Latent Elements in Pop Music Production

Abstract

The significant role that recording technologies play in pop music production has received extensive attention in recent years. Here, the use of signal processing units and audio editing shape the sound and style of many pop music songs. The role that these technologies play, however, has been predominantly assessed by examining final recordings. This article examines the Bee Gees’ production practices during the 1990s in order to analyze the latent role that these technologies also play in shaping sound and style. In this context, the article argues that digital instruments, signal processers, and multitrack recording technologies that are absent from the final recording can, nonetheless, play a crucial role in the production. It also examines the ways in which these latent elements – and their social contexts – might be useful for consideration in popular musicology.

Notes

1. While this interview was published on the Internet in about 2006, it has since been deleted. I retrieved it by requesting a copy via email from GSI Bee Gees Fan Club’s president Marion Adriaensen.

2. The demo recording of “Still Waters Run Deep” is quite similar in its production to the final recording.

3. The demos for albums the Bee Gees wrote for Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, and Kenny Rogers feature simple one-bar drum loops.

4. Examples of this include the songs “Our Love” and “Rest Your Love on Me.”