Wired For Sound

Winner of the Society for Ethnmusicology's Klaus Wachsmann Award (2006) Wired for Sound is the first anthology to address the role of sound engineering technologies in the shaping of contemporary global music. Wired sound is at the basis of digital audio editing, multi-track recording, and other studio practices that have powerfully impacted the world's music. Distinctions between musicians and engineers increasingly blur, making it possible for people around the globe to imagine new sounds and construct new musical aesthetics. This collection of 11 essays employs primarily ethnographical, but also historical and psychological, approaches to examine a range of new, technology-intensive musics and musical practices such as: fusions of Indian film-song rhythms, heavy metal, and gamelan in Jakarta; urban Nepali pop which juxtaposes heavy metal, Tibetan Buddhist ritual chant, rap, and Himalayan folksongs; collaborations between Australian aboriginals and sound engineers; the production of "heaviness" in heavy metal music; and the production of the "Austin sound." This anthology is must reading for anyone interested in the global character of contemporary music technology. CONTRIBUTORS: Harris M. Berger, Beverley Diamond, Cornelia Fales, Ingemar Grandin, Louise Meintjes, Frederick J. Moehn, Karl Neunfeldt, Timothy D. Taylor, Jeremy Wallach.

It's 1988 and Bushmaster is about to become history in the worst way possible when the front man is electrocuted during sound check. Someone had enough. All the band members had a motive. MacGrough: I didnae ken what tha lament tried tae tell me. Vince is dead, and tha band's done for. I understand more than tha polis, someone killed tha arse. But who and why now? If they look too close at Lori, I'm worried about what they may find. Someone burned my wife before we met. It's all circumstantial, she lived in Brighton and Vince had ah woman there. It couldn't have been her. But, she's never said, and I canae get that out of my head. Lori: We must get back to Glasgow. If Hamish doesn't get the album done in time, he will lose the backers. The cops have us trapped here. Hamish is acting strange. Yes, I understand it's a murder investigation but we should stay out of it. This is Hamish's family, when they find the killer, it will hurt him.

The eighties was a golden era for British pop: Radio One served as the soundtrack of the nation; the chart run-down on Sunday evenings was compulsory listening - ditto watching Top of the Popsand reading Smash Hits. It also saw the launch of the Now That's What I Call Music series. In the States, the arrival of MTV helped usher in what became known as the 'Second British Invasion', echoing the success of the Beatles twenty years earlier. Wired For Soundtells the remarkable story of the great eighties British bands (and Kajagoogoo) and how their music captured the nation's imagination: the more radical beginnings in the early eighties (the new romanticisms of Duran and Spandau, the 'protest pop' of early Wham!); the full pomp of their mid-eighties success (the worldwide tours, the glamorous video shoots, the ubiquitous 'Choose Life' and 'Relax' T-shirts); and their fall from the top of pop's pedestal (the splitting up of Wham!, Boy George's drug problems). Wired for Soundwill describe the subsequent descent to Band Aid II (Bros, Wet Wet Wet, Stock, Aitken and Waterman), which bookended the low point of the pop music that followed. Wired For Sound will be the affectionate celebration of both a musical youth and the era when young guns went for it. This is a book for anyone who grew up reading Smash Hits, soundtracked their teenage years on C90 cassettes and remembers a time when it really mattered who was number one.

Virtual Music: How the Web Got Wired for Sound is a personal story of how one composer has created new music on the web, a history of interactive music, and a guide for aspiring musicians who want to harness the new creative opportunities offered by web composing. Also includes a 4-page color insert.

This guide reveals how writers can utilize cognitive storytelling strategies to craft stories that ignite readers’ brains and captivate them through each plot element. Imagine knowing what the brain craves from every tale it encounters, what fuels the success of any great story, and what keeps readers transfixed. Wired for Story reveals these cognitive secrets—and it’s a game-changer for anyone who has ever set pen to paper. The vast majority of writing advice focuses on “writing well” as if it were the same as telling a great story. This is exactly where many aspiring writers fail—they strive for beautiful metaphors, authentic dialogue, and interesting characters, losing sight of the one thing that every engaging story must do: ignite the brain’s hardwired desire to learn what happens next. When writers tap into the evolutionary purpose of story and electrify our curiosity, it triggers a delicious dopamine rush that tells us to pay attention. Without it, even the most perfect prose won’t hold anyone’s interest. Backed by recent breakthroughs in neuroscience as well as examples from novels, screenplays, and short stories, Wired for Story offers a revolutionary look at story as the brain experiences it. Each chapter zeroes in on an aspect of the brain, its corresponding revelation about story, and the way to apply it to your storytelling right now.

For the first time ever, discover the story behind the Stebbing recording legacy. From pioneering violins and 78 records, to the singers, songwriters, engineers and producers who have graced Stebbing's famous three recording studios. Come inside the mid-1960s Galaxie nightclub, the evolution of the Zodiac record label and the Stebbing family's fearless response to industry politics, changing technologies and financial risk. This is the untold Stebbing story of resilience, enterprise and an ancestral restless spirit has underpinned the Stebbing family's generational legacy, from the pioneering days of recording in New Zealand to the digital age. Against a backdrop of New Zealand's vibrant social history, this 75-year-long story is about the bands, the artists, the singers, the songwriters, the engineers and the technical know-how that is uniquely Stebbings. Richly-told and lavishly illustrated, this warts-and-all nostalgic read is told through the artists, the musicians, the bands, the songwriters, the engineers and the wider Stebbing family itself.