Let us imagine an aesthetics of music grounded in the notion of compression. Audio file-compression locates the point at which the granularity of the signal is of sufficient density to recreate sound, to give the illusion of an original indistinguishable from that of a higher-resolution reproduction. We might stipulate that the efficiency of perception is an aesthetic desideratum: the beautiful or well-formed is that which transmits musical information without waste, locates a “sweet spot” in the density of information. The flattened dynamics of commercial music could be said to be well formed, locating the ideal point in the dynamic range or the place of maximum efficiency. Should we be catholic in our definition of music, we could assert that the clarity of the cinematic soundscape (wherein everything is completely audible) is likewise efficient or ideal. From this a corollary: sound designed or rendered is to be preferred to “natural”...

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