Sounding Human: Music and Machines, 1740/2020

Deirdre Loughridge's Sounding Human explores the relationship between human and machine in music, challenging the "human or machine" logic and seeking out other conjunctions such as and or with. It traces the debate from the invention of the first musical android to the creation of a "sound wave instrument" and the chopped and pitched vocals produced by sampling singers' voices in modern pop music. Loughridge shows how machines have actively shaped the act of music composition and how musical artifacts can be used to explain and contest what it is to be human.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 05 January 2024
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

The relationship between humans and machines in music has been a subject of extensive analysis since the mid-eighteenth century. This discourse established an absolute boundary between the two, with a recurring practice of distinguishing "human" musicality from its "merely mechanical" simulations. In her book, Sounding Human, Deirdre Loughridge challenges and dismantles this binary logic, seeking out alternative frameworks that better capture the complex interplay between human and machine.

Sounding Human delves into the debate on posthumanism and human-machine relationships in music, examining how categories of human and machine have been continuously renegotiated throughout history. Loughridge skillfully traces this debate from the invention of the first musical android in 1737 to the creation of a "sound wave instrument" by a British electronic music composer in the 1960s and the use of chopped and pitched vocals in modern pop music through sampling. Through her comprehensive exploration, Loughridge demonstrates how machines have played a pivotal role in shaping the act of music composition. She showcases how music-generating computer programs, as well as older musical instruments and music notation, have actively contributed to the creation of musical artifacts.

By examining the ways in which machines have influenced music composition, Loughridge reveals how musical artifacts can be used to understand and challenge what it means to be human. She prompts us to consider the ways in which technology has transformed our understanding of music and our own identities as musicians and listeners. Sounding Human is a thought-provoking and insightful book that offers valuable insights into the evolving relationship between humans and machines in music.

Weight: 396g
Dimension: 152 x 228 x 12 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226830117