The History of Music Production

265 Pages·2014·6.21 MB·English

by  Richard James Burgess

The History of Music Production

The History of Music Production
Richard James Burgess
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burgess, Richard James, author.
The history of music production / by Richard James Burgess
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–935716–1 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978–0–19–935717–8
(pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Sound recording industry—History. 2. Sound recordings—
Production and direction—History. 3. Sound—Recording and reproducing—History.
4. Sound recordings—History. 5. Music and technology. I. Title. ML3790.B842 2014
781.4909—dc23
2013047108
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To my parents for giving me the freedom of mind to pursue my adventures. To
my sons Ace and Blaze for always stimulating my thinking, making every day an
adventure, and for bringing even more music and words to our house and my life
than I ever thought possible.

CONTENTS
List of Illustrations xi
Preface xiii
Introduction 1
1. Beginnings 2
Understanding Sound 2
Toward Recording 3
The Phonograph  5
The First Producers 12
2. The Acoustic Period 16
Acoustic Recording 16
International Expansion 18
The Third Major Label 19
The Sooys 20
Documentation of Cultural Expression 24
The End of an Era 26
3. The Electric Period 29
Toward Electric Recording 29
Better Sound 30
Country Music 32
Further Technological Foundations 33
The Calm before the Storm 34
The Thirties and Forties 34
Radio, Film, and Tape Innovations 36
4. Economic and Societal Overlay 38
Cyclical Decline 38
One Thing after Another: The Thirties through the War 39
Recovery 40
5. The Studio Is Interactive 42
Toward Greater Control 42
Magnetic Tape Recording 44
Defining Some Terms 48
Mastering 49
viii Contents
Editing 49
Sound on Sound 50
Overdubbing 52
Summing up Tape’s Impact 54
The Microgroove LP 54
6. The Post–World War II Reconstruction of the Recording Industry 56
After the War 56
The Boom in Independent Labels 58
The Fifties 61
Radio DJs 64
7. Mobile Music 66
More Music for More People 66
Music Anywhere: Radio on the Move 67
My Music on the Move 69
My Music Anywhere 70
8. Expanding the Palette 73
Electric Instruments and Amplifiers 73
Synthesizers 76
Genre Hybridization 81
9. Some Key Producers 82
The Objective 82
Review of Early Producers 83
Mitch Miller 83
Leiber and Stoller 84
Phil Spector 85
Sam Phillips 87
Steve Sholes 87
Norrie Paramor 88
Joe Meek 89
Brian Wilson 90
George Martin 91
Holland, Dozier, and Holland 92
Teo Macero 92
King Tubby 93
Prince 93
Rick Rubin 94
Quincy Jones 95
Robert John “Mutt” Lange 96
Dr. Dre 96
Max Martin 97
Contents ix
10. The Sixties and Seventies 98
Cultural and Creative Revolution 98
The Sixties 98
Mix Automation 100
The Seventies 102
11. Toward the Digital Age 104
Digital Recording 104
Hip Hop 105
The State of the Eighties 106
The Sound of the Eighties 107
The Look of the Eighties 108
Shiny Silver Discs 109
Singles 111
Mixing 111
Dance Music 112
Remixes 115
Further Eighties Developments 116
Mergers and Acquisitions 118
The Internet and the World Wide Web 119
12. The Nineties 120
The Corporate State 120
The Charts and SoundScan 120
Alternative Rock 121
Toward Music Online 121
Progress with Digitized Data 122
Digital Radio 123
Millennials 125
Preparing the Way for Napster 125
13. Periods of Standards and Stability 127
Proprietary versus Open Systems 127
Standards 127
14. Deconstructing the Studio 131
Democratizing Technologies 131
Improvised Environments 131
When Is a Home Not a Home? 132
Freedom 132
15. Random Access Recording Technology 134
Why Random Access? 134
The Beginnings of Random Access for Producers 136
Drum Machines, Next Generation Sequencers, and MIDI 141