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"Albin Zak's The Poetics of Rock is a brilliant and original study of how studio recordings of rock music have introduced an entirely new dimension of music composition. Bristling with acute insights and interpretations, this book should provide engaging reading for any serious student, scholar, or aficionado of rock, of composition, or of modern music culture in general."—Peter Manuel, author of Cassette Culture: Popular Music and Technology in North India
"In The Poetics of Rock, Albin Zak offers an expert guide to how records are made, not only outlining in detail technical practices and procedures in a comprehensible way, but also thoughtfully engaging the myriad of aesthetic and musical issues that recording raises. This masterful study opens up important new areas of concern for rock and is a must-read for all scholars concerned with popular music and criticism."—John Covach, editor of Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Writing Records
2. Tracks
3. Sound as Form
4. Places and Tools
5. Tracking and Mixing
6. Engineers and Producers
7. Resonance
Notes
Glossary
Engineer and Producer Credits
Recordings Cited
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Albin J. Zak, III is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Michigan School of Music. He is also a songwriter and recordist, and editor of The Velvet Underground Companion: Four Decades of Commentary (1997).
Summary
Presents an exploration of recording consciousness and compositional process from the perspective of those who make records. This title examines the crucial roles played by recording technologies in the construction of rock music and shows how songwriters, musicians, engineers, and producers contribute to the creative project.
