Pat O’grady
Biographic Data
| ID | 1602674 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Pat O’grady |
| GIVEN NAMES | Pat |
| FAMILY NAME | O’grady |
| SIGNATURE | O’GRADY P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Macquarie University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9949-0980 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Back to the Future
The study of songwriting invites us to enter into the music production process of making a song. Here, we may observe melodic or lyric ideas in their unfinished form. However, within this process there are also ways a songwriter might imagine how the song will sound when it is completed. This article probes this process as the “music production imagination”. Using a practice research approach coupled with brief textual analyses of existing accoun…
‘Redefined and streamlined’
What studios think they do
Over a decade has passed since Eliot Bates examined ‘what studios do’. In the meantime, discussions surrounding decline and transformation in music production often depict a grim outlook for the future of large-format recording studios confluent with a burgeoning lower-cost, DAW-based DIY recording sector. This paper conducts a census of commercial recording studios along the east coast of Australia by gathering data from their websites. This app…
Rethinking the Eco-Recording Studio
Recent studies have urged us to consider the materialities of popular music to evaluate its environmental cost. This article orients this discussion towards the materiality of popular music production. It argues that industrial discussions on sustainable music production practices can overlook the ideologies associated with recording technologies that prompt consumption activities. It highlights the key themes discussed in the industry regarding …
An essential tool for creativity
Within the pop music industries, the term 'creativity' is a popular descriptor of the processes associated with the production of music. Historically, a romantic or rational approach has often featured in discussions on creativity. Some scholars have suggested that a culturally informed understanding of creativity is more useful, while some have advocated that we abandon the term altogether. The purpose of this article is to emphasise how the ter…
Everyday Fidelity”
Studies have suggested that consumers of recorded music favor portability over high fidelity. In recent years, wireless technologies – such as Bluetooth headphones and speakers – have become a popular way to listen to music. The technology can be contextualized within “ubiquitous listening,” which describes how music is, for many listeners, not a standalone activity. This article examines wireless headphones and speakers to consider how “ubiquito…
Rethinking criticism about lossy compression
Although digital music streaming and downloading practices highlight a preference for portability over fidelity among pop music consumers, for some ‘high fidelity’ continues to be a crucial component of their pop music engagement. This article examines the political dimensions of audio preferences. It considers comments by Neil Young and those within The Distortion of Sound who claim that the lossy compression encoding process – used in digital d…
Sound City and music from the outskirts
The term ‘democratisation’ often appears in debates about pop music production. It tends to describe the effect of reductions in price and required skills-sets of new digital recording technologies. Some scholars have questioned whether democratisation has actually occurred, given the ongoing gender, class and geographic divisions within music production. In spite of these factors, the number of large studios appears to be in decline and in favou…
Making mirrors, making albums and making documentaries
Recent popular music and film studies have revealed the political functions of documentaries about musicians. These studies suggest that such documentaries make powerful interventions into the field of music production as they construct the value of their subjects and their work. Owing to the expense and complexity of broadcast equipment, production companies have tended to favour documentaries about artists and work considered to be popular and …
The analogue divide
Since the 1980s, the uptake of digital hard disk recording has replaced analogue tape as the primary medium on which popular music is recorded. This change sparked a fierce and ongoing debate between producers about aesthetics and musicianship within pop music production. It is possible to understand this debate as part of an extended history of sceptical attitudes towards new technologies. In this article, I examine the ways in which the capacit…
Another Day to Swing on Clothes Lines’
A large proportion of overseas-born artists comprise the pop music industries in Australia. Keith Urban, Rick Springfield, members of Cold Chisel, The Angels and Masters Apprentices, for example, not only represent themselves as ‘Australian;’ they are frequently associated with the nation by critics and audiences. The Bee Gees also exemplify this trend. In this article, I wish to bring into focus The Bee Gees’ curious connection with Australia. I…
Latent Elements in Pop Music Production
The significant role that recording technologies play in pop music production has received extensive attention in recent years. Here, the use of signal processing units and audio editing shape the sound and style of many pop music songs. The role that these technologies play, however, has been predominantly assessed by examining final recordings. This article examines the Bee Gees’ production practices during the 1990s in order to analyze the lat…
The Art of Record Production
Originally developed for the treatment of blood-clotting by the German pharmaceutical company Merck in 1912, ecstasy was subsequently "rediscovered" by the Shulgins, who through their own experimentations and critical-self reflections had the remarkable foresight to anticipate the clinical use of the drug as an aid to psychotherapeutic practice. More recently, federally approved trials in the United States have openly sanctioned the legal use of …
No prominent works on this page.
The Art of Record Production
Originally developed for the treatment of blood-clotting by the German pharmaceutical company Merck in 1912, ecstasy was subsequently "rediscovered" by the Shulgins, who through their own experimentations and critical-self reflections had the remarkable foresight to anticipate the clinical use of the drug as an aid to psychotherapeutic practice. More recently, federally approved trials in the United States have openly sanctioned the legal use of …
Another Day to Swing on Clothes Lines’
A large proportion of overseas-born artists comprise the pop music industries in Australia. Keith Urban, Rick Springfield, members of Cold Chisel, The Angels and Masters Apprentices, for example, not only represent themselves as ‘Australian;’ they are frequently associated with the nation by critics and audiences. The Bee Gees also exemplify this trend. In this article, I wish to bring into focus The Bee Gees’ curious connection with Australia. I…
Latent Elements in Pop Music Production
The significant role that recording technologies play in pop music production has received extensive attention in recent years. Here, the use of signal processing units and audio editing shape the sound and style of many pop music songs. The role that these technologies play, however, has been predominantly assessed by examining final recordings. This article examines the Bee Gees’ production practices during the 1990s in order to analyze the lat…
The analogue divide
Since the 1980s, the uptake of digital hard disk recording has replaced analogue tape as the primary medium on which popular music is recorded. This change sparked a fierce and ongoing debate between producers about aesthetics and musicianship within pop music production. It is possible to understand this debate as part of an extended history of sceptical attitudes towards new technologies. In this article, I examine the ways in which the capacit…
Making mirrors, making albums and making documentaries
Recent popular music and film studies have revealed the political functions of documentaries about musicians. These studies suggest that such documentaries make powerful interventions into the field of music production as they construct the value of their subjects and their work. Owing to the expense and complexity of broadcast equipment, production companies have tended to favour documentaries about artists and work considered to be popular and …
Rethinking criticism about lossy compression
Although digital music streaming and downloading practices highlight a preference for portability over fidelity among pop music consumers, for some ‘high fidelity’ continues to be a crucial component of their pop music engagement. This article examines the political dimensions of audio preferences. It considers comments by Neil Young and those within The Distortion of Sound who claim that the lossy compression encoding process – used in digital d…
Sound City and music from the outskirts
The term ‘democratisation’ often appears in debates about pop music production. It tends to describe the effect of reductions in price and required skills-sets of new digital recording technologies. Some scholars have questioned whether democratisation has actually occurred, given the ongoing gender, class and geographic divisions within music production. In spite of these factors, the number of large studios appears to be in decline and in favou…
Everyday Fidelity”
Studies have suggested that consumers of recorded music favor portability over high fidelity. In recent years, wireless technologies – such as Bluetooth headphones and speakers – have become a popular way to listen to music. The technology can be contextualized within “ubiquitous listening,” which describes how music is, for many listeners, not a standalone activity. This article examines wireless headphones and speakers to consider how “ubiquito…
An essential tool for creativity
Within the pop music industries, the term 'creativity' is a popular descriptor of the processes associated with the production of music. Historically, a romantic or rational approach has often featured in discussions on creativity. Some scholars have suggested that a culturally informed understanding of creativity is more useful, while some have advocated that we abandon the term altogether. The purpose of this article is to emphasise how the ter…
What studios think they do
Over a decade has passed since Eliot Bates examined ‘what studios do’. In the meantime, discussions surrounding decline and transformation in music production often depict a grim outlook for the future of large-format recording studios confluent with a burgeoning lower-cost, DAW-based DIY recording sector. This paper conducts a census of commercial recording studios along the east coast of Australia by gathering data from their websites. This app…
Rethinking the Eco-Recording Studio
Recent studies have urged us to consider the materialities of popular music to evaluate its environmental cost. This article orients this discussion towards the materiality of popular music production. It argues that industrial discussions on sustainable music production practices can overlook the ideologies associated with recording technologies that prompt consumption activities. It highlights the key themes discussed in the industry regarding …
Back to the Future
The study of songwriting invites us to enter into the music production process of making a song. Here, we may observe melodic or lyric ideas in their unfinished form. However, within this process there are also ways a songwriter might imagine how the song will sound when it is completed. This article probes this process as the “music production imagination”. Using a practice research approach coupled with brief textual analyses of existing accoun…
‘Redefined and streamlined’
Music History and Culture (12 works) · Art (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Diverse Musicological Studies (7 works) · Visual arts (6 works) · Music Technology and Sound Studies (5 works) · Popular music (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Cultural Industries and Urban Development (4 works) · Multimedia (4 works)