0000000000248036
AUTHOR
Stan Hawkins
‘A Swarm of Sound’
Author's accepted manuscript. This article explores the idea of audiovisual immersion through the portal of the virtual reality music video. Our focus falls on a close reading of Björk’s video, ‘Family’, which addresses questions of immersion in relation to user-experience, staging, and technological innovation. This article draws on the authors’ responses to the video by considering the implications of VR immersion in a new generation of music video productions. As part of the methodology on offer, a model for music analysis is devised for conceptualising virtual audiovisual space (VAVS) and the inextricable relationships between production and compositional design.
“The Right Amount of Odd”: Vocal Compulsion, Structure, and Groove in Two Love Songs from Around the World in a Day
In this music-analytic interpretation of two love songs from Prince’s Around the World in a Day album, we investigate the properties of groove, arrangement, and vocality, all of which contribute to the artist’s inimitable signature. With a disciplinary grounding in musicology, we demonstrate ways whereby musical features are associated with meaning in recorded songs. Underlying the approach is the notion that it is in the music where Prince’s ingenuity mainly lies. The analysis is informed by an understanding of the technological ramifications of the process on the part of Prince and his audio engineer Susan Rogers.