Home Studios : The Bedroom Revolution
Of Jacob Collier by Jacob Collier
Not so long ago, attaining genuine artistry as a musician was a privilege reserved for nepo-babies, industry giants or those lucky enough to be chosen and sponsored by them – today, music is an art form that is allowing everyone and their mother, and we owe a large part of that ubiquity to the bedroom.
Bedroom music – or bedroom pop – is a style characterized by its at-home production, something that was made possible by the popularization and increased accessibility of digital audio workstations and recording equipment. Musicians who once had to rent time at professional studios have now brought work home, and this has had an immense impact on the standard, process, and consumption of music everywhere
Accessibility is the greatest fundamental development this style has ushered in, bringing an expansion in creative freedom, as well as a saturation of repetitive creation. We live in an age where good quality music is easy to come by, but the mediocre stuff is easier still. As of September 2022, 100,000 tracks are being uploaded to streaming services every day. Recording, producing, and distributing your own music is the simplest it has ever been.
Now, the value of this accessibility is debatable – to some, the music industry feels congested and defiled. To purists and professionals, musicianship should not be something that anyone can buy in and buy out of at a capricious whim, to them music is a vocation. It’s something that comes from passion and commitment, emotion, and expression. The overabundance of Soundcloud rappers, YouTube cover singers, and unenthusiastic musician-tourists, waters down the true meaning of what it means to be an artist.
However, not everyone sees things this way. To others, this dissemination of tools and information is essential to the growth of industry and artistry. Creativity is not a finite, ineffable source that warrants restraint, it is a free and abundant aspect of every person. Anyone should have the ability to contribute to music if they so choose. Yes, a portion of those attempts are bound to be similar to a myriad of others; that is the nature of art. Some of those attempts, however, will be avant-garde masterpieces, great radio songs, or the adolescent musings of the next Billie Eilish or Steve Lacy.
The Bare Maximum is a Ted Talk where Lacy illustrates any musician's boundless capabilities if they choose to take advantage of them. His 2017 debut EP was recorded on his iPhone, and today he is nominated in four categories for the 2023 Grammy Awards.
Expansion and abundance are not the only things bedroom production has brought to modern music. The songwriting endeavor has evolved with bedroom production. Although the ability to record at any time may not seem like the most revolutionary development, it affects writers significantly. Songs were, at a time, completely written before they were put to recording. George Martin and The Beatles experienced a similar creative elevation in the early days of analogue music production, discovering a new creative avenue in experimenting with the then-novel technology during the songwriting process. Today, that privilege is no longer reserved for the best-selling band of all time. Communication between the audio file and the producer opens a creative channel with unmeasurable depths.
Online shows like NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) and Under the Covers by In Bed with * Books & Music are online platforms built to express this type of intimacy amongst audiences. Growing collectives such as Narowbi, Saison Sundays, FAGWINTER, You Are My Sunday, Couch Concert and Pinnacle Pop are independent platforms showcasing and bringing together South African creatives for their merit and facilitating online music to a wider select audience group that has a huge appreciation for this era of art.
The abundance of accessibility begs the question: Does talent mean anything anymore? What does it mean to be a musician if anyone can download FL Studio, buy a Scarlet 2i2 and achieve effectively what a sound engineering graduate or instrumentalist can do? The answer is that these two forms of existence are not mutually exclusive. One person’s creative exploration does not take away from another’s.
The beauty that can come from the collaboration between professional musicians who have been in the game for years, and fresh writers, producers and performers who have just begun their careers is endless. A bedroom producer may not know how to achieve sidechain compression or subtractive synthesis, and an educated and experienced sound engineer may not appreciate the imperfect beauty of lo-fi production. Each can offer something new to the other. The bedroom revolution is a creative step towards making musicianship for anyone. The potential of creation is boundless, shouldn’t everyone contribute?
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