a record	10	(1)
Machine aesthetics	11	(1)
Pop and television	12	(1)
Pop and commerce	13	(1)
Pop and fashion	14	(1)
Let's dance	14	(1)
Image	15	(1)
Mixed media	16	(2)
2 The Production of Pop Music	18	(21)
An aural art	19	(1)
The recording studio as resource	20	(1)
From analogue to digital	20	(2)
Using technology	22	(1)
Multitrack recording	22	(1)
Signal processing	23	(1)
MIDI sequencing	24	(4)
Sound synthesis and sampling	28	(3)
Recording the voice	31	(1)
The fade-out	32	(1)
The record producer	33	(6)
Part Two: Technology and Creativity	39	(100)
3 'Video Killed the Radio Star' by The Buggles	41	(9)
The ghost in the machine	41	(2)
Music	43	(1)
Lyrics	44	(1)
Production and arrangement	45	(2)
Disco killed the radio star	47	(3)
4 'Buffalo Gals' by Malcolm McLaren	50	(12)
A charismatic manager	50	(2)
From manager to artist	52	(1)
Applied cultural theory	52	(1)
The anthropological connection	53	(1)
Stylistic collage	54	(1)
'Buffalo Gals'	55	(2)
Structure	57	(1)
Timbre	58	(1)
Half heard words	59	(3)
5 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' by Yes	62	(13)
Yes: from progressive rock to chart pop	62	(2)
90125	64	(1)
A new image	64	(1)
Live/recorded	65	(1)
Chart pop music	66	(1)
'Owner of a Lonely Heart'	66	(1)
Form: repetition and suspension	67	(2)
Timbre and gesture	69	(1)
The artificial guitar	70	(1)
The multitracked vocal	71	(1)
Machine drums	72	(3)
6 'Relax' by Frankie Goes to Hollywood	75	(16)
Zang Tuum Tumb	75	(1)
Another band from Liverpool	76	(2)
The image	78	(1)
Too much, too young?	79	(1)
The making of 'Relax'	80	(1)
'Remix, Re Use It'	81	(1)
Banned	82	(1)
The sound of 'Relax'	83	(1)
A novel approach to musical form	84	(2)
What's the hook?	86	(1)
Repetition in 'Relax'	87	(4)
7 Who's Afraid of The Art of Noise?	91	(15)
What's in a name?	92	(1)
Who's afraid of The Art of Noise?	93	(1)
Cover imagery	94	(1)
Sampling	95	(1)
Recording records	96	(1)
Listening to samples	97	(1)
Sampling and The Art of Noise	98	(3)
Studio made	101	(1)
Timbre	101	(1)
Space	102	(4)
8 'Jewel', 'Duel' and 'Jewelled' by Propaganda	106	(17)
Recordings revisited	106	(2)
Propaganda	108	(2)
A Secret Wish: pretentious packaging	110	(2)
From engineer to producer	112	(1)
The music of A Secret Wish	113	(3)
'Jewel'/'Duel'/'Jewelled'	116	(1)
'Jewel'/'Duel'/'Jewelled' - the structure	116	(2)
'Jewel'/'Duel'/'Jewelled' - the sound	118	(2)
Technology and Propaganda	120	(3)
9 Slave to the Rhythm by Grace Jones	123	(16)
Slave to the fashion	123	(1)
Slave to the image	124	(2)
Slave to the cliché	126	(1)
Slave to the Rhythm	127	(1)
'Re-written by machine'	128	(1)
Concerto for Synclavier	129	(2)
Slave to the sampler	131	(1)
Space	132	(1)
Spatial orchestration	133	(1)
Words	134	(1)
Slave to the remix	135	(4)
Conclusion	139	(4)
Appendix 1: Interview with Trevor Horn	143	(14)
Appendix 2: Trevor Horn Discography	157	(3)
Discography	160	(2)
Bibliography	162	(5)
Index	167