The Beatles and the Beatlesque: A Crossdisciplinary Analysis of Sound Production and Stylistic Impact

ISBN-13: 9783031338038 / Twarda / 2023 / 214 str.

Paolo Bucciarelli

Spis treści

Preface

1. Introduction: a short history of The Beatles in the studio

1.1 Recording strategies, tricks and effects

1.2 Instrumentation and recurrent techniques

1.3 The centrality of the studio

2. Style and sound

2.1 Sound and musical competence

2.2 The roots of The Beatles sound

2.3 Later influences

3. On (the difficulty of) defining The Beatles style

3.1. Vocals

3.2. Harmonic solutions

3.3. Melodic solutions

3.4. Rhythmic solutions

3.5. Instruments

3.6. Dynamics

3.7. Sound

3.8. Endings

3.9. Lyrics

4. Crossdisciplinary reflections: production seen from the perspective of multimodality studies, narratology and film studies.

4.1. Visual and literary components in Lennon-McCartney     

4.1.1. Lennon or McCartney 

4.1.2. Lennon and McCartney

4.2. Production as multimodality

4.3. Production and diegesis

4.3.1. Diegesis, non-diegesis, formality, non-formality

4.3.2. Hybrid forms and metadiegesis

4.4. Case-study: feedbacks, false starts and blisters

4.4.1. Redefining the spatial/temporal dimension of a song

4.5. Production as montage

4.5.1. Martin vs. Spector (and Lynne)

4.5.2. Types of production as types of montage

4.6. Case-study: The Fool on the Hill

4.6.1. Creation and production

4.6.2. What kind of fool was the fool on the hill?

4.6.3. The authorial context

4.6.4. Themes, structure and imagery

4.6.5. Musical strategies

4.7. Foreshadowing strategies

5. Birth and fortune of the “Beatlesesque”: Transmission of creativity and legacy

5.1 A little survey

5.2 Stylistic features in a nutshell

5.3 Another little survey

5.4 Intrinsically-Beatlesesque features

5.4.1 Different approaches

5.4.2 Most referenced production elements

5.5 Conclusions

References

Index of names

Index of songs/albums

O autorze

Prof. Dr. Dario Martinelli (1974), musicologist and semiotician, is Full Professor of History and Theory of Arts at Kaunas University of Technology. He is also affiliated with the University of Helsinki, as Adjunct Professor in Semiotics and Musicology, and with the University of Lapland, as Adjunct Professor in Methodologies of Semiotics and Communication Studies. He is also Editor-in-chief of the series “Numanities – Arts and Humanities in Progress“, published by Springer.  Martinelli has been recipient of several prizes, including, in 2006, a knighthood from the Italian Republic for his contribution to Italian culture.

Paolo Bucciarelli (1974) is a music producer, songwriter and keyboard player. As a musician, he started his career in the second half of the 90's, in the Italian pop/rock band Giuliodorme, signed to BMG in 1996. After the band’s break-up, Bucciarelli graduated in Record Production at the London College of Music, and began his activity as producer in England, Italy and Finland. In 2003, he composed the soundtrack for Alessandro Nico Savino's "5 e Mezza in Punto". Since 2004, Bucciarelli has also been active as a musicologist, giving lectures and seminars at the University of Helsinki, the Finnish Institute of Technology and the Evtek University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki.

Blurb

The Beatles and the Beatlesque address a paradox emanating from The Beatles’ music through a cross-disciplinary hybrid of reflections, drawing from both, musical practice itself and academic research. Indeed, despite their extreme stylistic variety, The Beatles’ songs seem to always bear a distinctive identity that emerges even more in similar works by other artists, whether they are merely inspired, derivative or explicitly paying homage.  The authors, a musicologist and music producer, emphasize the importance of record production in The Beatles' music in a way that does justice not only to the final artifacts (the released songs) but also to the creative process itself (i.e., the songs "in the making").

Through an investigation into the work of George Martin and his team, as well as The Beatles themselves, this text sheds light on the role of the studio in shaping the group's eclectic but unique sound.  The chapters address what makes a song “Beatlesque”, to what extent production choices are responsible for developing a style, production being understood not as a mere set of technicalities, but also in a more conceptual way, as well as the aesthetics, semiotics and philosophy that animated studio activity. The outcome is a book that will appeal to both students and researchers, as well as, of course, musicophiles of all kinds.