Studio-Based Songwriting: Music Production and Shaping the Pop Song
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STUDIO-BASED SONGWRITING: MUSIC PRODUCTION AND SHAPING THE POP SONG Patrick O’Grady Adv. Dip. Mus. (CMC), B. Mus. (UWS), M.R.A. (Macquarie). A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Macquarie University Department of Media, Music and Cultural Studies, Macquarie University. 2016 i Table of Contents List of Figures vi List of Tables vii Abstract viii Statement of Candidate ix Acknowledgments x Introduction xi 1. Literature Review and Methodology 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Literature Review 2 1.2.1 Technology and Recording 2 1.2.1.1 Digital Technologies and Music Practice and Production 4 1.2.1.2 The Art of Record Production 5 1.2.2 Technologies and Composition 6 1.2.2.1 Studio as a Compositional Tool: Experimental Practices 6 1.2.2.2 The Influence of Brian Eno 6 1.2.2.3 Focus on Producers 9 1.2.2.4 Key Examples 11 1.2.2.5 Technology and Songwriting: “Studio-based Songwriting” 13 1.2.3 The Field of Studio-based Songwriting 16 1.3 Methodology 17 1.3.1 Problems with Researching Songwriting 17 1.3.2 Problems with Musicology 18 1.3.3 Musicology of Record Production 21 1.3.4 Analytical framework 22 1.3.5 Production Practice 25 1.3.6 Understanding The Field 27 1.3.7 Case Studies 28 1.3.7.1 Brian Eno 30 1.3.7.2 The Beach Boys 30 1.3.7.3 Gotye 31 1.3.7.4 The Bee Gees 32 1.3.7.5 Michael Jackson 33 ii 2. “Producing” a Song: Considering Songwriting and Recording Roles in Pop Music Styles. 35 2.1 Introduction 35 2.2 The Role of Songwriter as “Textual” 36 2.3 Dominant Understandings of the Score as Text 36 2.4 What does Understanding of the Score as Text Provide? 37 2.5 Music Literacy 38 2.6 Recording and Scores 40 2.7 Tin Pan Alley 40 2.8 Complexities 41 2.8.1 Ordering of Textual Elements 41 2.8.2 Merging Roles in Music Production 44 2.8.3 Categorization and Collaboration in Songwriting 46 2.8.4 Cover Songs 48 2.9 Music Production and Songs 49 2.10 Capturing Sounds and Studio Constructed Sounds 53 2.11 Conclusions 56 3. Studio-based Songwriting in Songwriting Processes 58 3.1 Introduction 58 3.2 Brian Eno 59 3.2.1 Brian Eno, Anti-musician 59 3.2.2 Studio as an Instrument or Compositional Tool 60 3.2.3 “Treatments” in Roxy Music 62 3.2.4 Solo Work 63 3.2.5 Producing for Others 65 3.2.6 Analogue Versus Digital 65 3.3 The Beach Boys 68 3.3.1 Surf Culture And Sound 69 3.3.2 Shift to a Focus on a Studio-Constructed Sound 71 3.3.3 Use of Hired Studio Session Musicians 72 3.3.4 Use of Non-rock Instruments 74 3.3.5 Tape Synthesis 76 3.3.6 Splicing Song Sections 77 3.4 Gotye 79 3.4.1 Virtualizing Instruments 80 3.4.2 Sampling 81 iii 3.4.3 Signal Processing 82 3.4.4 Constructing Value Through Collecting Media 82 3.5 Active and Latent Elements Associated with Studio-based Songwriting 83 3.6 Symbolic Capital and Discourses on Processes 85 3.7 Conclusions 87 4. Latent Elements in Studio-based Songwriting Practice 89 4. 1 The Bee Gees 89 4.1.1 Documenting the Songwriting Process in the Studio 90 4.1.2 Blurred lines between Demo Recording and Songwriting Process 93 4.1.3 Use of Reverb in The Bee Gees’ Songwriting Process 94 4.1.4 Use of Studio Instruments 96 4.2 Michael Jackson 99 4.2.1 Building Instrumentation 101 4.2.2 Composing Vocal Melodies 105 4.3 Latent Elements and Consumer Digital Technologies After 2010 107 4.3.1 Consumer Digital Technologies as Tools to Compose Vocal Melodies 109 4.3.2 Documenting Songwriting Process in a DAW 111 4.3.3 Use of Software Instruments in Songwriting 113 4.3.4 Latent Effects and Instruments and Demo Recordings 114 4.3.5 Latent Studio Process in Performance 118 4.4 Types of process 119 4.5 Conclusions 121 5. Spaces and Technologies in Studio-based Songwriting Practice 122 5.1 Commercial Large Recording Studios 123 5.1.1 Large Commercial Recording Studios as Expensive and Exclusive spaces 124 5.1.2 Large Commercial Studios as Shared Spaces with Various Workflows 126 5.2 Private Large Recording Studios 127 5.2.1 Customization of Private Large studios for Specific Workflows 130 5.3 Commercial Project Recording Studios 131 5.3. 1 Live Room and Control Room in a Single Space 133 5.3. 2 Differences in technologies 134 5.3. 3 Social Hub 135 5.4 Private Project Recording Studios 136 5.4.1 Autonomous Spaces 137 5.4.2 Recording and Other Technologies 139 5.4.3 Single Channel Chain 140 iv 5.5 Constructing “Recording Studio” 142 5.5. 1 Representations of Recording Studios 143 5.5. 2 Attitudes Towards Space and Technologies 145 5.6 The Democratization of Recording Technologies and Practices 148 5.7 Conclusions 152 6. Music Production Roles and Studio-based Songwriting 153 6.1 Introduction 153 6.2 Context: The Shifting Politics of Music Production Roles 155 6.3 Album Credits 156 6.4 Brian Wilson as producer 157 6.4.1. Comparisons with The Beatles 160 6.4.2 Use of Synthesis 161 6.4.3 Brian Wilson as “Genius” 162 6.5 Michael Jackson and his Tensions with the Producer 163 6.6 Eno and Subverting the Roles of Producer, Musician and Songwriter 164 6.6.1 Producing others 166 6.7 The Bee Gees 167 6.8 Gotye and Music as A Social Practice 169 6.9 The Politics of Production Roles 172 7. Conclusions 173 7.1 Studio-based Songwriting: A Changing Field 173 7.2 The Fields of Studio-based Songwriting and Music Production 177 7.3 Agents, Distinction and Symbolic Capital 178 Bibliography 180 Audio Visuals 195 Music Recordings 197 Appendix: Production Work 201 v List of Figures Figure 1 A widely circulated photograph of a recording session in the early 54 twentieth century (Beardsley 2009) Figure 2 Screenshot of a UAD plugin “Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb” in a 111 Logic Pro X session. Figure 3 Screenshot of a recording session in a Logic Pro X session. The 112 tracks shown are vocals, piano and acoustic guitar with multiple audio clips Figure 4 Screenshot of a virtual drum sequencer “Drummer” in a Logic Pro 113 session Figure 5 Screenshot of step drum sampler “Redrum” in a Reason 118 Figure 6 Screenshot of Google Image search results for “recording studio” 144 on December 13, 2014 Figure 7 Advertisement from the 1970s that is now widely circulated on the 148 Internet to humorously show the changing price of technologies. vi List of Tables Table 1 List of select artist names, albums titles, year of album releases 123 and recording studios from case studies. Table 2 List of the recording technologies at The Bee Gees’ Middle Ear 129 Studio during the late 1990s provided by John Merchant in email. Table 3 List of some of the recording technologies in Gotye’s home studio 141 provided in his self-published YouTube videos. Table 4 List of some of the recording technologies in my recording studio 142 during this study. Table 5 List of select producer credits of specific albums from case 160 studies. vii Abstract In this thesis, I explore studio-based songwriting in order to identify the ways in which this practice both disrupts and reorients “traditional” ways of thinking about pop music production. In particular, I reconceptualize the role of the songwriter: why have they been historically linked with scores representing melodies, chords and lyrics? How have recording technologies changed this representation and disrupted longstanding roles in the field? Similarly, I ask broader questions that interrogate the way studio-based songwriting has influenced, and in turn been influenced by, changing attitudes towards aesthetics, taste and value within the field of music production. How have these changes impacted on the ways in which songwriters construct and represent their identities within the broader social and political field? Studio-based songwriting is the confluence of recording and songwriting practice. Although the use of recording technologies in composition originate in “art” music, the practice developed in popular music during the 1960s. I argue that the role of songwriters expanded with the advent of recording as a dominant mode of consuming music. Using a number of case studies from 1965 until the present, along with my own creative practice submitted as two CDs, I examine the practices of studio-based songwriters. I argue that these practices can be understood as a series of latent or active processes, which are determined by their audibility on the final recording. Studio-based songwriting has developed with shifts in recording studios and associated technologies, which have been understood as “democratization.” I explore how these developments have disrupted the production roles of “songwriter,” “musician,” “producer” and “engineer.” I use Bourdieu’s work on cultural production to examine tensions between the so-called democratization and ongoing negotiations on taste, aesthetics and value within the broader field. viii Statement of Candidate I certify that this thesis entitled “Studio-based Songwriting: Music Production and Shaping the Pop Song” is an original piece of research that has been written by me.