Anders Jordbrekk The Influence of the Past A Study of Retromania and Technostalgia in Contemporary Popular Music Master’s Thesis in Musicology Trondheim, May 2016 Norwegian University of Science and Technology Faculty of Humanities Department of Music 1 2 CONTENTS CONTENTS .......................................................................................................................................... 3 ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................................... 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................. 7 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 9 Nostalgia ............................................................................................................................................................................ 9 Retromania and Technostalgia ............................................................................................................................. 13 The Role of the Internet ........................................................................................................................................... 15 Research .......................................................................................................................................................................... 16 Literature ........................................................................................................................................................................ 17 CHAPTER ONE: Reassembling the Past in the Present ..................................................... 21 Degrees of Retro: Little Lion Man ........................................................................................................................ 28 The Transition from Knowledge Guardian to Sharity Culture ................................................................ 33 Technological Advances and Their Effects on Popular Music Creation .............................................. 37 The Industry's Reluctance to Support Innovative Artists ......................................................................... 49 The Transition From Artist to Curator .............................................................................................................. 54 CHAPTER TWO: New Music, Old Gear .................................................................................... 61 Why Lounge? Why Now? ......................................................................................................................................... 61 In the Market for Recording Technology: From Audio Professionals to Enthusiasts and the Emergence of Technoporn ...................................................................................................................................... 64 The Digitalisation of Vintage Gear ....................................................................................................................... 69 Reissuing Analogue Instruments in Digital and Physical Form .............................................................. 76 Analogue Gear: Case Studies by Samantha Bennett ..................................................................................... 79 The Perceived Iconicity of Vintage Gear ........................................................................................................... 80 Issues of Sonic Character ......................................................................................................................................... 82 The Issue of Romanticism ....................................................................................................................................... 88 Issues Discussed in Interviews Conducted for this Thesis ....................................................................... 90 The Symbiotic Relationship of Retromania and Technostalgia .............................................................. 93 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 95 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................ 101 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................. 107 AppendiX A: Selected eXtracts from interview with Rhys Marsh ........................................................ 109 3 AppendiX B: Selected eXtracts from interview with Skjalg M. Raaen ................................................ 117 AppendiX C: Selected eXtracts from interview with Jostein Ansnes .................................................. 136 AppendiX D: Selected eXtracts from interview with Magnus Kofoed ................................................ 152 AppendiX E: Selected eXtracts from interview with Thomas Henriksen ......................................... 169 AppendiX F: Interview with Gary Bromham ................................................................................................ 183 4 ABSTRACT Throughout the 2000s there has been a growing nostalgia for the past. This thesis explores the underlying factors for this increased infatuation with the past in relation to contemporary popular music and music production. As popular music is inherently tied to music technology, this study is focused on both the occurrence of retro aesthetics in popular music and nostalgia towards technology. In order to provide an understanding of how and why nostalgia is becoming an increasingly larger part of contemporary pop music, this thesis seeks to contextualise the state of today’s pop in relation to its past and how the emergence of new technology has contributed in ushering in a longing for times gone by. 5 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Rhys Marsh, Jostein Ansnes, Skjalg M. Raaen, Magnus Kofoed, Thomas Henriksen and Gary Bromham for agreeing to participate in interviews for this thesis. Their perspective on the issues of contemporary popular music production has proven invaluable in the formation of this study. Above all, I want to extend gratitude to my supervisor John Howland for all the advice, inputs and guidance he has given me, and to Marianne N. Austvik for support and close-reads. 7 8 INTRODUCTION Over the last couple of decades, retro aesthetics have become increasingly apparent in popular culture. As the 2000s have progressed there has been a rise in nostalgia for the past, both in music and music technology. Two central umbrella terms in this thesis will be ‘retromania’ and ‘technostalgia’. Retromania as a term covers retro aesthetics in every aspect of popular culture whilst technostalgia is used to describe nostalgia for out-dated technology. In this study, the terms are primarily discussed in relation to popular music and music technology. By discussing several aspects surrounding these areas, this thesis will explore how retro aesthetics and nostalgia for technology have come to be a significant part of modern popular music culture. Contemporary popular music culture as it is understood in this thesis encompasses music culture as a larger area, consisting of such areas as technology, the music industry, different aspects of music culture, production practices and, although to a lesser degree, the music itself. Nostalgia is at the centre of both retromania and technostalgia. As both concerns the past it is useful to have a basic understanding of popular music production history as a way of understanding the underlying factors that have led to the occurrence of retro aesthetics in contemporary pop culture. Technological development in other fields, such as the evolution of the Internet and its impact on distribution and consumer habits, are also important to consider.1 Nostalgia The term nostalgia was first introduced in the seventeenth century. Physician Johannes Hofer invented the concept to describe the homesickness of Swiss mercenaries away on military duty. Military doctors were concerned with this 1 Both the Internet and the development of music technology will be discussed further in chapter 1. 2 The two articles by Bennett are Revisiting the ‘Double Production Industry’: Advertising, 9 condition up until the end of the nineteenth century because of its negative effect on morale. As described by Simon Reynolds, nostalgia was originally concerned with space rather than time. The condition afflicted soldiers on military duty, longing to return home. In time, nostalgia became less about geography and more about a desire to revisit a time of one’s life now lost. This shift also marked the de-medicalization of the condition. Nostalgia was no longer seen as just an individual emotion, but now encompassed a collective longing for the past (2011,xxv). Micheal Bull (2009, 85) describes nostalgia as ‘a dominant mode of address in contemporary urban experience’. Focusing on mobile reproduction of music, such as MP3 players, Bull states that experiences are being reproduced by listening to music, which in turn gives coherence to a mobile world. In the mind of the subject, mediated nostalgia enables the return to the past. The development of mechanical reproduction technology becomes the ‘history of the increased ability of people