Sonic Technologies: Popular Music, Digital Culture and the Creative Process

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Awarded a Certificate of Merit at the ARSC Awards for Excellence 2018 In the past two decades digital technologies have fundamentally changed the way we think about, make and use popular music. From the production of multimillion selling pop records to the ubiquitous remix that has become a marker of Web 2.0, the emergence of new music production technologies have had a transformative effect upon 21st Century digital culture. Sonic Technologies examines these issues with a specific focus upon the impact of digitization upon creativity; that is, what musicians, cultural producers and prosumers do. For many, music production has moved out of the professional recording studio and into the home. Using a broad range of examples ranging from experimental electronic music to more mainstream genres, the book examines how contemporary creative practice is shaped by the visual and sonic look and feel of recording technologies such as Digital Audio Workstations.

Reviews

Sonic Technologies brilliantly illustrates the consequences of digitization for musicmaking. Strachan illustrates and questions not only the music that results from the use of new audio technologies but delves into the design of the technology to focus on the affordances, sonic and visual, that shape the creative and recording processes. Throughout the book the focus on creativity, aesthetics and the process of making and recording music make this a uniquely insightful book. * Steve Jones, UIC Distinguished Professor of Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA *
This book is a timely publication and an excellent all-around primer on the debates concerning technological affordance and musical creativity, as well as issues specifically associated with DAW-based tools. * Mark Marrington, York St John University, UK *

Author Bio

Robert Strachan is a Lecturer in Music based in the School of Music at the University of Liverpool.