Abstracts
Mark Katz
(UNC, Chapel Hill)
“The Second Digital Revolution in Music”
This paper will explore the
profound influence of digital technologies on the creation,
dissemination, reception, and consumption of music. In three
case studies I will consider the impact of digital turntables on
the performative art of the hip-hop DJ, the phenomenon of the
digital mash-up and its consequences for musical composition,
and the influence of MP3 blogs and social networking sites such
as MySpace on listening habits and the music business. To
conclude I will contextualize these case studies within an
emerging field of scholarly inquiry, what might be called Music
and Technology Studies.
(Mark Katz (Assistant Professor) holds degrees from the College
of William and Mary (B.A. in philosophy, 1992) and the
University of Michigan (M.A., Ph.D. in musicology, 1999). Before
joining the faculty at UNC, he taught at the Peabody
Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University (1999-2006). His
research and teaching focus on music and technology, popular
music, and performance practice.)
Pauline Stakelon
(UC, Santa Barbara)
“Constructing Sound Fidelity: Transformations in Acoustic and Digital
Cylinder Recording Sounds”
Cylinders recordings as an early form of reproducible sound media
were first used in 1877 and continued to be produced commercially
up until 1929 by Edison. The many cylinders that exist today in
various states of decomposition have become objects of concern for
those with an interest in historical sound recordings. With this
concern leading to preservation efforts converting cylinder sounds
in digital form, what happens to media objects of the past when
they become objects of the present? Moreover, how should a cylinder
sound and with the transformative potential for digital manipulation
readily available, how should a digital file of a cylinder record
sound?
In an age where these digital technologies have been hailed as a
means of freeing content from the object, concerns over the authenticity
of a genuine sound frequently arise for media archivists. In my
research, I discuss the production process of both cylinder recordings
and their digital conversions, revealing how fidelity never actually
existed in the production process. I examine UCSB’s own Cylinder
Preservation and Digitization Project as a means of revealing what
is valued during the conversion process of a historical object to
a sound file. By describing how the cylinders are imbued with meaning
through the concerns of cylinder manufactures, archivists, internet
users and phonograph collectors, I prove that processes concerned
with the objectification of sound are presently motivated not solely
by technological innovation, but by specific social and technological
desires motivated by nostalgia for an imagined sound fidelity.
(Pauline Stakelon is a second year Ph.D. student in UCSB's
Department of Film and Media Studies. Her research interests
include early media technology and visual amusements, media
historiography, archival collections, and LED displays.)
Edmond Johnson
(UC, Santa Barbara)
“Who's Playing the Player Piano—and Can the Talking Machine Sing?:
Shifting Perceptions of Musical Agency in the Early 20th Century”
From a modern perspective, devices that mechanically play music—whether
from perforated roll, grooved disc, or other recorded media—are
commonly perceived as being automatic machines that merely reproduce
a musical performance which was previously created. In the decades
surrounding the turn of the twentieth century, however, the question
of exactly where musical agency should be attributed with these
devices was far more complex. Early mechanical instruments frequently
provided substantial control of the artistic aspects of musical
performance, allowing their operators to identify themselves as
the true "players" of the music in spite of significant mechanical
assistance. Likewise, a parallel situation can be found in the perception
of the fledgling phonograph, at this time a direct competitor to
mechanical instruments in the realm of domestic music making. Indeed,
despite being only able to play previously recorded material, the
phonograph was frequently discussed and advertised in terms that
transcended the boundaries of acoustic reproduction and identified
it as a musical instrument in its own right, an identification only
reinforced by the morphological likeness of the phonograph horn
to those found on conventional wind instruments. Through an exploration
of contemporary views as found in personal accounts, essays, periodicals,
and advertisement, this paper will investigate how these musical
devices evolved not only technologically but also conceptually in
the first decades of their existence.
(Edmond Johnson is a doctoral student in musicology at the University
of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on music of the
early 20th century with a particular concentration on the genesis
of the early music revival. In addition, he has done work in the
field of organology where his interests include the study of mechanical
and electronic instruments.)
Bobby Simmons
(School of Cinematic Arts, USC)
“Banjos and Eskimos: Musical Advertising on Early Radio”
While popular music is ubiquitous in contemporary television
advertising, the practice of using existing tunes for
commercials is hardly new. This paper examines the emergence of
advertising on radio in the 1920s and how music figured
prominently in the development of radio as a commercial medium.
This was a time of great uncertainty and as this paper will
argue, of experimentation born out of economic necessity and a
myriad of industrial and cultural constraints. In this context
several articulations of popular music-as-advertising were
devised including the sponsored music program, theme songs, and
reworked versions of popular songs specifically designed to sell
products.
This paper also attempts to balance the existing cultural
histories of radio, advertising, and music, with a more
political economic approach. The cultural histories emphasize
important discourses within each industry, but at times risk of
losing track of the economic forces that stimulated these
industrial actors to experiment or avoid experimentation with
the then-new medium of radio. In this essay the relationship
between innovation, economics, and industrial discourses are
reconsidered and at times reordered. In light of the shifting
value of popular music today in advertising, internet radio, and
even ring tones, another look at the development of commercial
radio and its use of popular music is vital to understanding
where we have been and where we might be going in the future.
(Bobby Simmons is a doctoral candidate in Critical Studies at
the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.
He earned a Master’s degree in Critical Studies at USC, and has
a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of
Chicago. He is currently working on a dissertation entitled
“Love in Vain: A History of Popular Music in Advertising.”)
Bob Sturm
(UC, Santa Barbara)
“Adaptive Concatenative Sound Synthesis and Its Application to Micromontage
Composition”
Adaptive concatenative sound synthesis (ACSS) is a technique for
generating and transforming digital sound using large libraries
of recorded sound. Variations of sounds are synthesized from short
segments of others in the manner of collage based on a measure of
similarity. In electroacoustic music this has been done by manually
locating, categorizing, arranging and splicing analog or digital
samples—a style termed micromontage. As an automation of micromontage
methods informed by signal processing and extended to databases
of any size, ACSS provides new paths for the art and science of
sound collage. Sound synthesis and design—the general organization
of audio samples—have an opportunity to develop in directions that
are manually prohibitive. Additionally ACSS provides a creative
interface to large databases of sound, where the “query-by-example”
paradigm becomes “synthesize-by-sound-example.”
(Bob L. Sturm is currently a doctoral candidate in electrical and
computer engineering. He is also a computer music composer.)
Travis Allen
(UC, Santa Barbara)
“Electronic Encounter: an Exploration of the Aesthetics of Art
and Pop”
Both electronic dance music (EDM) and electronic art music (EAM)
draw from a similar lineage and trace their history to the early
pioneers of electronic music such as Pierre Schaeffer, Edgar
Varese, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Morton Subotnik. Scholarship
has recognized this legacy by linking both EDM and EAM to these
early innovators. However, the boundaries placed around art and
pop can lead us to ignore the similarities between contemporary
EDM and EAM artists. What happens when an EDM artist borrows
from an avant-garde composer such as Steve Reich? Why would an
EAM composer choose not to use a repetitive beat pattern? The
categories that have been built around art and pop often blind
scholars from how these frames form and shape artistic
creations.
This paper focuses on the convergent and divergent aesthetics
between EDM and EAM, and probes the idea of differentiation and
assimilation between art and pop. To explore this phenomenon, I
will look at The Orb's track "Little Fluffy Clouds." This track
samples the third movement of Steve Reich's Electric
Counterpoint. "Little Fluffy Clouds" represents a point of
collision between the art and pop realms, and can reveal much
about what is at stake in the art/pop divide. In sampling Reich,
The Orb both highlights and destroys these categorical borders.
By borrowing from an avant-garde composer, The Orb elevates its
status by displaying a large breadth of musical knowledge. Thus,
the classification of Reich as avant-garde helps shape the
perception of The Orb. In this instance, boundaries are a
necessary and important means for perception, giving the
practitioners a sense of identity and self.
However, these demarcations present us with a set of
preconceived notions that may limit our understanding. The Orb's
sampling of Electric Counterpoint highlights the
malleability of the boundaries between art and pop. Indeed, EDM
and EAM share many similar aesthetics. Both consider themselves
outside mainstream music creation. Both employ electronic means
that allow for music making that would be impossible, or
extremely difficult to produce without sound manipulation and
looping. And, especially in terms of Reich and EDM, both use
rhythm as an integral and primary focus of their music. Thus,
the line between art and pop begins to be less clear. EDM, with
its developmental aspects, and with its movement toward
climactic moments, begins to look much like music from the art
tradition. In contrast, Reich's Electric Counterpoint,
with its loops that are fairly stagnant, has much in common with
music outside the art tradition. This convergence of EDM and EAM
demands reassessment, acknowledging that electronic music should
not be limited to conventional categories.
(Travis Allen is currently a doctoral student in Musicology at
the University of California, Santa Barbara. His focus is on
late 20th century music, with an emphasis on the boundaries between
art and pop in electronic music. )