Study of Sound – serie

Wild Sound turns an analytic eye and ear to the role of background sound in cinema, to the way that film sound captures, creates, represents, and even critiques the environments that we inhabit. Listening beyond music and dialogue, this book explores the relationship between location sound, sound libraries, and wider practices of field recording in the creation of the film soundtrack. Wild Sound is also interested in the wildness of sound, in the ways in which ambient environmental sounds gesture to a world beyond the frame, and sometimes invite the chaotic, unmanageable energies of the world outside into the hyper-controlled domain of the film. ‘Wild sound’, or ‘wild track’, is a film industrial term for non-synchronised sounds that often originate from a process of field recording. Immanently useful as atmosphere and sonic filler, these sounds often smuggle a dangerously noisy materiality into the systems of cinema. Ambient sound has been chronically under-appreciated and critically under-examined in the study of cinema. This book asserts that the background sounds of place onscreen are never neutral. Pigott reveals them to be carefully constructed ‘sonic environments’ that play a quiet but substantial role in determining how film audiences feel about the places, people and events that populate the screen. Each chapter tracks individual sounds across a wide range of international films from the history of cinema, providing rich cultural context and technical detail, drawing out the multiple meanings and formal characteristics of those ambient sounds that are often dismissed as inconsequential. Pigott demonstrates the value of paying close attention to the cinematic sound of place, at a time when it has never been more vital to examine how we imagine and treat our environments.

Sirens are sounds that confront us in daily life, from the sounds of police cars and fire engines to, less often, tornado warnings. Ideologies of sirens embody the protective, the seductive and the dangerous elements of siren sounds – from the US Cold War public training exercises in the 1950s and 1960s to the seductive power of the sirens entrenched in popular culture: from Wagner to Dizzee Rascal, from Kafka to Kurt Vonnegut, from Hans Christian Andersen to Walt Disney. This book argues, using a wide array of theorists from Adorno to Bloch and Kittler, that we should understand ‘siren sounds’ in terms of their myth and materiality, and that sirens represent a sonic confluence of power, gender and destructiveness embedded in core Western ideologies to the present day. Bull poses the question of whether we can rely on sirens, both in their mythic meanings and in their material meanings in contemporary culture.

Sirens are sounds that confront us in daily life, from the sounds of police cars and fire engines to, less often, tornado warnings. Ideologies of sirens embody the protective, the seductive and the dangerous elements of siren sounds – from the US Cold War public training exercises in the 1950s and 1960s to the seductive power of the sirens entrenched in popular culture: from Wagner to Dizzee Rascal, from Kafka to Kurt Vonnegut, from Hans Christian Andersen to Walt Disney. This book argues, using a wide array of theorists from Adorno to Bloch and Kittler, that we should understand ‘siren sounds’ in terms of their myth and materiality, and that sirens represent a sonic confluence of power, gender and destructiveness embedded in core Western ideologies to the present day. Bull poses the question of whether we can rely on sirens, both in their mythic meanings and in their material meanings in contemporary culture.

‘Sonic intimacy’ is a key concept through which sound, human and technological relations can be assessed in relation to racial capitalism. What is sonic intimacy, how is it changing and what is at stake in its transformation, are questions that should concern us all. Through an analysis of alternative music cultures of the Black Atlantic (reggae sound systems, jungle pirate radio and grime YouTube music videos), Malcolm James critically shows how sonic intimacy pertains to modernity’s social, psychic, spatial and temporal movements. This book explores what is urgently at stake in the development of sonic intimacy for human relations and alternative black and anti-capitalist public politics.

‘Sonic intimacy’ is a key concept through which sound, human and technological relations can be assessed in relation to racial capitalism. What is sonic intimacy, how is it changing and what is at stake in its transformation, are questions that should concern us all. Through an analysis of alternative music cultures of the Black Atlantic (reggae sound systems, jungle pirate radio and grime YouTube music videos), Malcolm James critically shows how sonic intimacy pertains to modernity’s social, psychic, spatial and temporal movements. This book explores what is urgently at stake in the development of sonic intimacy for human relations and alternative black and anti-capitalist public politics.

In The Sound of Nonsense, Richard Elliott highlights the importance of sound in understanding the ‘nonsense’ of writers such as Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, James Joyce and Mervyn Peake, before connecting this noisy writing to works which engage more directly with sound, including sound poetry, experimental music and pop. By emphasising sonic factors, Elliott makes new and fascinating connections between a wide range of artistic examples to ultimately build a case for the importance of sound in creating, maintaining and disrupting meaning.

In The Sound of Nonsense, Richard Elliott highlights the importance of sound in understanding the ‘nonsense’ of writers such as Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, James Joyce and Mervyn Peake, before connecting this noisy writing to works which engage more directly with sound, including sound poetry, experimental music and pop. By emphasising sonic factors, Elliott makes new and fascinating connections between a wide range of artistic examples to ultimately build a case for the importance of sound in creating, maintaining and disrupting meaning.

Humming is a ubiquitous and mundane act many of us perform. The fact that we often hum to ourselves, to family members, or to close friends suggests that humming is a personal, intimate act. It can also be a powerful way in which people open up to others and share collective memories. In religious settings such as Tibetan chanting, humming offers a mesmerising sonic experience. Then there are hums that resound regardless of human activity, such as the hums of impersonal objects and man-made or natural phenomena.The first sound studies book to explores the topic of humming, Humming offers a unique examination of the polarising categories of hums, from hums that are performed only to oneself, that are exercised in religious practice, that claim healing, and that resonate with our bodies, to hums that can drive people to madness, that emanate from cities and towns, and that resound in the universe. By acknowledging the quirkiness of hums within the established discourse in sound studies, Humming takes a truly interdisciplinary view on this familiar yet less-trodden sonic concept in sound studies.

Humming is a ubiquitous and mundane act many of us perform. The fact that we often hum to ourselves, to family members, or to close friends suggests that humming is a personal, intimate act. It can also be a powerful way in which people open up to others and share collective memories. In religious settings such as Tibetan chanting, humming offers a mesmerising sonic experience. Then there are hums that resound regardless of human activity, such as the hums of impersonal objects and man-made or natural phenomena.The first sound studies book to explores the topic of humming, Humming offers a unique examination of the polarising categories of hums, from hums that are performed only to oneself, that are exercised in religious practice, that claim healing, and that resonate with our bodies, to hums that can drive people to madness, that emanate from cities and towns, and that resound in the universe. By acknowledging the quirkiness of hums within the established discourse in sound studies, Humming takes a truly interdisciplinary view on this familiar yet less-trodden sonic concept in sound studies.

Sonic fiction is everywhere: in conversations about vernacular culture, in music videos, sound art compositions and on record sleeves, in everyday encounters with sonic experiences and in every single piece of writing about sound. Where one can find sounds one will also detect bits of fiction.In 1998 music critic, DJ and video essayist Kodwo Eshun proposed this concept in his book “More Brilliant Than The Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction”. Originally, he did so in order to explicate the manifold connections between Afrofuturism and Techno, connecting them to Jazz, Breakbeat and Electronica. His argument, his narrations and his explorative language operations however inspired researchers, artists, and scholars since then. Sonic Fiction became a myth and a mantra, a keyword and a magical spell. This book provides a basic introduction to sonic fiction. In six chapters it explicates the inspirations for and the transformations of this concept; it explores applications and extrapolations in sound art and sonic theory, in musicology, epistemology, in critical and political theory. Sonic fiction is presented in this book as a heuristic for critique and activism.

Sonic fiction is everywhere: in conversations about vernacular culture, in music videos, sound art compositions and on record sleeves, in everyday encounters with sonic experiences and in every single piece of writing about sound. Where one can find sounds one will also detect bits of fiction.In 1998 music critic, DJ and video essayist Kodwo Eshun proposed this concept in his book “More Brilliant Than The Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction”. Originally, he did so in order to explicate the manifold connections between Afrofuturism and Techno, connecting them to Jazz, Breakbeat and Electronica. His argument, his narrations and his explorative language operations however inspired researchers, artists, and scholars since then. Sonic Fiction became a myth and a mantra, a keyword and a magical spell. This book provides a basic introduction to sonic fiction. In six chapters it explicates the inspirations for and the transformations of this concept; it explores applications and extrapolations in sound art and sonic theory, in musicology, epistemology, in critical and political theory. Sonic fiction is presented in this book as a heuristic for critique and activism.

Wild Sound turns an analytic eye and ear to the role of background sound in cinema, to the way that film sound captures, creates, represents, and even critiques the environments that we inhabit. Listening beyond music and dialogue, this book explores the relationship between location sound, sound libraries, and wider practices of field recording in the creation of the film soundtrack. Wild Sound is also interested in the wildness of sound, in the ways in which ambient environmental sounds gesture to a world beyond the frame, and sometimes invite the chaotic, unmanageable energies of the world outside into the hyper-controlled domain of the film. ‘Wild sound’, or ‘wild track’, is a film industrial term for non-synchronised sounds that often originate from a process of field recording. Immanently useful as atmosphere and sonic filler, these sounds often smuggle a dangerously noisy materiality into the systems of cinema. Ambient sound has been chronically under-appreciated and critically under-examined in the study of cinema. This book asserts that the background sounds of place onscreen are never neutral. Pigott reveals them to be carefully constructed ‘sonic environments’ that play a quiet but substantial role in determining how film audiences feel about the places, people and events that populate the screen. Each chapter tracks individual sounds across a wide range of international films from the history of cinema, providing rich cultural context and technical detail, drawing out the multiple meanings and formal characteristics of those ambient sounds that are often dismissed as inconsequential. Pigott demonstrates the value of paying close attention to the cinematic sound of place, at a time when it has never been more vital to examine how we imagine and treat our environments.

What does it mean when a singing voice is detached from an originating body through recording? And how does this affect consumers of recorded song? This book examines the practice of lipsynching to pre-recorded song in both professional and vernacular contexts, covering over a century of diverse artistic practices from early cinema through to the current popularity of self-produced internet lipsynching videos. It examines the ways in which we listen to, respond to, and use recorded music, not only as a commodity to be consumed but as a culturally-sophisticated and complex means of identification, a site of projection, introjection, and habitation, and, through this, a means of personal and collective creativity.

What does it mean when a singing voice is detached from an originating body through recording? And how does this affect consumers of recorded song? This book examines the practice of lipsynching to pre-recorded song in both professional and vernacular contexts, covering over a century of diverse artistic practices from early cinema through to the current popularity of self-produced internet lipsynching videos. It examines the ways in which we listen to, respond to, and use recorded music, not only as a commodity to be consumed but as a culturally-sophisticated and complex means of identification, a site of projection, introjection, and habitation, and, through this, a means of personal and collective creativity.

A century ago, the emergence of radio, along with organized systems of broadcasting, sparked a global fascination with the ‘wonder’ of sound transmission and reception. The thrilling experience of tuning in to the live sounds of this new medium prompted strong affective responses in its listeners.This book introduces a new concept of radiophilia, defined as the attachment to, or even a love of radio. Treating radiophilia as a dynamic cultural phenomenon, it unpacks the various pleasures associated with radio and its sounds, the desire to discover and learn new things via radio, and efforts to record, re-experience, and share radio. Surveying 100 years of radio from early wireless through to digital audio formats like podcasting, the book engages in debates about fandom, audience participation, listening experience, material culture, and how media relate to affect and emotions.

A century ago, the emergence of radio, along with organized systems of broadcasting, sparked a global fascination with the ‘wonder’ of sound transmission and reception. The thrilling experience of tuning in to the live sounds of this new medium prompted strong affective responses in its listeners.This book introduces a new concept of radiophilia, defined as the attachment to, or even a love of radio. Treating radiophilia as a dynamic cultural phenomenon, it unpacks the various pleasures associated with radio and its sounds, the desire to discover and learn new things via radio, and efforts to record, re-experience, and share radio. Surveying 100 years of radio from early wireless through to digital audio formats like podcasting, the book engages in debates about fandom, audience participation, listening experience, material culture, and how media relate to affect and emotions.

Audio Paper offers a conceptual and practice-based approach for researchers across a wide range of disciplines to integrate auditory culture into their published work in the form of the audio paper. The audio paper is an academic text presented as an audio production. Introducing this new format, the book invites scholars to work in a publication format that integrates aesthetic perspectives and technological components in an academic work. This text builds on the authors' experience developing the audio paper and newly collected insights from researchers who have been involved in the production of audio papers over the past five years.By providing you with historical perspectives, ranging from early radio production to present day podcasts, the audio paper is contextualized as a technologically driven publication format, with a grounding in auditory culture and a theoretical framework. Through a structural analysis of published audio papers, the authors seek a more robust understanding of the methods for analysis as well as the dramaturgical means employed. For the future development of the audio paper, the book proposes a series of directions, underlining how the audio paper holds a potential to become a transgressive intervention in academic publishing and a vehicle for new formats for thinking and doing research.

Audio Paper offers a conceptual and practice-based approach for researchers across a wide range of disciplines to integrate auditory culture into their published work in the form of the audio paper. The audio paper is an academic text presented as an audio production. Introducing this new format, the book invites scholars to work in a publication format that integrates aesthetic perspectives and technological components in an academic work. This text builds on the authors' experience developing the audio paper and newly collected insights from researchers who have been involved in the production of audio papers over the past five years.By providing you with historical perspectives, ranging from early radio production to present day podcasts, the audio paper is contextualized as a technologically driven publication format, with a grounding in auditory culture and a theoretical framework. Through a structural analysis of published audio papers, the authors seek a more robust understanding of the methods for analysis as well as the dramaturgical means employed. For the future development of the audio paper, the book proposes a series of directions, underlining how the audio paper holds a potential to become a transgressive intervention in academic publishing and a vehicle for new formats for thinking and doing research.

An essential musical genre of the early 21st century, meme music affects virtually all areas of public discourse, music, and sound culture.Memes are part of public debates, they fuel political struggles and social movements, and they manifest new cultural trends. In the media constellation of the early 21st century, memes achieve this primarily through music and sound. Meme music as a musical genre is produced, consumed, and distributed on video platforms, instant messenger services, social media networks, and increasingly as part of marketing and television shows.This book provides an overview of the distinctive performance practices and sound production techniques of meme music, focusing on meme music since 2011, with a particular emphasis on the years of the so-called Great Meme War between 2016 and 2020. The author discusses both recent and historical antecedents, such as the novelty songs or dance instruction songs of the 20th century, but also the tradition of emblemata since the 16th century. The sheer abundance of meme creation and meme sharing then leads to the ultimate triumph of meme music: it establishes a widespread sonic vernacular precisely through its highly snackable genre and the breathtaking speed of its planetary distribution.