Repeated Takes: A Short History of Recording and its Effects on Music

by Michael Chanan

Repeated Takes  is the first general book on the history of the recording industry, covering the entire field from Edison’s talking tin foil of 1877 to the age of the compact disc.

Michael Chanan considers the record as a radically new type of commodity which turned the intangible performance of music into a saleable object, and describes the upset which this caused in musical culture. He What goes on in a recording studio? How does it affect the music? Do we listen to music differently because of reproduction?

Repeated Takes  relates the growth and development of the industry, both technically and economically; the effects of the microphone on interpretation in both classical and popular music; and the impact of all these factors on musical styles and taste. This highly readable book also traces the connections between the development of recording and the rise of new forms of popular music, and discusses arguments among classical musicians about microphone technique and studio practice.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

214 pages, Paperback

First published May 17, 1995

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think there’s a lot to be said for low-fi but I can’t remember ever seeing anyone celebrating its pleasures. My example - one of a great many - is a song called “Times are So Tight” by Charlie McFadden from 1932. My recording of this was taped by somebody from the radio - actually from a BBC World Service series called “Aspects of the Blues” in which an extraordinarily plum-voiced English character named Francis Smith strung together 20 minute programmes on particular themes, you know :

And here is Francis Smith with Aspects of the Blues. This week, Death.

Or

And here is Francis Smith with Aspects of the Blues. This week, Disease and Bankruptcy.

So anyway, first there’s radio atmospherics occasionally (zzt, crackle). Then, the guy I got this from had copied his original tape onto a cassette and mailed it to me. So now you’ve got radio atmospherics plus an extra dose of tape hiss. Then, of course, Charlie McFadden’s “Times are So Tight” was issued on a 78 originally, which because most copies were used as target practice or as weapons in domestic disputes, or as dinner plates for the family dog, copies are rare, and of the 7 known copies, dog meals have indeed been eaten from every one, so you are going to get sizzling crackling noises when you play the 78.

So we have radio atmospherics, tape hiss, and old 78 crackles. Then, we have the desperate limitations of the original recording studio back in 1932. Those recording studios were primitive. One mike, one take, bang, $25, that’s it! On this record there’s a piano backing up Charlie and his acoustic guitar, but it sounds like it was way down the hall, very muffled. It’s a ghost of an idea of a dream of a piano. And then, there’s Charlie’s less than crystal diction. Blues singers were rejected immediately if they didn’t slur their words. If they e-nun-ci-ated they’d be slung out on their ear. But – even if they had had a whole course of elocution lessons, their songs would still be peppered with the black slang current in the 1930s

Got a 30 point six, rider gone calm you down

I’m stealin back to my good old used ta be

I’m goin where the Southern cross the dog

Tell me high yella, why you got that black crepe roun your door

And so - because of or in spite of, I don’t know, but with all the radio atmospherics, and the cassette tape hiss, and the 78 crackles and the ghost piano and the mumbles and the incomprehensible slang and all, Charlie McFadden doing "Times are So Tight" is , for me, just a great thing. Low-fi. The way music really is. The way life is too.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall this is quite, quite compelling. Chanan gives an excellent attempt at talking about how recording allows music to move beyond its initial context in fascinating ways, and it's a very rare author who can combine his levels of scope and depth. Some of his writing on popular music does seem a little hokey—he certainly gets the economic impact of things, but occasionally misses the aesthetic subtleties either due to unfortunate word choice or outright unfamiliarity. (For instance, while it was fair to consider techno a subgenre of disco when he was writing this, and club djs certainly home record demo tapes showcasing their selection and mixing capabilities, techno djs have hardly ever been worried about their "scratching" abilities—that's an aesthetic & technique far more associated with hip hop than techno.) And at certain points—the end in particular—Chanan seems comfortable to romanticize music in staggeringly general terms. But despite this, it's quite a good read, and very recommended!

[Vel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful & well writ. (chapter on sampling & electronics now largely obsolete)