Strange Sounds: Music, Technology and Culture

289 Pages·2001·12.347 MB·English

by  Timothy D Taylor

Strange Sounds
Strange Sounds
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trange
S
ounds
S
Music,
Technology,
&O ulture
TIMOTHY D. TAYLOR
ROUTLEDGE
NEW YORK LONDON
Published in 2001 by
Routledge
270 Madison Ave,
NewYorkNY 10016
Published in Great Britain by
Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park,
Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group.
Transferred to Digital Printing 2010
Copyright © 2001 by Routledge
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be printed or reproduced or utilized in any form or by
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher.
The publisher and author gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint the following:
An earlier version of chapter 7 appeared as "Music at Home, Politics Afar" in Decomposition: Post-Dis
ciplinary Performance, edited by Sue-Ellen Case, Philip Brett, and Susan Leigh Foster, © 2000 by
Indiana University Press.
Example 4.1, an exceprt from "Moon Moods," music by Harry Revel, © 1946, reprinted by permission
of Michael H. Goldsen, Inc., and William C. Schulman.
Figure 4.5 used courtesy of Capitol Records, Inc.
Figure 7.2 and figure 7.3 reprinted by permission of Geert-Jan Hobijn.
Figure 8.1 and figure 8.2 reprinted by permission of Synthetic Sa:dhus.
Figure 8.3, figure 8.4, and figure 8.5 reprinted by permission of Tsunami Enterprises, Inc.
Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 0-415-93683-7 (hbk.) - ISBN 0-415-93684-5 (pbk.)
Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint
but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent.
FOR SHERRY,
MY NUMBER ONLY
I'm crazy about technology. I'm hooked on it.
-Roni Size, "Better Music through Technology"
CONTENTS
List of Examples, Figures, and Tables viii
Acknowledgments ix
THEORY
1 Will the Revolution Be Digitized? 3
2 Music, Technology, Agency, and Practice 15
TIME
3 Postwar Music and the Technoscientific Imaginary 41
4 Men, Machines, and Music in the Space-Age 1950S 72
5 Technostalgia 96
SPACE
6 A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery 117
7 Music at Home, Politics Afar 136
8 Turn On, Tune In, Trance Out 165
9 Anxiety, Consumption, and Agency 201
Notes 207
References 245
Index 270
EXAMPLES, FIGURES, AND TABLES
LIST OF MUSIC EXAMPLES
Example 4.1 Harry Revel: "Moon Moods," main chorus 84
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.1 Metamorphose, cover 69
Figure 4.1 Harry Revel: Music Out of the Moon (1947), cover 83
Figure 4.2 Esquivel: Other Worlds Other Sounds (1958), cover 88
Figure 4.3 Andre Montero and Warren Baker: Music for Heavenly
Bodies (1958 or 1959), cover 89
Figure 4.4 Bobby Christian and His Orchestra: Strings for a Space Age (1959),
cover 91
Figure 4.5 Les Baxter: Ports of Pleasure (1957), cover 92
Figure 5.1 Stereolab: The Groop Played "Space Age Batchelor Pad Music," cover
108
Figure 6.1 Difang: Circle of Life, cover 132
Figure 7.1 Stills from Packard Bell television ad 137
Figure 7.2 Self-collage by Bryn Jones of Muslimgauze 141
Figure 7.3 Muslimgauze: Hamas Arc, cover 146
Figure 7-4 Banco de Gaia: Last Train to Lhasa, cover 150
Figure 7.5 Alain Eskinasi: Many Worlds, One Tribe, cover 151
Figure 8.1 Synthetic Sadhus Flier, January 29, 2000, New York City 167
Figure 8.2 Synthetic Sadhus Flier, March 24, 2000, New York City 168
Figure 8.3 Tsunami name and logo 168
Figure 8.4 Tsunami flier (front), July 30,1999 169
Figure 8.5 Tsunami flier (front), July 16, 1999 169
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Pierre Schaeffer's schematization of the "ordinary" and "new" composi
tional processes 59
Table 4.1 Harry Revel: Music Out of the Moon (1947), "Moon Moods," structure 85
ACKNOWLEDGM ENTS
Writing acknowledgments, for me, is the most pleasurable part of writing
a book. This is in part because it is the last section to get written, but
mainly because thanking one's friends, colleagues, and students is a won
derful and humbling experience.
The idea for this book took shape in a seminar I taught at Columbia
University in the spring of 1997, "Technology and Its Effects on Music
since the 1980s;' and I would like to thank those students who partici
pated: Allison Armstrong, Maja Cerar, Timothy Mangin, Jason Oakes,
Heather Willoughby, and Paul Yoon.
I would also like to acknowledge those institutions who provided sup
port of various kinds: Columbia University, for its Humanities Council
Grant; the American Council of Learned Societies; and the National
Humanities Center, which supported me with a grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities. I would also like to thank the NHC staff,
particularly those in the library: Jean Houston and Eliza Robertson; and
Karen Car roll, who copyedited most of the chapters.
Other people, organizations, and agencies that provided help along the
way also deserve thanks: myoid friend Lori Garver at the National Aero
nautics and Space Administration, and her colleague Diana Hoyt, for help
with sources about NASA in the early days. And Vanguard Records, which
provided me with some press kit materials and recordings.
I would also like to thank the New York City psy trance folks, especially
Hugh, and ,llso Ascher, Holly, Joe, Rudston, and Tom.
People at Routledge have been their usual helpful and supportive selves:
first and foremost, my editor and friend, Bill Germano; Matt Byrnie, assis
tant editor; Lisa Vecchione, the production editor; Brian Bendlin, the copy
editor; and the indexer, Lydia Lennihan.
Various friends and colleagues read bits of the manuscript or partici
pated in discussions with me about some of the ideas presented here, and I
would like to thank each of them: Philip Brett, Sue-Ellen Case, Luther