‘Past’ masters, present beats: exponential sound staging as sample-based (re)mastering in contemporary hip hop practice

Lists

Exarchos, Michail ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1045-3540 (2020) ‘Past’ masters, present beats: exponential sound staging as sample-based (re)mastering in contemporary hip hop practice. In: Perspectives On Music Production: Mastering in Music. Taylor & Francis/Routledge, Focal Press, Bushey. ISBN 9780367227197

[thumbnail of POMP5_C 'Past' Masters _ Present Beats (M_Exarchos).pdf]

Preview

PDF
POMP5_C 'Past' Masters _ Present Beats (M_Exarchos).pdf - Accepted Version
Download (7MB) | Preview

Official URL: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429276590-10

Abstract

Previous research dealing with sample-based music production has favored notions of musical borrowing in sampling over the sonic rationale of the practice—that is, the appeal of past ‘sonic signatures’ to samplists and the processes involved in incorporating them within contemporary phonographic constructs. This appeal can be attributed not only to recording and mixing approaches, but also to mastering strategies. A more recent phenomenon in hip hop music production involves practitioners creating their own material for subsequent sampling and infusing it with convincing phonographic qualities, to satisfy a sample-based aesthetic that until recently has relied heavily on the past. In this sample-based context, the lesser attention given to the sonic ‘object’ calls for a focused investigation of the variables involved in the fusion of ‘past’ (or previously constructed) and present phonographic processes. This inquiry focuses on the merging of ‘staging’ illusions as a subset of such variables, questioning how full-range masters function as source content in sample-based engineering and production processes. The examination explores how hip hop producers negotiate the dimensions of ‘depth,’ ‘height,’ and ‘width’ imbued into masters when used as sampled sources, and the ways in which beat-makers stage previously-constructed mix architectures into newly-juxtaposed sonic illusions.

Item Type:	Book Section
Identifier:	10.4324/9780429276590-10
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge/CRC Press in Perspectives On Music Production: Mastering in Music on 30 December 2020, available online: https://www.routledge.com/9780367227197 or https://www.crcpress.com/9780367227197
Subjects:	Music Music > Musicology Music > Record production
Related URLs:	Publisher Publisher
Depositing User:	Michail Exarchos
Date Deposited:	30 Apr 2020 12:44
Last Modified:	29 Jun 2022 02:45
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/6875

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)

View Item

References

[1] Moylan, W. Considering Space in Music, Journal on the Art of Record Production, Vol. 4, (2009).

[2] Moylan, W. Understanding and Crafting the Mix: The Art of Recording, 3rd edition, Focal Press, Oxon, (2014) [1992].

[3] Lacasse, S. ‘Listen to My Voice:’ The Evocative Power of Vocal Staging in Recorded Rock Music and Other Forms of Vocal Expression, PhD thesis, University of Liverpool, (2000).

[4] Zagorski-Thomas, S. The Stadium in your Bedroom: Functional Staging, Authenticity and the Audience-led Aesthetic in Record Production, Popular Music, Vol. 29, No.2, (2010), pp. 251-266.

[5] Zagorski-Thomas, S. The Medium in the Message: Phonographic Staging Techniques that Utilize the Sonic Characteristics of Reproduction Media, Journal of the Art of Record Production, Vol. 4, (2009).

[6] Holland, M. Rock Production and Staging in Non-studio Spaces: Presentations of Space in Left Or Right’s Buzzy, Journal on the Art of Record Production, Vol. 8, (2013).

[7] Liu-Rosenbaum, A. The Meaning in the Mix: Tracing a Sonic Narrative in ‘When The Levee Breaks,’ Journal on the Art of Record Production, Vol. 7, (2012).

[8] Gibson, D. The Art of Mixing: A Visual Guide to Recording, Engineering, and Production, 2nd edition, Course Technology, Boston, MA, (2008).

[9] Moore, A. F. and Dockwray, R. The Establishment of the Virtual Performance Space in Rock, Twentieth-century Music, Vol. 5, No. 2, (2008), pp. 219-241.

[10] Cook, N. Methods for Analysing Recordings, in The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music (Cook, N., Clarke, E., Leech-Wilkinson, D. and Rink, J. Editors), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (2009), pp. 236-242.

[11] Shelvock, M. Groove and the Grid: Mixing Contemporary Hip Hop, in Perspectives on Music Production: Mixing Music (Hepworth-Sawyer R. and Hodgson, J. Editors), Routledge, New York, (2017), pp. 170-187.

[12] Williams, J. A. Theoretical Approaches to Quotation in Hip-Hop Recordings, Contemporary Music Review, Vol. 33, No. 2, (2014), pp. 188-209.

[13] Sewell, A. A Typology of Sampling in Hip-Hop, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Indiana University, (2013).

[14] Krims, A. Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (2000).

[15] Schloss, J. G. Making Beats: The Art of Sampled-Based Hip-Hop, 2nd edition, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, (2014).

[16] Goldberg, D. A. M. The Scratch is Hip-Hop: Appropriating the Phonographic Medium, in Appropriating Technology: Vernacular Science and Social Power (Eglash, R., Croissant, J. L., Di Chiro, G. and Fouché, R. Editors), University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, (2004), pp. 107-144.

[17] Melba Moore. The Flesh Failures (Let The Sunshine In), Living To Give [Vinyl LP], Mercury, (1970).

[18] Mos Def. Sunshine, The New Danger [CD], Geffen Records, Island Records Group, (2004).

[19] Exarchos, M. and Skinner, G. Bass-the Wider Frontier: Low-end Stereo Placement for Headphone Listening, in Proceedings of the 12th Art of Record Production Conference – Mono: Stereo: Multi – Stockholm 2017 (Gullo, J-O. Editor), Us-AB, Stockholm, (2019), pp. 87-104.

[20] Exarchos, M. (Re)Engineering the Cultural Object: Sonic Pasts in Hip-Hop’s Future, in Innovation in Music: Performance, Production, Technology, and Business (Hepworth-Sawyer, R., Hodgson, J., Paterson, J. and Toulson, R. Editors), Routledge, New York, (2019), pp. 437-454.

[21] Fisher, M. The Metaphysics of Crackle: Afrofuturism and Hauntology, Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture, Vol. 5, No. 2, (2013), pp. 42-55.

[22] Exarchos, M. Sample Magic: (Conjuring) Phonographic Ghosts and Meta-illusions in Contemporary Hip-hop Production, Popular Music, Vol. 38, No. 1, (2019), pp. 33-53.

[23] Thomas Bell Orchestra featuring Doc Severinsen. A Theme for L.A.’s Team, The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh [CD], Lorimar Records, (1979).

[24] KRS-One & Marley Marl. Musika, Hip Hop Lives [CD], Koch Records, (2007).

[25] Seay, T. Capturing that Philadelphia Sound: A Technical Exploration of Sigma Sound Studios, Journal on the Art of Record Production, Vol. 6, (2012).

[26] Reynolds, S. Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to its Own Past, Faber and Faber, London, (2012).

[27] Exarchos, M. Insights: A Research Journal, Unpublished, (2020).

[28] Stereo Mike. ‘Past’ Masters, Present Beats. Accessed January 2020 from https://youtu.be/wZiy8FU0cko

[29] Exarchos, M. Boom Bap Ex Machina: Hip-Hop Aesthetics and the Akai MPC, in Perspectives on Music Production: Producing Music (Hepworth-Sawyer, R., Hodgson, J. and Marrington M. Editors), Routledge, New York, (2019), pp. 32-51.

Tools

CORE (COnnecting REpositories)

The University of West London

‘Past’ masters, present beats: exponential sound staging as sample-based (re)mastering in contemporary hip hop practice

Abstract

Downloads

Actions (login required)

Menu