Innovation and tradition in metal music production

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Thomas

Contemporary music technology affords limitless potential and has changed the way record producers need to work with metal music, often employing a far more fragmented approach. This article explores technology’s influence on producing metal records through the lived experiences of seven renowned metal music producers, and it is argued that what can be perceived as traditional production processes are production processes that favour capturing performances, embracing the potential of technology. In contrast, the construction of recorded performances through anticipated uses of technology often embodies innovative production methodologies. There are tensions caused by the anticipated use of technology and the participants highlight that commercial and artistic pressures have informed prescriptive and homogenous production methodologies under the guise of innovation.

Human Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Slatman

AbstractThis paper aims to mobilize the way we think and write about fat bodies while drawing on Jean-Luc Nancy’s philosophy of the body. I introduce Nancy’s approach to the body as an addition to contemporary new materialism. His philosophy, so I argue, offers a form of materialism that allows for a phenomenological exploration of the body. As such, it can help us to understand the lived experiences of fat embodiment. Additionally, Nancy’s idea of the body in terms of a “corpus”—a collection of pieces without a unity—together with his idea of corpus-writing—fragmentary writing, without head and tail—can help us to mobilize fixed meanings of fat. To apply Nancy’s conceptual frame to a concrete manifestation of fat embodiment, I provide a reading of Roxane Gay’s memoir Hunger (2017). In my analysis, I identify how the materiality of fat engenders the meaning of embodiment, and how it shapes how a fat body can and cannot be a body. Moreover, I propose that Gay’s writing style—hesitating and circling – involves an example of corpus-writing. The corpus of corpulence that Gay has created gives voice to the precariousness of a fat body's materialization.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104837132110344
Author(s):  
Jason Fick ◽  
Chris Bulgren

Increased availability of tablets at home and in classrooms provides educators access to a powerful tool for music instruction. Music production lessons on tablets offer alternate approaches to developing music literacies while teaching valuable technology skills. These activities are ideal for general music education because they align with contemporary music practices and are adaptable to a variety of learning environments (in person, remote, and hybrid). This article will present a model for tablet-based music production instruction in the general music classroom that aligns with the National Core Arts Standards and accompanying process components grounded in five essential skills: sequencing, recording, editing, effects processing, and mixing.


2014 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 719-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy R. Brown ◽  
Christine Griffin

In this paper we engage with new cultural theories of class that have identified media representations of ‘excessive’ white heterosexual working-class femininity as a ‘constitutive limit’ of incorporation into dominant (middle-class) modes of neoliberal subjectivity and Bourdieu's thesis that classification is a form of symbolic violence that constitutes both the classifier and the classified. However, what we explore are the implications of such arguments for those modes of white heterosexual working-class masculinity that continue to reproduce themselves in forms of overtly masculinist popular culture. We do so through a critical examination of the symbolic representation of the genre of heavy metal music within contemporary music journalism. Employing a version of critical discourse analysis, we offer an analysis of representative reviews, derived from a qualitative sample of the UK music magazine, New Musical Express (1999–2008). This weekly title, historically associated with the ideals of the ‘counter culture’, now offers leadership of musical tastes in an increasingly segmented, niche-oriented marketplace. Deploying a refined model of the inscription process outlined by Skeggs, our analysis demonstrates how contemporary music criticism symbolically attaches negative attributes and forms of personhood to the working-class male bodies identified with heavy metal culture and its audience, allowing dominant middle-class modes of cultural authority to be inscribed within matters of musical taste and distinction.


Author(s):  
Nicki Moore

The need for career development practitioners to develop digital skills is a subject which has been revisited many times. This article draws on research undertaken in the UK in 2019 to establish the barriers and enablers in the use of technology to delivery career guidance and the training needs of the career development workforce to make the most of what digital technology has to offer. The research found that career development practitioners were using digital technology and applications both in their practice with clients and in the way they manage their business. This has prepared them to respond to the challenges in delivering career development services that the COVID-19 pandemic presented.


Author(s):  
Simon Bell

This chapter discusses how a systems method for sharing perspectives on and then agreeing sustainability indicators was conceived and then applied in a wide variety of places. Central to this method's evolution were the intentions of its initial creators and the contributions of the different project collaborators and participants in the related workshops. Central to the method's effectiveness are the way two diagram types were used to visualise, and make more relevant to specified communities, indicators of environmental sustainability. The chapter is also another example of the interplay between method and visualisation, both of the method and within the method, and that it can be difficult to say which is the chicken and which is the egg. They are complementary parts of a holistic and ongoing process, particularly where the main objective is action to improve people's lives rather than research on people's lived experiences.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Dobson

This article presents a case study exploring the interrelationship between talk and learning in collaborative computer-based music production. Framed by Neil Mercer and Karen Littleton’s Sociocultural perspective on collaborative learning, research on talk and ‘thinking together’ for learning, this study observed two undergraduate composers as they co-produced a contemporary dance film soundtrack across one academic term. The composers recorded their collaboration, providing data for a systematic moment-by-moment micro-analysis focusing on the audio-visual aspects of this project over twelve weeks. Sociocultural discourse analysis methods were used to explore how social, cultural and concrete situations shaped the students’ developing common knowledge. Interaction analysis has been used to code turn functions and display talk characteristics and patterns. This research found that collaborative computer music production is a ‘cumulative conversation’, comprised of many ‘thinking spaces’ that foster ‘post-dialogic’ activity’ and ‘connection building’. In this case the students developed new ‘tools for progressive discourse’ providing them access to the remote and private ‘thinking spaces’ that are characteristic of longer-term co-creating. This research argues for the development of new pedagogies that focus on understanding how talk shapes collaborative learning within music technology.


TURBA ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-84

This article examines the practice of concert organization from an ethical perspective. By examining the field in relation to the notion of value, it explores the processes by which curators produce live acts, and the issues they face when they do so. The central argument traces a trajectory from the material to the immaterial aspects. The first part (Context and Value) shows how financial and cultural matters are embedded into live music production, and frames curatorship as the articulation of their co-dependent relations. The second part (Praxis) explores how music curators breathe value creation in their work context, by comparing interviews with the directors of Venice Biennale Musica, London Contemporary Music Festival, and No-Nation. The third part (Risk and Ethics) introduces risk-taking as a unit of value measurement, and points out the force of the curatorial in its power to confer value.


Author(s):  
Charilaos Lavranos ◽  
Petros Kostagiolas ◽  
Joseph Papadatos

Music information seeking incorporates the human activities that are carried out for the search and retrieval of music information. In recent years, the evolution of music technology holds a central role affecting the nature of music information seeking behavior. The research area that deals with the accessibility and the retrievability process of music information is known as Music Information Retrieval (MIR). This chapter focuses on the presentation of MIR technologies which has a direct impact in the way that individuals, as well as different music communities such as composers, performers, listeners, musicologists, etc., handle and utilize music information. The aim of this chapter is to investigate the way different music communities interact with MIR systems. Our approach is based on a selected literature review regarding the MIR systems and the information seeking behavior of the musicians.


2021 ◽  
pp. 27-39
Author(s):  
Will Kuhn ◽  
Ethan Hein

This chapter presents an optimal equipment list for establishing a creative music technology lab. While preservice music teachers are taught how to purchase and maintain instruments, they are rarely given equivalent advice for music production tools. This chapter provides practical recommendations for purchasing and maintaining hardware, software, and furniture, including computers, digital audio workstation software, headphones, MIDI controllers, microphones, tables, podiums, display screens, and soundproofing. Suggestions are given for arrangement and design of the overall space as well as design of individual workstations. The chapter also includes suggestions for managing wear and tear on equipment, for maintenance and cleaning routines, and for sustainable budgeting. Finally, for situations where the optimal setup is not immediately attainable, the various items described here are ranked in terms of priority.


2021 ◽  
pp. 3-11
Author(s):  
Will Kuhn ◽  
Ethan Hein

Research has shown the need for new types of music classes that emphasize amateur music production and popular music. The new types of programs contrast with traditional classical and performance-based music programs. Digital audio production offers an unprecedented opportunity to support students in active, culturally authentic music-making. A successful music technology program requires a change from the teacher-led ensemble model to a creative workshop structure. Furthermore, it requires the recognition that current popular styles have their own distinct aesthetics and creative approaches. Project-based learning also requires teachers to develop their own pedagogical creativity. This approach can attract students who do not currently participate in or identify with school music, but who nevertheless consider themselves to be musicians. The constructivist philosophy of music education, using teaching strategies that support students’ agency in their own learning, fosters self-motivation and a critical stance toward popular culture.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document