The so-called spatial turn in philosophy, cultural studies, geography, art history, and literary studies has not been connected with the analysis of space in recorded music. This article reviews a number of the most influential concepts of thinkers’ associated with the spatial turn (Foucault, Harvey, Soja, Cosgrove, Jameson, Bachelard, Lefebvre) and connects them with the literature on space in recorded music. This can offer new insights to the understanding of space in music, particularly by helping us address questions of the ontology of recorded music and explaining the social production of space in music.
Space
The Development of the ‘Epic’ Queen Sound
One of the defining features of Queen’s output in the 1970s was the group’s signature ‘sound’. This paper documents four studio-related techniques that contributed to the ‘Queen sound’, with a particular focus on how these traits conveyed a sense of ‘epic’ size in the group’s songs. The second section of this paper examines the ‘Queen sound’ from a diachronic perspective, demonstrating how the group’s changing studio practices between 1974 and 1975 resulted in the complete realisation of the ‘Queen sound’.