Listening through the Noise: The Aesthetics of Experimental Electronic Music

212 Pages·2010·1.38 MB·English

by  Joanna Demers

LISTENING THROUGH THE NOISE
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LISTENING
THROUGH
THE NOISE
The Aesthetics of Experimental Electronic Music
JOANNA DEMERS

2010
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Demers, Joanna Teresa, 1975–
Listening through the noise : the aesthetics of experimental electronic music / Joanna Demers.
p . cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-538765-0; 978-0-19-538766-7 (pbk.)
1. Electronic music—History and criticism. 2. Avant-garde (Music) 3. Music—Philosophy
and aesthetics. 4. Music and technology. I. Title.
M L1380.D45 2010
7 86.7’117—dc22 2009036518
Recorded audio tracks (marked in text with ) are available online at www.oup.com/us/listeningthroughthenoise
Access with username Music1 and password Book5983
For more information on Oxford Web Music, visit www.oxfordwebmusic.com
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
o n acid-free paper
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
F irst and foremost, I would like to thank the artists whose work inspired me
and got me through many early mornings.
I would also like to express my gratitude to the following sources of
research and publication support, without which I would not have been able
to fi nish this project: the American Association of University Women’s
American Fellow Postdoctoral Grant; the University of Southern Califor-
nia’s Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences Grant;
and the American Musicological Society’s Joseph Kerman Publication Sub-
vention. I also owe thanks to my colleagues at USC’s Th ornton School of
Music, whose intellectual and professional support were exemplary. Robert
Vaughn’s willingness to order strange and wonderful electronic music for
USC’s music library made this a much richer book than it would have been
without his help.
My parents, Jim and Joan, and brother, Ed, have cheered me on from my
fi rst music lessons onward, and I thank them for their love and encourage-
ment. Norm Hirschy is as kind and nurturing an editor as one could ever
hope to meet, and I thank him for seeing this project through to completion.
Kim Cascone, Richard Chartier, Ezekiel Honig, Th rill Jockey Records, Steve
Takasugi, Touch Records, and Miki Yui graciously licensed audio examples
for this book’s companion Web site. I received indispensable feedback and
suggestions from many friends, including Giorgio Biancorosso, Kevin Dett-
mar, Luisa Greenfi eld, Andy Hamilton, Brian Kane, David Nicholls, Scott
Paulin, Patricia Schmidt, Steve Takasugi, and Ming Tsao. I am especially
grateful to Mandy Wong for her friendship and insight on philosophy, elec-
tronic music, and synth-pop; our conversations brightened what could have
easily been a tough and lonely slog.
T o say that I am grateful to my husband and daughter does not begin to
describe what I feel. Inouk and Nola are the most wonderful treasures in my
life, and I thank them for everything.
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CONTENTS
A bout the Companion Web Site i x
I ntroduction 3
P art I S ign
1 L istening to Signs in Post-Schaeff erian
Electroacoustic Music 21
2 M aterial As Sign in Electronica 4 3
P art II O bject
3 Minimal Objects in Microsound 69
4 M aximal Objects in Drone Music,
Dub Techno, and Noise 91
P art III S ituation
5 Site in Ambient, Soundscape,
and Field Recordings 1 13
6 G enre, Experimentalism,
and the Musical Frame 135
Conclusion 155
Glossary 163
Bibliography 179
D iscography 1 91
I ndex 1 95
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ABOUT THE COMPANION WEB SITE
www.oup.com/us/listeningthroughthenoise
O xford has created a password-protected Web site to accompany Listening
through the Noise, and the reader is encouraged to take full advantage of it.
Licensed examples from nine tracks discussed in the book are included on this
resource, taken directly from the original recordings. Th ese online audio ex-
amples are found throughout the text and signaled with Oxford’s symbol .
Access with username Music1 and password Book5983.