How Music Dies (or Lives): Field Recording and the Battle for Democracy in the Arts

Description

All recordings document life, arising from a specific time and place. And if that place is artificial, the results will be as well. Culled from a lifetime of learning through failure and designed to provoke thought and inspiration for artists in every medium, 'How Music Dies (or Lives)' is a virtual how-to manual for those on a quest for authenticity in an age of airbrushed and Auto-Tuned so-called “artists.” Author and multiple Grammy-nominated producer Ian Brennan chronicles his own journeys to find new and ancient sounds, textured voices, and nonmalleable songs. With photos from his journeys throughout the book, he presents readers with an intricate look at our technological society. This guide serves those who ask themselves, “What's wrong with our culture?” Along with possible answers are lessons in using the microphone as a telescope, hearing the earth as an echo, and appreciating the value of democratizing voices. IAN BRENNAN, a Grammy-winning record producer (Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Tinariwen), travels the globe in search of music, often entering war-torn areas. Since 1993, he has presented lectures internationally — more than one hundred times a year — on the topic of violence prevention, and he is the author of four books. A native of San Francisco, Brennan is currently based in northern Italy. How Music Dies (Or Lives) Table of Contents Acknowledgments Foreword Preface: Proximity Bias and the Irrationality of Fear Introduction: Learning Through Failure SECTION I: The Value of Democratizing Voices 1. We Aren't the World: All Music Is “Local Music” 2. The Fixation to Fixate 3. Message Monopolization Field Recording Chronicle: Malawi 4. The Real King(s) of Rock‘n’Roll Field Recording Chronicle: Malawi 5. Unlabelling Labels Field Recording Chronicle: Rwanda 6. Regressive Superlatives: The “G”-Word and Other Demons Field Recording Chronicle: Zomba Prison 7. Winning Hearts, Not Breaking Backs: All We Are Saying Is Give Art a Chance SECTION II: A Call for a Return to Naturalism: The Need for Randomness 8. Building an Arc 9 Everything, Including the Kitchen Sink 10. The Primordial “Social Work”: Why Music Heals Field Recording Chronicle: Vietnam 11. Consumerism Masquerading as Creativity Field Recording Chronicle: Palestine 12. Parallel Rituals: The Insularity of Technological “Advances” 13. Sound Before Volume Field Recording Chronicle: South Sudan 14. Recording as a Leap of Faith SECTION III: How To Get “There”: Some Possible Roads Home 15. Surrendering to Sound 16. Voices Within the Voice 17. Using the Microphone as a Telescope Field Recording Chronicle: Juba Orphanage 18. Acoustic Illumination 19. What’ “Left”? 20. Element(s) of Surprise Field Recording Chronicle: Taranta 21. Cooked by Culture: Ever Beware the *‘Experts” 22. What Cant Be Owned? SECTION IV: Products of Our Environment 23. Making Sense of the First Sense 24. S-urr-ounded: The Inescapable Symphonies of Our Everyday Life Field Recording Chronicle: Cambodia 25. Disposable Music 26. Inter-Specific Artistry: “I Am Not an Animal!” 27. Aural Culture: Music Not As Math, but Individuation 28. Moving Targets: There Is No “There” There 29. Do You Hear What I Hear? 30. Playing for Keeps: There Is No Rehearsal Field Recording Chronicle: Acholi Machon 31. The Ricochet of Influence SECTION V: Backin’ Up for Some Backstory 32. Transparency: Letting Your Real “Roots” Show 33. Drawing Random Inspiration from the Inspired: Liberating Influence from the Ghetto of Sanctioned Outlets 34. Who’ the Boss? 35. The Road from No-Name-Ville 36. Premature and Promiscuous Championing 37. Pain Dues, Dude 38. Amateur Hour: “Real Musicians Have Day Jobs’ 39. Bittersweet Dreams SECTION VI: Beware the Traps 40. Living in the Moment, But Keeping an Eye on the Horizon 41. Sonic Prisons: Getting Off the Grid 42. Personalities Displacing Spirituality Field Recording Chronicle: Transylvania 43. Self-Sabotage and the Unconscious: Subjectivity’s Quicksand 44. The School of Soft Knocks 45. Hearing Lost 46. “Free” Samples? SECTION VII: Welcoming Magic: Heeding Wanderlust’s Call 47. Following Existing Currents 48. Put Up, Don't Shut Up 49. Beneath the Words 50. Breaking Patterns: Creating Creativity 51. It's All in the Details 52. Connectivity Through Sonics 53. Say It Loud, Say It Proud 54. Castaway 55. If You’re Not Having Fun, You're Not Fooling Anyone 56. Home Base SECTION VIII: How Not to Memorialize Music 57. A Few “Don't” Champions from My Past 58. Some Notes From the “Do” Files SECTION IX: Enlisting Limitations as Expressive Partners 59. Trained by Fire, On the Chopping Block 60. What Do You Know? 61. Imperfect Pitch: There Are No Mistakes 62. Gauging the Atmosphere SECTION X: Racing Racism 63. Free for All? 64. Same Old, Same Old: Colonialism’ Leftovers 65. You Call That Equality? Distracted by the Decoys 66. Stangered: Disproportionate Estimations (On the Outside, Looking Out) 67. Single Origin Fairy Tales 68. Disgraceful by Association 69. Outlaw Camouflage: Slumming in the “Underground” 70. Are You Seriously “Serious”!? 71. Music Cannot Be Possessed, But It Can Possess 72. False Friends: Raw Does Not Always Equal Real 73. Thinly Veiled Bigotry (The Patrimony Dies Hard) SECTION XI: The Battle for Democracy in the Arts 74. How Music Dies 75. Cheapshot 76. A World of “Superstars, Minus an Audience 77. The Myth of Purity 78. In Their Owned Words 79. Wire-Monkey Music 80. Organically Grown: Truth in Advertising 81. Every Man for Himself? 82. Too Much “Like,” Not Enough Love 83. The Talking Dead: Rest in Pieces 84. Oversharing SECTION XII: How Music Dies: $$ and Its Wake 85. If You Cant Beat ‘em, Get Them to Join You 86. Now You Don't See It (and Now You Still Don't) 87. Image Cannibalism: The Media as a Gigantic Mirror of Infatuation 88. Manufactured Competition: Don't Believe the Hype 89. Sin-ergy 90. Don't Believe Half of What You See 91. Fabricated Identity: Bands as Brands 92. Sub-merged Substitutions 93. The Superscar System 94. Standardized Forms, Fear of the Random: Living in Boxes, atop Grids SECTION XIII: Odds and Endings: They Couldn’t Keep Doing It Without All of the “Little People” 95. Souls-Sold for Convenience 96. Corruption and Arrested Growth 97. Who Are You Calling Crazy?: The Romanticization of Mental Illness 98. Records Don't Kill People, People Kill People 99. Open Season 100. Conditional Love 101. The Collective Jukebox Is Stuck: One World, One Store 102. “Forever” Is a Very, Very Long Time 103. Guilty as Charged Conclusion: The Earth Is an Echo Epilogue: Open Ears, Open Mind Overview About the Author Index