In this project, Pat O’Grady considers the socio-cultural dimensions of analogue recording technology within contemporary music production. He examines how attitudes towards analogue hardware signal processors and mixing consoles shapes cultural capital within the field. The project investigates how a fetishization towards exclusive and expensive analogue technology can obstruct the potential of emergent technologies. Against the backdrop of increasingly accessible music production technologies, a focus on analogue technologies can bring the legitimacy of emergent technologies into question. Over seven journal articles and one book chapter, the project to date has covered analogue technology across various areas, including fidelity in the everyday, democratization, creativity, lossy compression, home studios, mastering and digital emulation. This project aims to encourage greater participation within the music recording sector through a better understanding of the politics of aesthetics and how they shape value.

O’Grady P (2022) ‘Everyday Fidelity’ : Analyzing Sound Quality in Ubiquitous Listening Practices. Popular Music and Society, https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2022.2129257

O'Grady P (2021) Sound City and music from the outskirts: the de-democratization of pop music production. Creative Industries Journal. 14(3) pp. 211-225. http://DOI: 10.1080/17510694.2020.1839281

O'Grady P (2021) ‘An essential tool for creativity’: technologies, spaces and discourse within pop music production. Media International Australia. http://DOI: 10.1177/1329878X211040127

O'Grady P (2021) Rethinking criticism about lossy compression: Sound fidelity, large-scale production and audio capital in pop music. Convergence. 27 (4), pp. 1075-1091. 

O’Grady P (2020) Making mirrors, making albums and making documentaries: the music of Gotye and negotiating Bourdieu’s field of cultural production. Popular Music. 39 (3-4) pp. 669-684

O’Grady P (2019) The Master of Mystery: Technology, Legitimacy and Status in Audio Mastering. Journal of Popular Music Studies. 31(2). pp. 141-164. 

O’Grady P (2019) The Analogue Divide: Interpreting Attitudes Towards Recording Media in Music Production. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies. 446-459 DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2019.1626348

O’Grady P (2019) The Politics of Digitizing Analogue Recording Technologies. In: Hepworth-Sawyer R and Hodgson J (eds) Producing Music. London: Routledge.

View Pat O'Grady's Research page.