Noise in and as Music -an open access success

Noise in and as Music -an open access success

Posted by Dawn Cockcroft on 2016-10-25

It has been over 14 months since the publication of one of our first open access books: Noise in and as Music, and with #OAWeek in full swing it feels like a perfect time to get reflective and see how the book is doing in its second year. Noise was published as both a print book to order online, and an open access eBook version which can be downloaded from the University Repository completely free of charge. The idea was to open up the readership potential and make sure that this high quality research publication was made accessible to academics, professionals, members of the public, artists and anyone with an interest in the relationship between noise and music. Order a print copy Download the eBook Open access publishing reaches a wider audience The book has been successful as a print book, but even more so as an open access book. With over 3500 downloads so far, this innovative piece of research provides a cross-section of current explorations of noise and music which is clearly of interest to a wide audience. Also received well by specialist music critics, Noise was reviewed for Tempo: A quarterly review of new music

The book is ordered, considered and thoughtful, and it is about noise in its various contradictory and untidy aspects. The fact that noise has been so theorised is itself curious and indicative. The dilemma is an oscillation between, on the one hand, the well-worn atavistic, even anti intellectual stance of many a noise provocateur’s PR, and, on the other, a desire to make the unintelligible speak, or to speak unimaginable desires, or the desire to destabilise entrenched structures... Thankfully, the book resists any impulse towards totalising and neat theorising, keeping an unruly plurality at play. Each of the contributors offers a partial perspective, addressing a particular facet of the n-dimensionality of Noise.