Nick Reeder | Brown University (original) (raw)

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Papers by Nick Reeder

The Co-Evolution of Improvised Rock and Live Sound: The Grateful Dead, Phish, and Jambands, 2014

This dissertation examines the co-development of improvised rock music and live sound engineering... more This dissertation examines the co-development of improvised rock music and live sound engineering from the mid-60s to the present. It is both an extended case study of a distinct music culture and an in-depth analysis of the symbiotic growth of live performance, sound technology, and audience culture in popular music. The study argues that in collaboration with engineers and fans, the Grateful Dead and subsequent “jambands” such as Phish and Widespread Panic have developed a paradigmatic model of music culture encompassing three interrelated components: the performance of improvised dance music, the creation of live sound technology, and the development of fan communities. In order to document the role of live sound production in shaping the powerful experiential aspects of concerts, the project examines the technologically mediated aspects of performances from the perspectives of musicians, fans, and sound engineers. I base my arguments on participant observation and ethnography, combined with cultural, historical, and technological analysis. By contextualizing the collaborative innovations of the jamband community with broader developments in popular music technology and performance, the project thereby counters the bias of interdisciplinary popular music scholarship that leans towards text-oriented analysis of studio recordings. It focuses instead on the role of teamwork between performers and engineers, and reciprocity between band and audience in constructing genre. The dissertation shows that the evolution of both live sound and studio recording were conditioned by high fidelity, acoustic engineering practice and ideology, and that within the jamband community’s participatory technoculture, both amateur and professional live recording practices generated a coherent set of aesthetics, values, and ideas about authenticity. This study also extends the historical work that scholars of music technology and sound culture have pursued at the intersection of sound fidelity, acoustic science, and listening culture, by demonstrating the cultural significance of live performance after the late 1960s, the point at which interrelated advances in live sound and studio production converged with broader artistic currents to spur a creative renaissance in popular music.

Book chapters by Nick Reeder

The Co-Evolution of Improvised Rock and Live Sound: The Grateful Dead, Phish, and Jambands, 2014

This dissertation examines the co-development of improvised rock music and live sound engineering... more This dissertation examines the co-development of improvised rock music and live sound engineering from the mid-60s to the present. It is both an extended case study of a distinct music culture and an in-depth analysis of the symbiotic growth of live performance, sound technology, and audience culture in popular music. The study argues that in collaboration with engineers and fans, the Grateful Dead and subsequent “jambands” such as Phish and Widespread Panic have developed a paradigmatic model of music culture encompassing three interrelated components: the performance of improvised dance music, the creation of live sound technology, and the development of fan communities. In order to document the role of live sound production in shaping the powerful experiential aspects of concerts, the project examines the technologically mediated aspects of performances from the perspectives of musicians, fans, and sound engineers. I base my arguments on participant observation and ethnography, combined with cultural, historical, and technological analysis. By contextualizing the collaborative innovations of the jamband community with broader developments in popular music technology and performance, the project thereby counters the bias of interdisciplinary popular music scholarship that leans towards text-oriented analysis of studio recordings. It focuses instead on the role of teamwork between performers and engineers, and reciprocity between band and audience in constructing genre. The dissertation shows that the evolution of both live sound and studio recording were conditioned by high fidelity, acoustic engineering practice and ideology, and that within the jamband community’s participatory technoculture, both amateur and professional live recording practices generated a coherent set of aesthetics, values, and ideas about authenticity. This study also extends the historical work that scholars of music technology and sound culture have pursued at the intersection of sound fidelity, acoustic science, and listening culture, by demonstrating the cultural significance of live performance after the late 1960s, the point at which interrelated advances in live sound and studio production converged with broader artistic currents to spur a creative renaissance in popular music.