Perfecting Sound Forever
The Story of Recorded Music
Greg Milner(Author)
Granta Books (Publisher)
Published on 6. July 2009
Book
Hardback
464 pages
978-1-86207-942-7 (ISBN)
Description
From our CD collections to iPods bursting with MP3s to the hallowed vinyl of DJs, recordings are the most common way we experience music. Yet their ubiquity has deafened us to how our understanding of music is shaped by the processes that create them. "Perfecting Sound Forever" tells the story of recorded music from Thomas Edison's claim, in 1915, that he could perfectly capture the sound of a live performance, to the digital tools used today which create the illusion of performances that never were. Along the way, Greg Milner introduces the innovators, musicians, and producers - from Les Paul to Phil Spector to Neil Young - who have affected the way we hear our favorite songs and describes the major achievements, breakthroughs and failures in sound technology. Exploring the balance that recordings strike between the real and the represented, Greg Milner asks the questions which have divided sound recorders for the past century: should a recording document reality as faithfully as possible, or should it improve upon or somehow transcend the music it records? What does the perfect record sound like? The answers he uncovers will change the way we think about music.
Reviews / Votes
'Greg Milner tells the story of recorded music with novelistic verve, ferocious attention to detail, and a soulful ambivalence about our quest for sonic perfection. He shows how great recordings coe about not through advances in technology, but through a love of the art, and that same love is the motor of his prose.' Alex Ross, author of The Rest Is NoiseMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 162 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-86207-942-7 (9781862079427)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Greg Milner has written on music, film, and technology for Spin, Salon, the Village Voice, and Wired, among other publications. He is the co-author with Joe Berlinger of Metallica: This Monster Lives.