Johnson, Christopher Richard (2026) Production Culture and Sonic Identity in Popular Music: A practice-based investigation into how the social, cultural and logistical conditions of songwriting and music production shape sonic identity. Doctoral thesis, York St John University.

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Abstract

This research investigates the link between the social, cultural and logistical conditions involved in popular music production, and the resulting identity that can be perceived in the finished recordings. It is a practice-based study in which I explore the creative processes of the music producer through the practice of songwriting and producing records in a variety of contexts. The practice is understood and articulated through the theorising presented in this thesis, and throughout the study, practice and theory co-constitute one another through iterative cycles of production and reflection.

I propose that collaborators on a music production project experience an identifiable culture that is a composite impression of the social, environmental, technological and methodological factors involved, and that this production culture affects the sonic identity of the record and the messages it communicates. I explore the agency of the music producer in shaping this production culture, and how the tone of the collaboration is present in the character of the produced music. Through the creation of new songs, I evaluate a range of collaborative writing models and the effect the writing model has on the song’s development, considering the cultural themes and social narratives the songs emerged from.

I draw on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus (1977) to define a framework for interrogating the micro social environments of collaborative music production projects, and for analysing the factors that construct and evolve the production culture. The research identifies and examines intersections between the musicology of production, sociology, perspectives on collaboration, theories of creativity, and the psychology of Self, to synthesise new models to better understand creative practice in music production.

The findings are articulated in the submitted creative artefacts and the theoretical ideas and models presented in this thesis.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Status:	Published
Subjects:	M Music and Books on Music > M Music
School/Department:	School of the Arts
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/16150

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