Two probing questions permeate the variety of chapters in this collection. Where might we further locate the role of ‘producer’ and sites of production in the study of music and sound? How can the term ‘production’ be more broadly understood and applied? This edited volume aims to bring together a disparate set of analytical approaches to the topic. The proposed multidisciplinary attitude compares, contrasts and combines critical thought from ‘several distinct fields … with divergent theoretical frameworks and methodologies’ (p. 1).
Proposing to bring together and solidify methodology from across the varied academic field of study in sound and music production, the book simultaneously aims to diversify the subjects of scholarly conversation. Until now these have typically concentrated on production from within traditional studio spaces, and also often only analysing popular music from the English-speaking global West. This volume looks further afield, ‘broadening the discourse beyond the recording workplace and into domains such as fieldwork, television, the Internet, and live music’ (p. 12), and, notably, including the topic of gender. Case study examples move from within popular music, across ethnomusicology and towards experimental sound arts practices. This pluralistic approach is admirable and generally successful, in that the critical conversation is certainly opened-up by this publication – although around half of the examples here are indeed from rock/pop, often Western genre-versions.
The co-editor’s introductory chapter illustrates the divergent and disparate variety of methodologies and frameworks used by scholars in the academic discourse around the production of music and sound since the 1970s. Four distinct fields are identified and interlinked, with comprehensive current literature reviews for each. Stephen Cotterill’s term phonomusicology (2010) is cited to have ‘broadened the scope of analytical priorities within popular musicology to include the sonically discernible extramusical aspects of recordings in addition to traditional, commonly foregrounded aspects’ (p. 2). Bennett and Bates continue by surveying the sociological ‘production of culture perspective’, calling to reassess concepts of the music ‘industry’ and studio-based sites of production, also inviting a more nuanced, flexible and ‘site-specific consideration of how certain technologies become part of social formations and cultural practices’ (p. 8). The topic of the agency and role of the sound recordist is then considered, with the concept of ‘the producer as auteur’. Finally, the new academic subfield of ‘the art of record production’ is profiled through work by Simon Zagorski-Thomas and Simon Frith (2012), who argue to remove a binary aesthetic/technical understanding of studio decision-making process of production. Bennett and Bates highlight further room for consideration around social perspectives that the Zagorski-Thomas/Frith approach has, considering the art of record production to be ‘antithesis of the production of culture perspective’ (p. 11), and inviting a combination of these two, along with the other perspectives described.
This introductory chapter alone is a significant contribution to the field, and exemplifies the ambition the editors have for this volume overall. Their dense methodological interweaving of ideas plays out in two subsequent, individually authored chapters (one from each editor), both displaying this joined-up thinking clearly within their methodological approaches. Elsewise – understandably for new work such as this – it is generally the curated combination of chapters which provides the reader with a combined methodological framework – an effect that is more successful in some sections of the book than others.
The volume is divided into six sections, the titles of which clearly frame the combination or juxtaposition of topics found within, but which do not otherwise present a narrative arc. ‘Part One – Situating Production: Place, Space and Gender’ looks at the sites of production through field recording practice, rock and electronica. ‘Part Two – Beyond Representation’ contains two ethnographic accounts of music production from Istanbul and Australia, where the ethnographer/producer role provides new insights into TV series music, and indigenous-Western fusion recordings respectively. ‘Part Three – Electronic Music’ joins an account of current acousmatic music education practice with a discussion of playful use of controller technologies in EDM and hip-hop. ‘Part Four – Technology and Technique’ presents an alternative history to de-mythologise retro studio practices, in parallel with a ‘thick’ technical-ethnography of decision-making in the use of auto-tune. ‘Part Five – Mediating Sound and Silence’ includes a theoretical discussion which proposes a conceptual framework for previously ignored aspects of sound, alongside a survey of instances of recorded ‘silence’, both pre-and-post John Cage’s 4′33″. Finally, ‘Part Six – Virtuality and Online Production’ presents case studies of online music communities engaging in remix contests, and a critical analysis of the relationship between crowdfunding and wider ‘alternative modes of production’.
The scope of this volume – evident from the summary above – is extensive and multifaceted. Editor Eliot Bates’s insightful chapter ‘Producing TV Series Music in Istanbul’ (pp. 81–97) draws from the author’s reflexive ethnographic insights in the field, read through the proposed joined-up methodological lens. The results are fascinating, original and potentially more widely applicable than the title might suggest – presenting new understandings of ‘production’ and ‘the producer’ as multiple in roles, mutable in form, and both variable and nuanced in their outcomes.
Tom Western’s ‘Field Recording and the Production of Place’ critically locates the recordist in the field – whether heard through sound archive, peer-to-peer sound map, or history of ethnomusicological field practice. Crucially, he situates the production of these recordings within various fields, while also challenging the traditional studio/field binary. His robust argument is an important addition for various practitioners and scholars, tying together threads of current discussion, including those published in this journal.
In ‘“All Sounds Are Created Equal”: Mediating Democracy in Acousmatic Education’, Patrick Valiquet tackles the ‘inherent’ tension found within the historically ideological standpoint of acousmatic music as ‘the only form of auditory discipline that would allow all musics to manifest their true diversity’. It is this which, he asserts, ‘has made acousmatic music a fertile ground for contestation, especially in the form of calls for aesthetic democratization over the past few decades’ (p. 125). The chapter turns to look at ‘how politics of listening are mediated in the context of formal academic production training’, focusing on the ‘eclectic’ Quebec sound. The chapter concludes with a useful and effective critique of the gender politics inherent within the thought that ‘all sounds are created equal’. This unexpected, thought-provoking conclusion makes up for the somewhat disappointing chapter ‘“An Indestructible Sound”: Locating Gender in Genres Using Different Music Production Approaches’, in which Paula Wolfe’s work unfortunately seems to reinforce many more gendered norms than it challenges.
Richard Osborne’s ‘Six Types of Silence’ acknowledges the established conventions related to Cage’s 4′33″, writing ‘it has proven difficult, conceptually, to move beyond Cage’s blank score. However, if we concentrate instead on record production we find many new silences [… that] introduce new theoretical ideas’. The new silences are found to include those which subvert digital listening/streaming convention – mainly drawing on examples from recent popular music recordings.
In summary, Critical Approaches to the Production of Music and Sound pluralises the field – connecting perspectives on production which range from ethnographic and analytical, socio-political/socio-cultural readings to technologically determinist viewpoints – while simultaneously broadening understanding around the term ‘production’ and roles of a given ‘producer’. As well as individual chapters providing useful aids for research and pedagogy, the volume as a whole lays good groundwork for the wider field of study, indicating ways in which this emerging area of scholarship can continue to grow, in a joined-up manner.
