Buzz, Hiss, Crackle, Clunk: Consequential sounds of music technology in music recordings, their meanings, and roles

Coughlan-Allen, Joseph (2022) Buzz, Hiss, Crackle, Clunk: Consequential sounds of music technology in music recordings, their meanings, and roles. PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.

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Abstract

Tape recorders, vinyl records, guitar amplifiers, and pianos are not typically designed in the aim of producing, hiss, crackle, buzz, or creaks. Yet, these sounds commonly occur as a consequence of using of these products. Such sounds, therefore, occasionally feature as content of music recordings. In such cases, their permanence within the phonographic frame gives them the potential to signify in ways that are quite different to their everyday occurrences. However, this semeiotic potential is often overlooked by their categorization as noise or musical material. Such views do not provide an adequate picture of the role these sounds play in the interpretation of music recordings. They may, for instance, be taken as affecting the meaning of accompanying musical sound, and the recordings they occupy. They may also be heard as providing contextual information about recordings, and the figures behind their production. This thesis hypothesises mechanisms of interpretation used by listeners when consequential sounds of music performance, recording, and playback feature as content in music recordings. To this aim, it works to explain: 1) Why these sounds are said to feature in recordings 2) What these sounds are said to signify 3) How these sounds are said to affect interpretations of the recordings in which they feature. The bulk of the thesis is comprised of case studies of four types of sound: electrical noise, consequential sounds of musical instruments, phonographic surface noise, and tape hiss. Here, I analyze discourse concerning the meaning of these sounds, and the roles they play as co‑content in music recordings, focusing on published, journalistic interviews and reviews. Analysis of these sources is aided by a theoretical framework constructed on common ground between semeiotics, sounds studies, and theories of human interaction. This framework acknowledges objective and subjective aspects involved in the interpretation of sound, and posits an inferential listening mode.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	amplifier noise, electrical noise, instrument noise, liveness, lo-fi, music nostalgia, music production, music recordings, music technology, musical noise, noise, paramusical, popular music, record production, recorded music, recording engineering, sound studies, tape hiss, tape noise, transduction noise, vinyl crackle, vinyl noise
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of the Arts
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	29 Aug 2023 15:03
Last Modified:	29 Aug 2023 15:03
DOI:	10.17638/03166719
Supervisors:	Spitzer, Michael Fairclough, Matthew
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3166719