Popular Music, Power and Play

"The advent of the DIY project studio and Internet downloading has revolutionized popular music creative practice. For the current generation of popular musicians with the means of production and distribution firmly in their grasp, the possibilities are seemingly endless, but so too are formidable multiskilling and project management challenges to be faced time and again. In order to better understand popular music and record production's myriad processes - as well as interactions between collaborators, technology, and the wider domain/field - this book presents psychological and sociocultural theory-research that draws together the phenomenology of play, confluence approaches to creativity, and cultural psychology. Together, these theoretical frameworks and insights present bold new opportunities for reframing creative practice in a manner that emphasizes not only the importance of domain-relevant skills and cognition, but also acknowledges the centrality of motivation and personality in initiating and sustaining creative projects, and explores their relationship to the thrill of challenge and risk. Also addressed are the broader themes of control, chaos, power, and playfulness. These insights are grounded in seminal, post-war popular music historical examples, along with first-hand interviews made with prominent practitioners whose work has had a resounding impact upon the way records are made today."--