Noise Uprising brings to life the moment and sounds of a cultural revolution. Between the development of electrical recording in 1925 and the outset of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, the soundscape of modern times unfolded in a series of obscure recording sessions, as hundreds of unknown musicians entered makeshift studios to record the melodies and rhythms of urban streets and dancehalls. The musical styles and idioms etched onto shellac disks reverberated around the globe: among them Havana's son, Rio's samba, New Orleans' jazz, Buenos Aires' tango, Seville's flamenco, Cairo's tarab, Johannesburg's marabi, Jakarta's kroncong, and Honolulu's hula. They triggered the first great battle over popular music and became the soundtrack to decolonization.

Richard James Burgess draws on his experience as a producer, a musician, and an author in this history of recorded music, which focuses on the development of music production as both art form and profession. This comprehensive narrative begins in 1860 with the first known recording of an acoustic sound and moves chronologically through the twentieth century, examining the creation of the market for recorded sound, the development of payment structures, the origins of the recording studio and those who work there, and, ultimately, the evolution of the recording industry itself. Burgess charts the highs and lows of the industry through the decades, ending with a discussion of how Web 2.0 has affected music production. The focus remains throughout the book on the role of the music producer, and Burgess offers biographical information on key figures in the history of the industry, including Fred Gaisberg, Phil Spector, and Dr. Dre. Undergirding Burgess's narrative is the argument that while technology has historically defined the nature of music production, the drive toward greater control over the process, end result, and overall artistry came from producers. In keeping with this unique argument, The History of Music Production incorporates clear yet in-depth discussion of the developmental engagement of technology, business, and art with music production. Burgess builds this history of music production upon the strongest possible foundation: the key transitions, trends, people, and innovations that have been most important in the course of its development over the past 136 years. The result is a deeply knowledgeable book that sketches a critical path in the evolution of music production, and describes and analyzes the impact recording, playback, and disseminative technologies have had on recorded music and music production. Central to the field and a key reference book for students and scholars alike, it will stand as a companion volume to Burgess's noted, multi-edition book The Art of Music Production.

‘Sonic intimacy’ is a key concept through which sound, human and technological relations can be assessed in relation to racial capitalism. What is sonic intimacy, how is it changing and what is at stake in its transformation, are questions that should concern us all. Through an analysis of alternative music cultures of the Black Atlantic (reggae sound systems, jungle pirate radio and grime YouTube music videos), Malcolm James critically shows how sonic intimacy pertains to modernity’s social, psychic, spatial and temporal movements. This book explores what is urgently at stake in the development of sonic intimacy for human relations and alternative black and anti-capitalist public politics.

Sonic Writing explores how contemporary music technologies trace their ancestry to previous forms of instruments and media. Studying the domains of instrument design, musical notation, and sound recording under the rubrics of material, symbolic, and signal inscriptions of sound, the book describes how these historical techniques of sonic writing are implemented in new digital music technologies. With a scope ranging from ancient Greek music theory, medieval notation, early modern scientific instrumentation to contemporary multimedia and artificial intelligence, it provides a theoretical grounding for further study and development of technologies of musical expression. The book draws a bespoke affinity and similarity between current musical practices and those from before the advent of notation and recording, stressing the importance of instrument design in the study of new music and projecting how new computational technologies, including machine learning, will transform our musical practices. Sonic Writing offers a richly illustrated study of contemporary musical media, where interactivity, artificial intelligence, and networked devices disclose new possibilities for musical expression. Thor Magnusson provides a conceptual framework for the creation and analysis of this new musical work, arguing that contemporary sonic writing becomes a new form of material and symbolic design--one that is bound to be ephemeral, a system of fluid objects where technologies are continually redesigned in a fast cycle of innovation.