Does This Mix Sound “Trve” To You? : Authenticity, Retro Culture and Metal Mixes

Sammanfattning: Despite the rapid development in technology that enables metal music producers today to create “perfect” sound mixes, many bands, artists and producers choose to make their creations sound old or “retro”. A song is created for this study and mixed in two different ways, one with a more“retro” direction and the other with a more “modern” direction. Five respondents were then made to listen to both mixes and were interviewed on what they thought of each respective mix and why they think retro culture is so prevalent today. The data gathered from the interviews show that the respondents describe retro mixes as dirty, saturated and raw while they described modern mixes as clean, hi-fi and overly compressed. The respondents associate old sounding mixes to authenticity, genuinity and honesty but don’t describe modern mixes as fake or dishonest. The respondents comment that the streamlined nature of music production today leads to very uniform sounding mixes and the abundance of similar sounding mixes creates a demand for more honest, authentic and genuine music. The respondents claim that retro culture would not be possible without the aid of modern technology.