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Week 14 1. Influence of technology on development of popular music in the 20 th century. 2. Late 60s early 70s progressive rock – ‘The Dark Side’. 3. Case Study – The Velvet Underground. 4. The Punk Phenomena – 1976-79.
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2014 rise of technology

Sep 03, 2014

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Page 1: 2014 rise of technology

Week 14

•  1. Influence of technology on development of popular music in the 20th century.

•  2. Late 60s early 70s progressive rock – ‘The Dark Side’.

•  3. Case Study – The Velvet Underground. •  4. The Punk Phenomena – 1976-79.

Page 2: 2014 rise of technology

Technology and the creation of subcultures

The advance of technology within music in the 20th century has had a liberating effect – broadening creative and listening opportunities to a mass audience.

At the same time it has reduced the sense of any mainstream in music – classical, popular or folk – in which we all participate.

We can all remain within our chosen musical subculture(s) and remain closed to everything else. We live in a musical postmodernism where every thing is relative and value judgements are difficult to make.

Page 3: 2014 rise of technology

Issues

•  Raises economic issues – technology gets cheaper and easier to use - so new refinements and complexities are needed to keep selling the products.

•  Raises creative issues – people using it use it less and less creatively – so much is possible we use it to do only the simplest things

Page 4: 2014 rise of technology

Nineteenth Century Mainstream

•  Idea that before the onset of the 20th century and the development mass culture there was more of a sense of a mainstream style.

•  European art music – general consensus on style – led in the 19th century by Germans – Beethoven, Brahms to Wagner, Bruckner, etc.

•  Popular music also had a general uniformity of style – Waltzes and other dance music, nationalistic music, Music Hall traditions etc.

•  Technology of music widespread and fairly uniform. Based on playing instruments live.

Page 5: 2014 rise of technology

20th century fragmentation

•  Music technology in 20th century both develops a mass industry and a mass market – but also separates and allows sub-genres and subcultures that detract from the mainstream.

•  Today the mass music industry allows us to follow and consume only the sort of music we like – Rap, Classical, Medieval, Thrash Metal, etc.

•  There is no mainstream – but a mosaic of subcultures in music – of which arguably all classical music is but one.

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Pop Industry and Technology

• Pop music industry predicated by technology and there is an argument that technological development, more than anything else, determines the success of the industry in general.

Page 7: 2014 rise of technology

•  Phonograph (wax) to Shellac (78s) to Vinyl (45s and 33s)

•  Crucial part played by the 45 vinyl single in the 50s

•  70s album sales increasingly important •  80s 12 inch singles and CD singles introduced as

the importance of the single declines •  CDs take over from vinyl •  90s DVDs •  Blue Ray DVD?

Formats

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Recording

•  Phonograph •  Electronic mics - 1925 •  Electro-magnetic tape - commercially

available from the late 40s •  Stereo sound developed for the cinema first

available with tape in the 50s - by 60s home stereo record players become available - records increasingly in stereo

Page 9: 2014 rise of technology

Cassettes and CDs •  70s saw compact cassettes widely available for

home taping - particularly of radio - in-car radio/cassette players and `hifidelity’ home stereos now easily affordable. Dolby enhanced appeal

•  By end of 80s cassettes outselling other formats three to one

•  Digital age and CDs from 1982. CD-Roms by 1990s. MP3s and Internet late by 1990s

•  Now DVDs.

Page 10: 2014 rise of technology

Recording

•  The sound engineer/mixer `represents the point where music and technology meet’

•  sound mixers initially technicians - now `artists‘

•  70s and 80s opened up the creative possibilities of new technology and the musician/sound engineer/mixer could be one and the same. E.g. Brian Eno

Page 11: 2014 rise of technology

Case of Brian Eno

Page 12: 2014 rise of technology

Consumer Playback

•  Gramophone, Radio, Reel to reel, Stereo hifi, in-car sound systems, compact cassette and radio, walkman, Ghetto-blaster (boom boxes), CD players, portable digital recorders, mini-disc players, home computers - all have influenced the music industry in various ways. Their sales an important part of the overall industry. Sony a company with interests in all areas.

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Multitracking

•  Les Paul and the 2-track recording. Tape Delay. Close mic-ing

•  Late 50s slapback delay - Sam Philips •  Over-dubs - e.g.- Good Vibrations •  2-track to 8-track - Sergeant Pepper and Pet

Sounds •  32-tracks and more

Page 14: 2014 rise of technology

Electric Guitar

•  Grows out of hawaiian guitar by Leo Fender 1936

•  Acoustic guitars with amplifiers in the 1940s - Charlie Christian a pioneer

•  Les Paul and `the log’. The Les Paul Gibson

•  1948 Fender Broadcaster and 1954 Stratocaster – humbucking pickups

Page 15: 2014 rise of technology

Synths

•  Analogue (subtractive) synths from the mid-50s

•  Commercially available from late 60s - Here Comes the Sun - switched on Bach (Moog IIIc)

•  1970s affordable but still monophonic •  Kraftwerk

Page 16: 2014 rise of technology

Fairlight and Linn Drum

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Polyphonic Synths

•  Opened up many new possibilities •  Kraftwerk (Autobahm first all-pop hit) •  Other forms of synths mid 80s •  then - MIDI - digital revolution •  90s manufacturers trying to use digital

technology to emulate classic early synths

Page 18: 2014 rise of technology

Sampling

•  The Australian produced the Fairlight – cost around £50,000 but could do it all and was an instrument that could be played

•  Buggles - Video killed the radio star 1979 - Trevor Horn/Art of Noise

•  Sampler allowed non-instrument sounds to be used musically - Kate Bush - Baboushka.

•  Sampling could do away with live musicians

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Buggles 1979 – First MTV video in America

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Sequencing and more

•  Sequencing, sampling and multi-tracking together on Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1984)

•  All digital recording (DDD) Dire Straits Brothers in Arms 1985

•  Cut and Paste audio/sampling, Fatboy Slim’s Praise and Paul Hardcastle’s Nineteen

Page 21: 2014 rise of technology

Economics of Technology

•  It gets cheaper. Early Moogs £10,000 now equivalent technology £200.

•  Early 60s multi-tracks could only be done by pro studios – now all digital 8-track costs around £400 with effects. Its possible to have all the technology to do a Sergeant Pepper for less than £1000.

Page 22: 2014 rise of technology

Musical Marxism

•  Means of production in the hands of the people - but now they seldom have the skills to use it!

•  Previous generations would have filtered out poor musicians/singers and amateur music who would never have got to the public - now they can and do all the time.

Page 23: 2014 rise of technology

Talent?

•  Anyone can make a CD-quality 16-bit digital recording - there is no talent filter but the listeners ear. Also technology can correct anything! Quantising and Vocoder.

•  Musicians/singers do not need to be trained - is this good or bad?

•  Live element of performance ever diminishing. Especially since 1980s. Miming to recorded tracks increasingly the norm in pop industry.

Page 24: 2014 rise of technology

New ways of making music

•  Using technology’s strengths to inspire new developments

•  Machine-like timbre of analogue synths developed into experimental pop that was deliberated mechanical – e.g. Tangerine Dream

•  Software sequencers encouraged copying chunks of music - repetitive dance music where special effects had to maintain the interest - filters, etc

Page 25: 2014 rise of technology

Subcultures

•  From a high in the 1960s the pop music sales and progressively reduced – there is no real mainstream pop culture as there was in the 1960s.

•  Music is a global industry that is in crisis – how to get people to pay for their music when it is possible to get free off the internet.

Page 26: 2014 rise of technology

Subcultures

•  In the post modern age – everything is relative and value judgments are not PC.

•  We consume music in a very narrow range – each compartmentalised subcultures knows and cares little about each other.

•  This was not the case in the 1960s – and even less the case in the 1860s.