Pop Music: Technology and Creativity - Trevor Horn and the Digital Revolution (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series)
Burning Sounds 20 Killer Power Pop Cuts: 20 Killer Power Pop Cuts 
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Customer Review: The world needs power pop, perhaps not this one
There’s no doubt that the world needs a good power pop anthology - and I bought this based on a couple of tracks I loved, and a couple of bands I liked - but I have to say its a bit of a disappointment; all over the place really. What is power pop after all? Its that post-Beatles/Who type of tuneful rock music that has singularly failed to make the charts in the next 30 years. Its Badfinger’s “Come and Get it”, its “I think we’re alone now” (in any version), its Big Star (not included here) doing “Thirteen” - and perhaps over the last few years its been Elliot Smith at his best, or even the Posies “Frosting on the Beater” - yet, none of these are included here, and it reeks a little of those poorly focussed Northern Soul compilations that major labels come out with now and then. There are gems - the Pursuit of Happiness “Hard to Laugh” (one of the songs I already had) remains a wonder, but I kind of think that latterday Liverpool could have been better served than with the Pete Wylie and Pale Fountains tracks included here. And the best power pop track of the 80s - Cheap Trick’s “If you want my love, you’ve got it” - is nowhere to be found. What you most notice is how this compilation is more pop and less power, which kind of misses the point. Power pop begat glam, and more recently, “indie” owes it a debt, but this album is a missed opportunity. Give me the keys to the vaults and I’ll come up with something far better!
Customer Review: A pacy slice through garage/pop music history…
You have to work harder these days to sell music and it can’t get harder than selling the compilation album in an age where everyone compiles their own. Exclusions are comps of specially-commissioned or hard-to-find tracks with some kind of plot to their conjugation. ‘Burning Sounds’ bags up 20 ‘power pop’ songs spanning 25 years and is gleefully wilful in eschewing many of the usual suspects for esoteria. A fine job is done of dusting down the likes of XTC spin-off The Dukes of Stratosphear, the Head brothers’ pre-Shack incarnation The Pale Fountains, Wah’s Pete Wylie, the deeply obscure as well as earlier acts such as The Babys. The US offers treats in the more mainstream Flamin’ Grooves who kick the set off with their early 70’s classic, ‘Shake Some Action’ while cult act, Jellyfish, is in with 1990’s ‘Baby’s Coming Back’. Brian Wilson is much evoked and no less so than in The Raspberries ‘Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)’ while the influence of Lennon and McCartney is measured in contributions by the likes of Brinsley Schwartz, Klaatu, Orange, peaking with Beatles parodists The Rutles, whose Neil Innes’ debt to the Fab Two dates to his earlier work with The Bonzo Dog Band. Packed with snap and vim, ‘Burning Sounds’ is a pacy slice through garage/pop music history.
Christian Scott, Anthem
Anthem is the work of a hard-working young man with his ears wide open and his head firmly down.
Pet Shop Boys - A Life In Pop 
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Customer Review: Great documentary, despite missing video!!!
Everybody knows how great and interesting this documentary is; however, I’d like to know where I can buy the version which has the Flamboyant video! More than 2 months ago I bought one of these DVDs at amazon.ca thinking that it had the Flamboyant video but unfortunately it didn’t; last week I bought another one here but it didn’t have it either. I’ve heard that amazon.com doesn’t have the version with that video either. So, can anybody tell me where I can find it?
Customer Review: great!
These boys came into my life with “Suburbia” and since then have been good friends of mine until today. Of course I needed this documentary and what can I say ? It is just great, interesting, detailed as it should be and gives a nearly complete overview not only about their lives and success but also about my last 22 years. Thanks!
Da Capo Best Music Writing: The Year’s Finest Writing on Rock, Hip-hop, Jazz, Pop, Country and More (De Capo Best Music Writing)
Pop Music: Technology and Creativity - Trevor Horn and the Digital Revolution (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series)
Customer Review: It Ain?t What You Do, It?s the Way That You Do It
The first paragraph of this excellent book says it all :
“This book is intended for all those - students and teachers, specialists and non-specialists alike - who wish to approach pop music as an artistic, and not primarily as a social, cultural or historical phenomenon. Its main argument is that musical creativity in pop music is inextricably bound to developments in audio technology and the working practices which ensue. Because of the strength of this relationship, pop music differs in a number of important and significant ways from other kinds of popular music. This aspect is exemplified in this study through analysis of several recordings by Trevor Horn, who is widely acknowledged as the most important, innovative and successful British pop record producer of the early 1980s.”
Clearly the book is not about Trevor Horn: the book discusses the close relationships between technology and creativity in the case of pop music and uses some of Mr. Horn’s work to exemplify those ideas. Trivia buffs with a yen to know whether he works with a Chipmunk 451 or a Pinky and Perky 452 will undoubtedly prefer books in the style of Howard Massey’s where such gratuitous urges are amply satisfied. For those of a more enquiring mind who prefer to ask ‘why’ rather than ‘what’; who prefer a book couched in unusually accessible academic prose rather than a list of supernumerary studio equipment; to those who are party to the secret that “It Ain’t What You Do, It’s the Way That You Do It”; then this book is for you. That said, there is actually plenty of information on the equipment Mr. Horn uses and, more importantly, to what creative purpose.
For the serious student and for the teacher of popular music, the book is replete with a wealth of original insight and incisive analysis that ranges from visual to musicological to technical (the latter including, for the uninitiated, useful definitions of terminology such as compression). Worth mentioning are the points made on sampling. Prima facie, sampling may seem to be the final nail in the coffin of human musicality; a dry digital technique capable of replicating ad infinitum and with machine-tooled precision the utmost nuance of the human musical experience. To Warner though, samples and samplers offer “ways of countering the sonic impact of purely machine-driven and machine-generated music” and “their imperfections provide their aesthetic significance”.
The book’s author is quite right when he pinpoints that textual analysis of popular/pop music has suffered as a result of the dominance of cultural studies and is forthright in making the case that pop music is a worthy subject for textual academic study. Furthermore, the central thesis that technology is inextricably bound to creativity in pop music marks an important new departure in the academic study of popular music. Certainly, there have been writings on the use of or development of technology in the recording industry (Chanan for example), but these tend to be historical. There have been textual analyses of pop music (Tagg etc.), but these have ignored or bypassed the influence of technology. It would not be stretching a point too far to say that Timothy Warner’s book is the first major work to provide the spark in the gap missing in previous endeavours. For that fact alone the book is to be both commended and recommended.
Finally, a cat among the pigeons quote from Trevor Horn in response to the question that forms the crux of the book Is pop music a fundamentally technological art form?: “Yeah. That’s a fascinating question. In a lot of respects, even though the classical - you know the straight music people - might fancy themselves, we’ve got them fucking licked…”.
Good reading!
Customer Review: Definitely a ?must?.
Pop Music, Technology and Creativity is the most original and wide-ranging book on pop music I have ever read. While focusing on the use of technology, which Warner considers to be one of the distinctive traits of pop music, this book is obviously not intended for the ? techies ?. Warner is careful to avoid all unnecessary jargon, and technology is always discussed in terms of its creative potential - never in a vacuum.
One of the many strengths of this extremely well informed book is that pop music is seen as a complex and multifaceted artefact produced by people who are both commercially aware and aesthetically motivated. Trevor Horn is a particularly good example of this, as confirmed by the long interview with him that concludes the book.
But this is not a book about Trevor Horn; it is about pop music and British pop music in particular. The seven recordings carefully analysed by Warner serve to highlight one or more interesting aspects of pop such as: the way in which the complexity of the production techniques can be reflected in the lyrics (’Video Killed the Radio Star’); scratching and sampling, and all their implications (McLaren’s ‘Buffalo Gals’); the interaction between performer and producer (’Owner of a Lonely Heart’); the use of repetition and the importance of remixes (’Relax’); the manipulation of timbre and space (Who’s afraid of the Art of Noise) ; the merits of the sequencer (Propaganda) ; the use of the Fairlight (Slave to the Rhythm), etc.
Far from being a narrow, self-contained, unit, each of the analytical chapters echoes and/or develops points touched upon previously. Furthermore Warner is always happy to elaborate on the wider musical implications of the points he makes and never ignores the visual or cultural aspects of the final product.
The result is a rich, subtle and multifaceted book which may irritate and frustrate readers with narrow expectations, but which I found well written, informative, full of surprises and highly stimulating. Definitely a ‘must’.
