Relating Autographic Elaboration to Affectivity on The Pretenders

• In Event: Communities of Sound: Affect and Aesthetics in the Sonic Domain

Abstract

The paper argues that the production decisions behind a recording can enhance the listener’s affective, visceral responses in a way that moves beyond what the musicians themselves might traditionally do. For activities of production seize upon potential affective valences present within a group’s demo or live performance, then elaborate, channel, and direct them so as to produce emotional relevancies. To demonstrate, I use The Pretenders eponymous first post-punk album (produced by Chris Thomas for Sire/Real 1979). Given formal observations afforded by the album taken together with insights Thomas has offered regarding his particular ways of producing, I illustrate the additional layer of meaning that production imparts and then argue that The Pretenders experiments with recording techniques, such as the layering of sounds, in a way that—counterintuitively—foregrounds the idea of absence.

Author

• Jennifer Carlberg, University of Leeds