Performing in the Studio

Slater, Mark

Abstract

While studio recordings can resemble live performances and draw upon similar reserves of knowledge and skill, the processes and experiences of performing in the studio are notably different from being on stage in front of an audience. This chapter situates performance within the technological trappings of the studio and its associated social and musical processes, which are now so prevalent in contemporary musicianship. The chapter draws upon ideas from ontology (in terms of how recording modifies the forms of music's existence), sociology (in that the process of making recordings demands a consideration of the social constructs at play between collaborators), affordances (to describe how people and the material aspects of the studio and its apparatus are entwined in a productive relationship), and poetics (which relates the process of making to the specific conditions of that moment). To draw out the practical implications of the discussion, four proposals are offered, which encourage: (1) a recognition of the similarities and differences between live and recording performance contexts; (2) an understanding of the ideological underpinnings of why a recording is being made; (3) an acknowledgment of the productive effects of technology; and (4) an admission that recordings construct an illusion of some kind of reality.

Citation

Slater, M. (2022). Performing in the Studio. In G. McPherson (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Music Performance, Vol.1 (510-527). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190056285.013.31

• Acceptance Date: Apr 6, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jan 13, 2022
• Publication Date: Apr 13, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jul 13, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 14, 2024
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Pages: 510-527
• Series Title: Oxford Handbooks
• Book Title: The Oxford Handbook of Music Performance, Vol.1
• Chapter Number: 21
• ISBN: 9780190056285
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190056285.013.31
• Keywords: Studio; Recording; Technology; Ontology; Sociology; Affordance; Poetics
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3541120