Boon, H. 2024. Electronic Music Production: Kate Bush Running up that Hill. Change and Continuity: Traditions, Tensions and Transformations in Music Production - SMPR Conference 2024. Leeds Beckett University, Leeds School of Arts 12 - 14 Sep 2024
| Title | Electronic Music Production: Kate Bush Running up that Hill |
|---|---|
| Authors | Boon, H. |
| Type | Conference paper |
| Abstract | For this themed session, each presenter will discuss Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ – the lead single from Hounds of Love which Leah recently published a 331/3 book on. Leah will frame it in terms of the Fairlight and Linn Drum technology that gave Bush new autonomy in her creative practice. This linked to her home studio, her unique ways of working and self-production and to a discussion of the emancipation of self-producing artists (particularly non-male ones) from patriarchal studio-centric approaches and visionary, self-producing auteurs like Bjork, Grimes, and Clarissa Connelly. It ties back to themes of longing for equality and gender transgression fantasies in Bush’s song. Hussein will be looking at Running Up That Hill cover versions and the degree to which some of the many electronically produced cover versions follow the arrangement/format or make style-based deviations to assert their individual identity. By exploring the importance of various features of the track and the timbre’s importance to its identity, various aspects of covers and ‘versioning’ will be discussed in relation to electronic music. Dan takes inspiration from Bush’s collaborative development of her demo with Haydn Bendall and Brian Tench to discuss a project involving UWL record label students developing a remix of a release using synthesizers from UWL’s Townshend Studio. They engage in a self-guided learning experience to recreate the journey from a raw synthesis demo to a fully realised release providing insights into the evolution of musical ideas and the transformative power of collaborative exploration. Simon will discuss Bush’s use of electronic instruments and vocal processing on this track as sonic cartoons:, exploring how simplified and schematic electronic sounds provide their own unique affordances for arrangement and production and how they work in combination with sampled and processed vocals (using examples from Shygirl, J Dilla and Ariana Grande). |
| Keywords | Electronic Music Production |
| Kate Bush | |
| Running Up That Hill | |
| self-producing artists | |
| versioning | |
| experiential learning | |
| sonic cartoons | |
| Year | 2024 |
| Conference | Change and Continuity: Traditions, Tensions and Transformations in Music Production - SMPR Conference 2024 |
| Web address (URL) | https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/events/conferences/smpr-2024/ |