Eraserhead and Star Wars

After watching parts of David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977) again online, I've noticed how different the approach to sound design is in that film compared to another film from that year - George Lucas' Star Wars. Being two totally different types of film, these show a good example of how different sound can be in film. While Ben Burtt (Star Wars) focuses on making the various invented sound effects fit naturally into filmworld to give the impression that the filmworld is real, David Lynch focuses on abstract sounds through out Eraserhead to do exactly the opposite - the intensification of sounds that would normally fit fairly low in the atmos track not only symbolises the dullness of the filmworld, but also adds to the film's surreal sense of otherworldliness.

How the sound of music has changed through the years

Earlier today, after listening to Led Zeppelin III (1970) in its entirety, I started listening to The Resistance (2009) by Muse. The difference between the sound of these two albums, despite both being by rock bands, made me realise just how much the processing of audio transformed in the 39 years between the two albums' releases.

Led Zeppelin III manages to combine sounding rock enough for the likes of Led Zeppelin with being easy enough on the ears to not be tired out by the time the album starts to repeat (it played one and a half times through before I changed to Muse), whereas The Resistance, while sounding as good as any other album released in the last few years, sounds aggressive not just musically, but in its production - there are more harsh high-frequencies and overall is compressed in such a way as to sound 'loud' and 'punchy' when played back. This is a complaint that's often made about modern music versus older music.

I listened to both albums digitally, both using the same file formatting, which shows that contemporary music goes through the mixing and mastering processes in a very different way to music from the 1970s.