Jeremy J. Wells

The album Slave to the Rhythm is typical of the exaltation of pop stars but atypical in its presentation and interaction with biographical material. Three crossings are considered in this assessment of the work: technological, cultural, and structural. These are presented with a detailed track-by-track analysis using a range of signal processing techniques, some adapted specifically for this project. This Element focuses on the combination of digital, novel, and analogue technology that was used, and the organisational and transformational treatments of recorded material it offered, along with their associated musical cultures. The way in which studio technology functions, and offers interaction with its users, has a direct influence over the sound of the music that is created with it. To understand how that influence is manifested in Slave, there is considerable focus on the development and use of music technology.

The album Slave to the Rhythm is typical of the exaltation of pop stars but atypical in its presentation and interaction with biographical material. Three crossings are considered in this assessment of the work: technological, cultural, and structural. These are presented with a detailed track-by-track analysis using a range of signal processing techniques, some adapted specifically for this project. This Element focuses on the combination of digital, novel, and analogue technology that was used, and the organisational and transformational treatments of recorded material it offered, along with their associated musical cultures. The way in which studio technology functions, and offers interaction with its users, has a direct influence over the sound of the music that is created with it. To understand how that influence is manifested in Slave, there is considerable focus on the development and use of music technology.

Identity and subjectivity in musical performancesWho is the “I” that performs? The arts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have pushed us relentlessly to reconsider our notions of the self, expression, and communication: to ask ourselves, again and again, who we think we are and how we can speak meaningfully to one another. Although in other performing arts studies, especially of theatre, the performance of selfhood and identity continues to be a matter of lively debate in both practice and theory, the question of how a sense of self is manifested through musical performance has been neglected. The authors of Voices, Bodies, Practices are all musician-researchers: the book employs artistic research to explore how embodied performing “voices” can emerge from the interactions of individual performers and composers, musical materials, instruments, mediating technologies, and performance contexts. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).