Sean Albiez
Independent Scholar, Academic Researcher, Faculty Member
- Popular Music Studies, Electronic Dance Music Culture (EDMC), Film Music And Sound, Electronic Music, Popular Music, Experimental Music, and 27 moreElectronica, Cultural Studies, Creative Misuse of Technology, Music Technology, Popular Music In Germany, Hauntology, Record Production, Cultural Memory, Cultural Theory, Sound and Image, Music, Popular Culture, Music Education, Musicology, Phonography, Sociology of Music, Music and Media, Techno, Metamodernism, Video Music, Music Video, Kraftwerk, Krautrock, Brian Eno, Luigi Russolo, The Velvet Underground, and Vinyl recordsedit
- I am a music academic, writer, editor and musician. I most recently held the post of Principal Lecturer in Music at A... moreI am a music academic, writer, editor and musician. I most recently held the post of Principal Lecturer in Music at Anglia Ruskin University and Solent University. In both institutions I designed and led innovative courses in popular music and related areas, and have a track record of successful HE curriculum development reaching back to the mid-1990s. I have taught popular music studies, music technology and media and cultural studies since 1991, and have a particular specialism in electronic music and music technology. I currently research and write on subjects in the broad field of popular music, and produce ambient and electronic music as ghost elektron. I also collaborate with Prof Martin James in the electronic music project Nostalgia Deathstar. I am the co-editor of academic book collections on Kraftwerk, Brian Eno and The Velvet Underground for Bloomsbury Academic and have published widely on electronic music, music technology, punk and post-punk.edit
Brian Eno: Oblique Music [published on 11th August 2016] is the first academic collection to take a detailed multi-perspectival look at the work of one of the most influential figures in popular music. Edited by Dr Sean Albiez... more
Brian Eno: Oblique Music [published on 11th August 2016] is the first academic collection to take a detailed multi-perspectival look at the work of one of the most influential figures in popular music. Edited by Dr Sean Albiez (Southampton Solent University, UK) and Professor David Pattie (University of Chester, UK), the book features studies by a number of academics based in the United Kingdom and United States. The contents are:
Introduction: David Pattie & Sean Albiez - Brian Eno: A Problem of Organization
PART ONE - Eno: Composer, Musician and Theorist
1 David Pattie - The Bogus Men: Eno, Ferry and Roxy Music
2 Cecilia Sun - Brian Eno, Non-Musicianship and the Experimental Tradition
3 David Pattie - Taking the Studio by Strategy
4 Chris Atton - Between the Avant- Garde and the Popular: the Discursive Economy of Brian Eno's Musical Practices
5 Mark Edward Achtermann - Yes, But Is It Music? Brian Eno and the Definition of Ambient Music
6 Hillegonda C. Rietveld - The Lovely Bones: Music from Beyond
7 Sean Albiez - The Voice and/of Brian Eno
PART TWO - The University of Eno: Production and Collaborations
8 Sean Albiez & Ruth Dockwray - Before and after Eno: Situating 'The Recording Studio as Compositional Tool'
9 Kingsley Marshall & Rupert Loydell - Control and Surrender: Eno remixed – Collaboration and Oblique Strategies
10 Elizabeth Ann Lindau - Avant-Gardism, 'Africa' and Appropriation in My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
11 Jonathan Stewart - Eno and Devo
12 Noel McLaughlin - Another Green World? Eno, Ireland and U2
13 Martin James - Documenting No Wave: Brian Eno as Urban Ethnographer
Select Discography
More information at https://www.facebook.com/EnoObliqueMusic/
Introduction: David Pattie & Sean Albiez - Brian Eno: A Problem of Organization
PART ONE - Eno: Composer, Musician and Theorist
1 David Pattie - The Bogus Men: Eno, Ferry and Roxy Music
2 Cecilia Sun - Brian Eno, Non-Musicianship and the Experimental Tradition
3 David Pattie - Taking the Studio by Strategy
4 Chris Atton - Between the Avant- Garde and the Popular: the Discursive Economy of Brian Eno's Musical Practices
5 Mark Edward Achtermann - Yes, But Is It Music? Brian Eno and the Definition of Ambient Music
6 Hillegonda C. Rietveld - The Lovely Bones: Music from Beyond
7 Sean Albiez - The Voice and/of Brian Eno
PART TWO - The University of Eno: Production and Collaborations
8 Sean Albiez & Ruth Dockwray - Before and after Eno: Situating 'The Recording Studio as Compositional Tool'
9 Kingsley Marshall & Rupert Loydell - Control and Surrender: Eno remixed – Collaboration and Oblique Strategies
10 Elizabeth Ann Lindau - Avant-Gardism, 'Africa' and Appropriation in My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
11 Jonathan Stewart - Eno and Devo
12 Noel McLaughlin - Another Green World? Eno, Ireland and U2
13 Martin James - Documenting No Wave: Brian Eno as Urban Ethnographer
Select Discography
More information at https://www.facebook.com/EnoObliqueMusic/
Research Interests:
'No one but C-3PO makes love to Kraftwerk. No one liked them much to begin with - certainly not in Germany.Yet they eventually managed to attract sufficient critical mass to create a new star. And everyone else found themselves firmly in... more
'No one but C-3PO makes love to Kraftwerk. No one liked them much to begin with - certainly not in Germany.Yet they eventually managed to attract sufficient critical mass to create a new star. And everyone else found themselves firmly in orbit.This book of original essays scrutinises their cultural influence from all angles. Here, Kraftwerk are cast as Cousins of Iggy Pop, Duchamp, Gilbert and George, Heirs to Hitler, Stockhausen, Gropius and The Beach Boys. Brothers of Beuys and Bambaataa, Kin to Kiefer, Godfathers of British Pop, Uncles of Rave, Midwives of Detroit Techno, Sperm Donors of Dance - as mysterious and potent as the monoliths in 2001, as daft as Punk, as indispensible to understanding modern culture as Musclebuilding, Warhol, or Strictly Ballroom.If this book were a film, it would move from macro to micro every scene, if it were a meal it would be prepared by Heston Blumenthal. It's a mutation waltz, a stumble rumba, a nimble mambo, a complex minuet - and proof that cultural critics can dance.' [John Foxx, synthpop pioneer and multi-media artist]
'Overall, one comes away from Kraftwerk: Music Non-Stop with the impression of Hutter, Schneider and co creating a multifaceted oeuvre on a par with that of Andy Warhol's, a brief phase from either's artistic corpus capable of generating an entire career for lesser talents.' [The Wire]
'It is refreshing to encounter Kraftwerk: Music Non-Stop, a new collection of academic essays on the band, which spurns fashion and firmly returns the emphasis to ideas. Editors Sean Albiez and David Pattie have assembled a compendium of rigorously argued and illuminating discussions of the band, one that more than compensates for the shallower latter-day ramifications of what Alex Seago termed in 2004 the "Kraftwerk-Effekt".' [The Oxonian Review]
'Overall, one comes away from Kraftwerk: Music Non-Stop with the impression of Hutter, Schneider and co creating a multifaceted oeuvre on a par with that of Andy Warhol's, a brief phase from either's artistic corpus capable of generating an entire career for lesser talents.' [The Wire]
'It is refreshing to encounter Kraftwerk: Music Non-Stop, a new collection of academic essays on the band, which spurns fashion and firmly returns the emphasis to ideas. Editors Sean Albiez and David Pattie have assembled a compendium of rigorously argued and illuminating discussions of the band, one that more than compensates for the shallower latter-day ramifications of what Alex Seago termed in 2004 the "Kraftwerk-Effekt".' [The Oxonian Review]
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
A 1,900 word encyclopedia entry outlining the history and development of dubstep - originally written in 2010, updated in 2015 and then published in 2017.
Research Interests:
A 2,500 word encyclopedia entry outlining the boundary crossing between art music with popular music in the work of a number of musical artists since the 1960s such as The Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk, Brian Eno, Kate Bush, Bjork, David... more
A 2,500 word encyclopedia entry outlining the boundary crossing between art music with popular music in the work of a number of musical artists since the 1960s such as The Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk, Brian Eno, Kate Bush, Bjork, David Sylvian, Sonic Youth and Scott Walker whose work leaves them in a liminal space between avant-garde and popular music.
Research Interests:
This is an extensive rewrite of what was originally a short entry on vinyl in the Bloomsbury EPMOW Volume 1 written by John Borwick in 2003. In approaching this update I drew from lecture material I had developed in teaching on a module... more
This is an extensive rewrite of what was originally a short entry on vinyl in the Bloomsbury EPMOW Volume 1 written by John Borwick in 2003. In approaching this update I drew from lecture material I had developed in teaching on a module on music technology and production, and undertook new research that unearthed interesting anomalies and questions concerning the move from shellac to vinyl in the manufacture of records in the 1940s and 50s. I also reviewed research on broader issues concerning vinyl consumption and claims concerning the superiority of music on vinyl in comparison to digital formats.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Updates and extensive revisions of entries originally written by John Borwick for the online version of the encyclopedia with new research.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
1,000 - 2,000 word newly researched genre entries
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This is an update, with new research, of the book chapter originally published in 2006.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Johnny Rotten / John Lydon was and remains the first voice of British punk and yet consistently refuses to identify with punk as a subculture. In revisiting his observations on his career with the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd (PiL) in... more
Johnny Rotten / John Lydon was and remains the first voice of British punk and yet consistently refuses to identify with punk as a subculture. In revisiting his observations on his career with the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd (PiL) in the 1976–1980 period, this article considers how ‘narratives of self’ enable us to gain insights into individual subjectivity and the (trans) formation of identity. Through this material we can investigate the role of Lydon's idiosyncratic cultural capital in his creative process. It is suggested that this investigation requires us to consider ideas of cultural continuity and flow in relation to Lydon, the creative contexts within which he operated and the relationship between progressive music, punk and post-punk in the 1970s.
Research Interests:
"This issue proposes the selected papers of the French Popular Music Conference that took place in Manchester, in June 2004 - the first British conference dedicated to this topic! Table of contents: http://volume.revues.org/2202... more
"This issue proposes the selected papers of the French Popular Music Conference that took place in Manchester, in June 2004 - the first British conference dedicated to this topic!
Table of contents:
http://volume.revues.org/2202
Préface par Barbara LEBRUN et Catherine FRANC
Articles
- Sophie-Anne LETERRIER, La chanson de Malbrouk, de l’archive au signe.
- Carol GOUSPY, La représentation des chanteuses au café-concert : les genres de la romancière comique et de la diseuse
- Joëlle DENIOT, En bordure de voix, corps et imaginaire dans la chanson réaliste
- Peter HAWKINS, The Career of Léo Férré : a Bourdieusian Analysis
- Kim HARRISON, Putain d’camion : Commercialism and the Chanson Genre in the Work of Renaud
- Gérôme GUIBERT, « Chantez-vous en français ou en anglais ? » Le choix de la langue dans le rock en France
- Sean ALBIEZ, Strands of the Future : France and the Birth of Electronica
- Edwin C HILL Jr., Aux armes et caetera ! Re-covering Nation for Cultural Critique
- Ursula MATHIS-MOSER, L’image de « l’Arabe » dans la chanson française contemporaine
- Juliette DALBAVIE, Exposer des objets sonores : le cas des chansons de Brassens"
Table of contents:
http://volume.revues.org/2202
Préface par Barbara LEBRUN et Catherine FRANC
Articles
- Sophie-Anne LETERRIER, La chanson de Malbrouk, de l’archive au signe.
- Carol GOUSPY, La représentation des chanteuses au café-concert : les genres de la romancière comique et de la diseuse
- Joëlle DENIOT, En bordure de voix, corps et imaginaire dans la chanson réaliste
- Peter HAWKINS, The Career of Léo Férré : a Bourdieusian Analysis
- Kim HARRISON, Putain d’camion : Commercialism and the Chanson Genre in the Work of Renaud
- Gérôme GUIBERT, « Chantez-vous en français ou en anglais ? » Le choix de la langue dans le rock en France
- Sean ALBIEZ, Strands of the Future : France and the Birth of Electronica
- Edwin C HILL Jr., Aux armes et caetera ! Re-covering Nation for Cultural Critique
- Ursula MATHIS-MOSER, L’image de « l’Arabe » dans la chanson française contemporaine
- Juliette DALBAVIE, Exposer des objets sonores : le cas des chansons de Brassens"
Research Interests:
This is a 22,000 word MA dissertation submitted as half/part of a practice-as-research major project in 1996 that examined popular music in the developing 90s technoculture. It was an early attempt to examine the implications of the... more
This is a 22,000 word MA dissertation submitted as half/part of a practice-as-research major project in 1996 that examined popular music in the developing 90s technoculture. It was an early attempt to examine the implications of the internet and digital production technologies for popular musics before the arrival of the MP3.
The introduction states: Popular music and its relationship with digital technology has an academic history reaching back over a decade. (see Goodwin (1988) & Durant (1990)). Past studies have predominantly examined the implications of new technology in music production (digital sampling, computer sequencing et al) and consumption (CD, DAT etc.) This body of work recognises that in 1996, the study of popular music must inevitably also examine digital dissemination (the Internet and other future developments of the information superhighway) while revisiting past interventions in these debates. For the purposes of this study, 'digital culture' refers to the contemporary social, cultural and economic formations and practices that have been created, affected or propagated by digital technology. It encompasses cultural production, dissemination and consumption processes that have impacted on the present experience of popular music in all its variety.
The introduction states: Popular music and its relationship with digital technology has an academic history reaching back over a decade. (see Goodwin (1988) & Durant (1990)). Past studies have predominantly examined the implications of new technology in music production (digital sampling, computer sequencing et al) and consumption (CD, DAT etc.) This body of work recognises that in 1996, the study of popular music must inevitably also examine digital dissemination (the Internet and other future developments of the information superhighway) while revisiting past interventions in these debates. For the purposes of this study, 'digital culture' refers to the contemporary social, cultural and economic formations and practices that have been created, affected or propagated by digital technology. It encompasses cultural production, dissemination and consumption processes that have impacted on the present experience of popular music in all its variety.
Research Interests: Music Technology, Popular Music Studies, Popular Music, Technoculture, Music and Politics, and 14 moreDigital Culture, Technophobia, Authenticity in Popular Music, Digital technology (music), NME, Technophilia, Music and the internet, Digital Technology and Culture, Digital Music Consumption, Authenticity and music, David Bowie and music, Moby, Cocteau Twins, and Music and Democratisation
My PhD was a practice-as-research project. I felt, after submitting the thesis, that a large part of the written research could be useful for other researchers, but other material had significance only for my own creative practice. The... more
My PhD was a practice-as-research project. I felt, after submitting the thesis, that a large part of the written research could be useful for other researchers, but other material had significance only for my own creative practice. The thesis has not been available until now. I recently decided to collect the most widely useful material together from the thesis and ‘publish’ it via ResearchGate and Academia. Practical outcomes from the research can be found at https://obe-lus.bandcamp.com/
Original Abstract:- Electronica developed in the last decade of the twentieth century as an area of liminal musical practice that breached the creative and institutional divides between academic and popular electronic music. In forging innovative modes of composition and technological practice, electronica artists created a musical terrain requiring new modes of analysis to develop an understanding of the poetics of electronica. This study responds to a shortfall in previous work in the field by developing an integrative and multi-perspectival analysis of the creative practices and contexts of electronica. This is achieved through historical, contextual, theoretical and practical research that synthesises material drawn from the fields of cultural studies, sociology, musicology and popular music studies. In considering how electronica comes into existence, the study identifies the individual and social factors that combine in the compositional practices of electronica. It explores the historical development of electronica, and examines genre, style and how electronica has challenged the fixity of popular and institutional musical categorisation. The social authorship of music, where electronica musicians are identified as séantifically and dialogically channelling earlier musical voices, is balanced with an outline of a psychotopographic internal musical dialogue. The producer-creator is identified as drawing both from individual and social repositories in forming musical works. Moving beyond technological determinist and constructivist models, the study emphasises the affordances of music technologies, and the compositional practices that electronica musicians have developed as a response to and in collaboration with these technologies. A development of themes concerning atemporality and spectrality in the fields of glitch and hauntology provides a backdrop to my creative practice as obe:lus that informs and was informed by the findings of my historical, contextual and theoretical research. Both glitch and hauntology are viewed as problematising notions of future and past by critiquing and foregrounding the media through and from which they are created.
Original Abstract:- Electronica developed in the last decade of the twentieth century as an area of liminal musical practice that breached the creative and institutional divides between academic and popular electronic music. In forging innovative modes of composition and technological practice, electronica artists created a musical terrain requiring new modes of analysis to develop an understanding of the poetics of electronica. This study responds to a shortfall in previous work in the field by developing an integrative and multi-perspectival analysis of the creative practices and contexts of electronica. This is achieved through historical, contextual, theoretical and practical research that synthesises material drawn from the fields of cultural studies, sociology, musicology and popular music studies. In considering how electronica comes into existence, the study identifies the individual and social factors that combine in the compositional practices of electronica. It explores the historical development of electronica, and examines genre, style and how electronica has challenged the fixity of popular and institutional musical categorisation. The social authorship of music, where electronica musicians are identified as séantifically and dialogically channelling earlier musical voices, is balanced with an outline of a psychotopographic internal musical dialogue. The producer-creator is identified as drawing both from individual and social repositories in forming musical works. Moving beyond technological determinist and constructivist models, the study emphasises the affordances of music technologies, and the compositional practices that electronica musicians have developed as a response to and in collaboration with these technologies. A development of themes concerning atemporality and spectrality in the fields of glitch and hauntology provides a backdrop to my creative practice as obe:lus that informs and was informed by the findings of my historical, contextual and theoretical research. Both glitch and hauntology are viewed as problematising notions of future and past by critiquing and foregrounding the media through and from which they are created.