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Electronic music produc0on: technology, technique and talent
#med332 [email protected]
Overview
• Technology • Technique • Talent
Useful sources
Wri?en & designed by Evan Linardi
technologies as processes manifested as products -‐ Jensen 1990: 7
“The ability to remix media, hack products, or otherwise tamper with consumer
culture is their birthright, and they won't let outmoded intellectual property laws
stand in their way” -‐ Tapsco? & Williams, 2008: 52
Fairlight CMI (1979)
ABC-‐TV -‐ 1980
Kate Bush – ‘Babooshka’ – Never For Ever (1980)
Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force – ‘Planet Rock’ (1982)
Frankie Goes to Hollywood – ‘Relax’ (1983)
[Trevor Horn’s] ‘claim that he had assembled the whole thing, using the Fairlight CMI to sample Holly Johnson’s voice rather than allowing him to actually sing anything, and with no other band input’ -‐-‐ Andrew Blake in Cook et al, 2009: p49
Kylie Minogue – ‘Sweet Music’ -‐ Body Language (2004)
‘In 1979, the use of Page C and Music Composi0on Language (MCL) meant that not only was the Fairlight a synthesizer and sampler, it also incorporated musical composi0on abili0es. By 1982, a real-‐0me programmable sequencer was added. In 1983, the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) and Society for Mo0on Picture and TV Engineers 0me code (SMPTE) were supported’ -‐ Brabazon, 2012: 101-‐2
Akai S-‐series S612 pictured
Deadmau5 on DJing
“It takes two days to learn, as long as you can count to four”
“People are […] smartening up about who does what – but there’s s0ll bu?on-‐pushers geong paid half a million.” -‐ Rolling Stone, 2012
2 ar0cles on h?p://pop-‐music-‐cult.com
Part 1: the dub
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‘All any prime minister had to do to gauge the winds was to listen closely to the week’s 45 rpm single releases; they were like poli0cal polls set to melody and riddim’ -‐ Jeff Chang, 2005: 31
Arthur ‘Duke’ Reid: “King of Sound & Blues” 1956, 1957 and 1958
Rudolph ‘Ruddy’ Redwood & Byron Smith
1962 – Jamaican independence 1964 – Reid built recording studio 1967 – The Paragons
Part 2: the ‘mix’
Nicky Siano
1972 – Botel club, Fire Island, New York
Part 3: the ‘edit’
Law of the Land starts with clapping and [Gibbons] used to extend that sec0on in real 0me but there were a few fuck-‐ups, so I said, ‘Why don’t we record the song over and over again, just the beginning of it, and then splice the magne0c tape together?’... Then we pressed it to acetate. -‐ Lawrence, 2008: 288
Part 4: the ‘break’
1967 – Clive Campbell (AKA DJ Kool Herc) arrives in the Bronx from Jamaica
“We might an0cipate a new music based on reworking MP3 recordings pulled from the Internet . . . . In this respect, the Internet is more than just a means of distribu0on, it becomes a raison d’être for a culture based on audio data”
– Riddell, 2001, p.341 cited in Shiga, 2007: 94
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The Prodigy – ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ – The Fat Of The Land (1997)
"In the old days, samples were $2,500 or $1,500. … I paid $2,000 for a Gladys Knight sample for 'Can It Be All So Simple' off Enter the Wu-‐Tang (36 Chambers). That was a big intro, and the hook was repe00ous. Something like that nowadays would cost $10,000."
• “mass culture provides the building blocks for the stuff we create” – Lessig in Lasica, 2005
Industry response
• lobbying for legisla0ve changes • court ac0ons • educa0on and propaganda campaigns • technological means
• For more info see Allen (2008) and Lessig (2004, 2008)
Expansion of U.S. copyright law (assuming authors create their works 35 years prior to their death)
Piracy used to be about folks who made and sold large numbers of counterfeit copies. Today, the term “piracy” seems to describe any unlicensed ac0vity, especially if the person engaging in it is a male teenager. The content industry calls some things that are unques0onably legal “piracy”’. -‐ Litman, 2000: 7-‐8
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h?p://remix.nin.com/
h?p://www.djsasha.com/mailer/
Copyright/copywrong?
• Technological shiys • Cultural shiys • Legal shiys
• DMCA • Fair use/dealing
• Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act
If you were sued every time you accidentally violated copyright law in a single day how much would you owe?
Conclusion
• Less than 2% of works have any con0nuing commercial value (Lessig, 2004)
• CTEA = Mickey Mouse act? • ‘Rent-‐seeking’? • S0fling crea0vity?
• ‘Sound desk’ -‐ Rob Jewi? • ‘The Beatles Part 2 8-‐track’ -‐ Paul Riismandel • ‘mixtape from a friend in college’ – jessamyn west • ‘BASF DAT Digital Audio Tape’ – windthoek • ‘IMGP6827_minidisc’ – Rae Allen • ‘Akai APC40’ -‐ David J • ‘Moog Li?le Pha?y Tribute Edi0on’ – Leo Jun • ‘Radium 49 M-‐Audio Keyboard – 5’ – Dave Sag • ‘roland tb-‐303 bass line’ – dr. mo?e • ‘Sample this’ – John Athayde • ‘Analog music playing device’ – Robert Frieberger • ‘laws for atoms’ – Will Lion
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