The Naturalised and the Surreal: changes in the perception of popular music sound

Abstract

In a musical context, the word ‘sound’ implies a set of sonic characteristics. Within popular music, this notion of sound sometimes supplies the very identity of a tune, a band or a musician. Sound is often conceptualised as a virtual space and in turn compared to actual spatial environments, such as a stage or an enclosed room. One possible consequence of this tendency is that this virtual space can become utterly surreal, displaying sonic features that could never occur in actual physical environments. This article concerns the ways in which the increased possibilities for creating a spatially surreal sound, thanks to new technological tools, have been explored within the field of popular music over the past few decades. We also look at the ways in which the effect of such features may have changed over time as a consequence of what we call processes of naturalisation. As a particularly interesting example of the complexity of such processes, we explore ‘the music sound stage’. In addition, we analyse three songs by Prince, Suede and Portishead to reveal the possibly surreal aspects of these productions.

Re-orientating Spectromorphology and Space-form through a Hybrid Acoustemology

“…Born’s critique is valuable, but it is important to consider other engagements with space-form that suggest alternative perspectives. Although space-form can certainly be understood as the ‘language’ or ‘tonality’ of electroacoustic composition, Brøvig-Hanssen and Danielsen have shown that it is also a pivotal aspect of commercial music production (Brøvig-Hanssen and Danielsen 2013: 72). In the digital era, popular music producers generally and EDM producers in particular have often moved beyond Euclidean types of ‘mix space’ or ‘the sound-box’ (Dockwray and Moore 2010) by creating spatial environments that defy normative boundaries, or by conjuring various types of spatial surrealism (Brøvig-Hanssen and Danielsen 2013: 73).…”

“…Yet a relatively unexplored question is whether spectromorphology and space-form might be relevant to musics beyond the electroacoustic sphere. Recently, Smalley (2016) has used some of his terms to describe sound-shapes in French Baroque music, whilst Brøvig-Hanssen and Danielsen (2013, 2016) have drawn upon Smalley’s work in relation to popular music production. These developments hint at the possibility of a re-orientated, hybrid framework.…”

Just Don’t Call it Trip Hop: Reconciling the Bristol sound style with the trip hop genre

“…Analysis of form, rhythm and harmony may assist in drawing distinctions between the various styles, however, a more relevant focus may be the manner in which trip hop artists manipulate the sonic and spectral elements of their work. This is not to diminish the significant musicological differences that exist within trip hop, however, it is the sound that can identify a tune, band, or musician (Brøvig-Hanssen and Danielsen 2013).…”

“…Spatial properties can reflect actual physical environments that the listener relates to a previously experienced space, such as a room or concert hall, or they can reflect artificial spaces that do not exist in nature. Artificial spaces can become surreal to the extent that ‘what is heard departs from the convention for normal sound production within a particular context’ (Brøvig-Hanssen and Danielsen 2013: 75). Smalley develops six categories to discuss the spatial style of a work, two of which are pertinent to this analysis.…”

Virtual auditory reality

“…Personal music listening has been framed as a means of escaping everyday reality, with listeners engaging in solitary encounters with recorded music they choose, immersing themselves in sonic, narrative worlds (Bull, 2003(Bull, , 2012Quinones, 2013;DeNora, 2000). Such escapist listening habits may be understood not simply as the imagined projecting of one's self into another context, but also as instances of embodied aural-spatial perception -of sensing one's own presence within and in relation to a virtual environment, with its own implied dimensions, material characteristics, contents and inhabitants (Moore, 2010;Lacasse, 2000;Brøvig-Hanssen & Danielsen, 2013, 2016. Such an understanding is supported by recent theories of everyday listening and environment, which emphasise auditory experience as the perception of 360-degree space in relation to a listener's embodied self, as the inhabiting of environmental reality (LaBelle, 2016;Voegelin, 2014;Salter, 2019).…”