Hard work and happy accidents: why do so many of us prefer ‘difficult’ analogue technology?

• Up two flights of stairs, the music machinery on offer includes brands such as Moog and Buchla, as well as modern euro-racks.
• (From Michael’s fieldnotes)
  I finally locate the legendary Schneiders Buero, a shop selling analogue synthesizers in Berlin’s Kotti neighbourhood.
• Up two flights of stairs, the music machinery on offer includes brands such as Moog and Buchla, as well as modern euro-racks.
• (From Michael’s fieldnotes) As academics who rarely go a day without playing or making music, we have spent the past decade examining the extraordinary revival of analogue technology.
• This means there are now more analogue options available than at any time since the 1970s, the heyday of the modular format.

The appeal of the slow

• So we dived in.
• Eventually, these forays became our formal research project, which has included visiting record fairs and conventions around the world, going on photowalks and attending listening evenings, and meeting an array of diehard analogue communities both on and off line.

• The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.
• And we expect interest in such experiences to rise exponentially in coming years.
• Recognising our existential need to occasionally slow down can be the basis for winning consumer strategies.
• Recognising our existential need to occasionally slow down can be the basis for winning consumer strategies.

Saved from demolition

• Rather than nostalgia, they are turning to film because of its aesthetic values and a greater sense of creative control over their photos.
• In response, venerable brands including Kodak, Polaroid and Leica have re-emerged – in some cases, almost from the dead.
• We literally saved it from demolition at the very last second in 2008.
• We literally saved it from demolition at the very last second in 2008.
• He said luxury brands such as Gucci are particularly keen on using film photography as this gives their promotional material a different look.

Work, effort, meaning

• When it was conceded that digital probably was better for wildlife photography, James cut in:
  That’s to miss the point!
• The sound might be better but you miss seeing the work that went into the performance, the effort of the players and their crew.
• Work, effort, meaning – these ideas are all interconnected for users and consumers of analogue technology.
• However, when asked to compare the two, they talk about the greater weight and meaning they give to their analogue experiences.
• I think it is the quality of the human voice; it does feel more like someone’s speaking to me.

• And part of what makes this possible is the process of analogue recording, in which all the sounds being made, including the unscripted noise of the recording process itself, are captured in the final track.
• To facilitate this sound, some musicians have even started setting up their own pressing plants, such as Jack White’s Third Man Pressing in Detroit.

The joy of happy accidents

• Half of what you do trying to make music is like a happy accident that ends up sounding better than what you intended.
• When we started, we didn’t have that technology, so we made mistakes and some of them were happy accidents, resulting in iconic tracks.
• When we started, we didn’t have that technology, so we made mistakes and some of them were happy accidents, resulting in iconic tracks.
• It’s these happy accidents that we love.
• It’s these happy accidents that we love.
• For example, the opening bass part of Cannonball, the 1993 song by US Indie band the Breeders, accidentally starts in a different key.
• Bass player Josephine Wiggs began playing the riff one step down, then fixed it when the drums came in.

Digital technology is de-skilling us

• Over the decade or so of our research, explanations for the analogue revival have shifted from nostalgia, to the desire for something physical in a digital age, to the sense that analogue technology is creatively preferable.
• Is digital technology de-skilling consumers, leading to a sense of alienation?
• Using analogue technology is another way consumers can feed this desire to re-skill.
• Rob told us how his love of music had turned sour with the “sheer ease” of digital, starting with CDs and the MP3 player – and how vinyl had reinvigorated him.
• For him, the problem came when listening on digital devices without the “sides” of vinyl albums, and then on music streaming platforms whose digital algorithms preference popular tracks.

‘This song sucks’

• These are the people who want to stretch and break the rules and trigger the happy accidents that create something altogether new.
• For example, photographers who seek more creative expressions by pre-soaking or “souping” their camera film in lemon juice, coffee, beer, or even burning it.
• And among this group, connecting digital and analogue technology is also common – combining two completely different systems to generate even more possibilities.
• Film director Denis Villeneuve’s first instalment of Dune (2021) was initially shot on digital, then transferred to film, before being re-digitised.
• By combining the two, Villeneuve got a film that, in his words, has a “more timeless, painterly feel”.

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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.