Coproduction: Collaboration in Music Production

✍ Scribed by Robert Wilsmore, Christopher Johnson

• Publisher: Routledge/Focal Press
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 245
• Series: Perspectives on Music Production
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Coproduction is dedicated specifically to the study of an emerging field in music production musicology. It explores the limits of what this field might be, from the workings of a few individuals producing music together in the studio, to vast contributions of whole societies producing popular music.

Taking a wide-ranging approach to examining the field, Coproduction looks through multiple formats including essays, interviews, and case studies, with analysis and commentary of coproduction experiences at Abbey Road studios. It does so by examining multiple disciplines from social science and coproduction in mental health, to philosophy and mathematics. At its extremes (which is the extreme middle and not the blunt ‘cutting edge’) the authors attempt to produce every song in their development of an all-encompassing pop music concept, peculiarly called Toast theory.

In attempting to unite the pragmatic collaborative patterns of Vera John-Steiner with philosophical postmodernist concepts of connection, Coproduction has something to offer readers interested in the traditional workings of teams of producers, as well as those seeking to understand the wider philosophy of collaboration in music production.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Figures
Tables
Examples
Contributors
Preface
Acknowledgements
Credits
How to Read This Book: Design and Structure
1 A Typology of Collaborative Practices in Music Production
Intro: The Dominance of the One
Type Overview
1. Group Coproduction
1.1 Integrative Coproduction
1.2 Familial Coproduction
1.3 Complementary Coproduction
1.4 Distributed Coproduction
2. Internal Coproduction
2.1 Present–Past Internal Coproduction
2.2 Present–Future Internal Coproduction
3. Coproduction Without Consent
3.1 The Song of a Thousand Songs (Toast Theory)
3.2 Denial Or Unknowing Coproduction
4. Deproduction
Outro: The Rising of the Many
Part One Type 1. Group Coproduction: Collaboration Between Individuals
2 Producing Together
Introduction
Patterns of Collaboration
Integrative Coproduction
Familial Coproduction
Complementary Coproduction
Distributive Coproduction
Collaboration in General
3 Creativity and the Production Habitus
Overview
Bourdieu and Habitus
The Production Habitus
Considering Conditions for Creative Contributions
Authoring a Process
Consolidation Points Framework (CPF)
4 The Production Habitus of Smoke Rainbows – Music Minds Matter (Abbey Road Case Study No.1)
Creating the Production Habitus: Project Initiation
Developing the Production Habitus: Pre-Production
Creating the Production Habitus: First Contact
Preserving Production Habitus in Pre-Production
Production Habitus in the Studio Sessions
Production Habitus in Mixing
Production Habitus in the Product Preparation
5 Lauren Christy and The Matrix Production Team: Coproduction in Familial Mode (The Three-Headed Monster and the Butterfly Collector)
6 Hierarchical Production and Complementarity, Before, During, and After PWL: An Interview With Phil Harding
Introduction
‘Telepathy’
Team Leaders
Speed of Projects
The ‘No Man’s Land’ of the Middle Eight
Collaborative Models
The Persona and the Pop Machine
Upstairs Downstairs at PWL
Integrated Model: PWL as ‘The Band’
Equal Co-Credits
Credits and Acknowledgement
What Does a Producer Do?
Working With a Band
Killing Joke: A Distributed Model of Collaboration
Lamont Dozier and Cliff Richard
Connection to Motown and Other Hit Factories
Solo Album Material
7 Group Genius, Scenius, the Invisible, and the Oblique: Eno, Lanois, and Communities of Creativity
Introduction
Working With Eno
8 Grace Jones, Spontaneity, and Collaboration in the Moment: An Interview With Bruce Woolley
9 Small Things of Value: Marginalia, Mental Health, and Coproduction (Abbey Road Case Study No.2, Part 1)
10 Something of Value: Coproducing With Converge, a University-Based Educational Programme for Adults With Mental Health ...
Coproduction in Mental Health Research
How Is Coproduction Defined?
Key Principles and Features of Coproduced Research
The Creation of ‘Nothing of Value’
Why Would You Want to Coproduce This Song?
What Would It Look Like to Coproduce a Song in the Mental Health Sense?
The Coproduction of ‘Nothing of Value’
On the Day …
The Experience of Going to London
Reflections On Coproduction in This Project
Conclusion
Part Two Type 2. Internal Coproduction: The Self as Many
11 The Artistic Self and the Cycle of Production
On Persona
The Stages of Production
The Production Cycle of a Producer–Artist
The Artistic Self and the Curation of Avatars
12 ‘Silver Glass’: Re-Production
Artistic Self in the Cycle of Production
Creating the ‘Silver Glass’ Production Habitus
Backstage and Authenticity
Structures of Internal Collaboration
Conclusions From ‘Silver Glass’ Re-Production
13 Play One We Know!: A Pub Singer’s Struggle to Retain His Integrity Whilst Remaining Entertaining
Introduction
Covering Our Tracks
The Audience: Who Are They?
Typology of Observer
How Does the Pub Singer Assess the Competence of the Audience?
Catering to the Audience
How Is the Audience Measuring the Performer’s Authenticity?
Mapping the Pub Singer’s Situation Against Allan Moore’s Tripartite Theory of Authenticity (2002)
1. First Person Authenticity
The Importance of the Spoken Introduction in Musical Performance
2. Second Person Authenticity
Discussion With Performers
Do I Feel Authentic?
3. Third Person Authenticity
Typology of Me
Interview With an Audience
Conclusions
Part Three Type 3. Coproduction Without Consent: Denial Or Unknowing Collaboration
14 The Song of a Thousand Songs: Popular Music as Distributed Collaboration (Toast Theory, Part 1)
The Song of a Thousand Songs
‘Toast’
Das Leibe Farbe
15 Removing Non-Sonic Signifiers From Endings (Toast Theory, Part 2)
Case Study 1
Case Study 2
Territory (Mode 3)
The Collaborators
Long Live Rock N Arctic Roll
The And
The End?
16 The Ancient Art of Remixing
Background
Introduction
Defining Remix and Sampling
Sampling and Remixing in the Modern Era
‘Super’ Compositions
Mash-up
Medley
Cantus Firmus
Chord Progressions
Cover Version
Pastiche
Quotation
Chronology
Renaissance
Part Four Type 4. Deproduction: The Collective Disappearance of Production
17 On Writing Every Song
18 The Mathematics of Writing Every Tune
Method for Calculations
Partitions and Permutations
Rests
Where Is Beethoven’s 5th?
Performance Order
Examples
Coda
19 Deproduction
References
Index