Living Stereo: Histories and Cultures of Multichannel Sound

Stereo is everywhere. For over half a century, the whole culture and industry of music and sound has been organized around the principle of stereophony. But nothing about this -not the invention, acceptance or ubiquity of stereo- was inevitable. This groundbreaking book uncovers the aesthetic conventions, technologies and listening practices that have made stereo seem natural and that have been necessary to maintain stereo's place as a dominant mode of sound reproduction.

"In this volume, Théberge, Devine and Everrett have gathered together a fascinating body of writing on the technical, psychological and social construction of stereo. (...) While the individual chapters provide some fine grained detail, the editors have situated them into the broader context of the burgeoning new discipline of sound studies." (Dr. Simon Zagorski-Thomas)

"This timely, rich and compelling book (...) situates stereo sound so carefully in historical and contemporary cultures of science, commerce and listening that the book is itself a 'sweet spot' in studies of sound and music" (Karin Bijsterveld.)

CONTENIDO:

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Living Stereo (Paul Théberge, Kyle Devine and Tom Everrett)

(Audio) Positions
1. The ?Sweet Spot?: The Technology of Stereo and the Field of Auditorship (Tony Grajeda)
2. The Stereophonic Spaces of Soundscape (Jonathan Sterne)
3. Sonar and the Channelization of the Ocean (John Shiga)

Listening Cultures
4. Training the Listener: Stereo Demonstration Discs in an Emerging Consumer Market (Tim J. Anderson)
5. Mono in the Stereo Age (Eric Barry)
6. Looking Past the Stereo Loudspeakers: From the Home to the Amplified Concert Hall (Jonathan Tee)
7. Recorded British Folk Song (Allan F. Moore)

Multichannel Sound and Screen Media
8. Television: Now with Two Channels of Audio (David Sedman)
9. The Grandeur(s) of CinemaScope (Matthew Malsky)
10. Atmos Now: Dolby Laboratories, Mixing Ideology and Hollywood Sound Production (Benjamin Wright)
11. A Symphony of Sound: Surround Sound in Formula One Racing Games (Ruth Dockwray and Karen Collins)

List of Contributors
Index