The Logic of Filtering: How Noise Shapes the Sound of Recorded Music

The Logic of Filtering traces the profound impact of technical media on the sound of music, asking: how do media technologies shape sound? How does this affect music? And how did it change what we listen for in music? Since the invention of sound recording in the second half of the nineteenth century, media that transmit, record, store, and reproduce physical sound inspired dreams of perfect reproduction, but were also confronted with the inevitable introduction of noise. Based on a wide range of historical, technical and theoretical sources, author Melle Jan Kromhout explores this one hundred and forty-year history of sound media and shows why noise should not be understood as unwanted by-effect, but instead plays a foundational role in shaping the sonic contours of recorded music. The Logic of Filtering develops an extensive media archaeological analysis of the 'noise of sound media,' encompassing all the disturbances, distortions, and interferences that these media add to the sounds they reproduce. It thereby stands to enrich our understanding of the way in which sound media changed and continue to change the sonorous qualities of music, and offers new perspectives on the interaction between music, media and listeners.