Sonic Technologies: Popular music, Digital culture and the Creative Process

by Robert Strachan

In the past two decades digital technologies have fundamentally changed the way we think about, make and use popular music. From the production of multimillion selling pop records to the ubiquitous remix that has become a marker of Web 2.0, the emergence of new music production technologies have had a transformative effect upon 21st Century digital culture. Sonic Technologies examines these issues with a specific focus upon the impact of digitization upon creativity; that is, what musicians, cultural producers and prosumers do. For many, music production has moved out of the professional recording studio and into the home. Using a broad range of examples ranging from experimental electronic music to more mainstream genres, the book examines how contemporary creative practice is shaped by the visual and sonic look and feel of recording technologies such as Digital Audio Workstations.

Genres: Music

208 pages, Paperback

Published January 12, 2017

Reviews

[TjeerdFokkens · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is an OK reflection on recent electronic musical practices. The main claim is that the emergence of (cracked) DAWs allowed music to be approached visually and more technically (think auto-tune etc.) This changed the creative process and gave rise to certain new musical styles that wouldn't have existed otherwise.
The good thing of the book is that it has nice anecdotes from practicing musicians and is an overall interesting reflection on contemporary music.
The bad thing about this book is the writing style. The dense academese is over-the-top and at times feels like a caricature of academic writing as it is used to describe simple facts and trends in a complicated, ostensibly precise way.