Stephen Bruel Thesis
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Nostalgia, authenticity and the culture and practice of remastering music Stephen Bruel MMus, GradDipEd (Music), GradCertJourn, BEcon A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology 2019 Keywords 1980s, aca-fan, aesthetic, artist, audio, authenticity, band, creativity, cultural heritage, demo, demo recordings, digital convergence, engineer, fandom, guitar-pop, mastering, mixing, music, music nostalgia, personal heritage, production, recording, remastering, scholar-fan, simulacra, simulation, sound, Sydney, systems model, Sunnyboys, technology. 2 Statement of Original Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made. Signature: QUT Verified Signature Date: April 2019 3 Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my Principal Supervisor Dr Gavin Carfoot for his continuous support of my PhD study and related research, patience, motivation and immense knowledge. I would also like to thank my External Supervisor Professor Andy Arthurs for his guidance through the early stages of this research and my Assistant Supervisor Dr John Wilstead for his help towards the end. I also acknowledge the support received by the QUT Creative Industries Higher Degrees Research team who guided me successfully through the PhD administration process, and the financial assistance I received through my scholarship. My research project would not have been possible without the participation and enthusiasm shown by all case study participants. In particular I would like to thank Sunnyboys’ band manager Tim Pittman, band members Peter Oxley and Richard Burgman and remastering engineer Rick O’Neil for all of their time and commitment shown towards my project. I would also like to thank Thomas Green, Darren Munt, Andrew Wass, Con Shacallis and Paul Francis for their involvement. We all shared a special moment of our adolescence together and the opportunity to reconnect after a 20-30 year period was a wonderful experience and result. I would also like to thank the contributions from Col Freeman, Dr Peter Wadsworth, Greg White and Geoffrey Lee who all provided depth and detail surrounding the production of the original recordings. Finally I would like to thank my family and friends for all of the love and support you have given me during this four-year endeavour. In particular, I would like to especially thank my wife and best friend Janice Holland who has been my rock and whose unconditional love made it possible for me to see this project through unto the end. 4 Table of Contents KEYWORDS ................................................................................................................................. 2 STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP ............................................................................ 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................................. 5 TABLE OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. 7 TABLE OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... 8 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... 9 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 10 PERSONAL BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................................... 10 THESIS PLAN – OUTLINE OF CHAPTERS ........................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER 1 – LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................... 17 MASTERING AND REMASTERING – WHAT IS IT? .................................................................................... 17 REMASTERING IN FILM ..................................................................................................................................... 19 LIMITATIONS AND GAPS IN THE PREVIOUS RESEARCH ................................................................................ 23 REMASTERING AS AN ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PROCESS ................................................................. 24 AUTHENTICITY IN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC ............................................................................................. 31 TECHNOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOACOUSTIC CONSIDERATIONS AND PROCESS ............................. 38 COMMERCIAL CONSIDERATIONS AND THE ‘LOUDNESS WARS’ ....................................................... 42 DO LISTENERS NOTICE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND REMASTERED RELEASES? 44 FANDOM ................................................................................................................................................................. 46 DEMO RECORDINGS ........................................................................................................................................... 48 NOSTALGIA ........................................................................................................................................................... 56 LITERATURE REVIEW CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 60 CHAPTER 2 – THEORY ............................................................................................................. 63 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................................... 63 CREATIVITY AND ITS APPLICATION TO AUDIO REMASTERING ........................................................ 63 DIGITAL CONVERGENCE .................................................................................................................................. 69 SIMULACRA AND NOSTALGIA ....................................................................................................................... 73 AUTHENTICITY, AESTHETICS IN POPULAR MUSIC, FANDOM AND INSIDER RESEARCH .......... 78 THEORY CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................... 85 CHAPTER 3 – METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................... 87 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................................... 87 METHODS AND PROJECT DESIGN ................................................................................................................. 88 CASE STUDY METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................................... 101 CREATIVE PRACTICE ....................................................................................................................................... 103 ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................... 110 CHAPTER 4 – CASE STUDY: SUNNYBOYS – RESEARCHER AS SCHOLAR-FAN .......... 115 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................................. 115 SUNNYBOYS – THE BAND .............................................................................................................................. 117 SUNNYBOYS – THE ALBUM ............................................................................................................................. 118 NOSTALGIA AND FANDOM ............................................................................................................................ 122 CULTURAL HERITAGE AND MEANING ...................................................................................................... 128 ORIGINAL 1981 RECORDING OF SUNNYBOYS ......................................................................................... 134 ORIGINAL 1981 MASTERING OF SUNNYBOYS FOR VINYL .................................................................. 140 REMASTERING SUNNYBOYS IN 1991 FOR CD ......................................................................................... 143 REMASTERING SUNNYBOYS IN 2014 FOR CD ......................................................................................... 145 5 REMASTERING PROCESS .................................................................................................................................... 148 LISTENING COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................. 156 DIGITAL AUDIO ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................ 160 SUNNYBOYS CASE STUDY CONCLUSION