The Musicology of Record Production

Simon Zagorski-Thomas sets out a framework for the study of record production using current ideas from psychology and sociology.

Simon Zagorski-Thomas (Author)

9781107428348, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 February 2017

278 pages
24.3 x 17 x 1.5 cm, 0.49 kg

Recorded music is as different to live music as film is to theatre. In this book, Simon Zagorski-Thomas employs current theories from psychology and sociology to examine how recorded music is made and how we listen to it. Setting out a framework for the study of recorded music and record production, he explains how recorded music is fundamentally different to live performance, how record production influences our interpretation of musical meaning and how the various participants in the process interact with technology to produce recorded music. He combines ideas from the ecological approach to perception, embodied cognition and the social construction of technological systems to provide a summary of theoretical approaches that are applied to the sound of the music and the creative activity of production. A wide range of examples from Zagorski-Thomas's professional experience reveal these ideas in action.

1. Introduction
2. Why study record production?
3. How should we study record production?
Theoretical interlude 1
4. Sonic cartoons
5. Staging
Theoretical interlude 2
6. The development of audio technology
7. Using technology
Theoretical interlude 3
8. Training, communication and practice
9. Performance in the studio
Theoretical interlude 4
10. Aesthetics and consumer influence
11. The business of record production
Afterword.

Subject Areas: Music recording & reproduction [AVX], Techniques of music / music tutorials [AVS], Musical instruments & instrumental ensembles [AVR], Music: styles & genres [AVG], Theory of music & musicology [AVA]