ABSTRACT
In recent times there has been an encouraging increase in the musicological study of Western popular music by members of the academy. Stax as a corporation made considerable efforts to release records in a number of genres in addition to soul music. In attempting to construct a musical exegesis of the 'Stax sound', this chapter focuses on nine basic areas of inquiry. These areas include instrumentation, repertoire, structure, keys, aspects of harmonic construction, and aspects of time including tempo, pulse and the arrangement and organisation in time of the vocalists, the horns, drum patterns, bass lines and chordal instruments. The areas also include melodic construction, ornamentation, and timbre/production considerations. The discussion of timbral and production considerations will be divided into two areas of inquiry: the equipment used by, and aesthetic conception of, the house band at Stax, and the recording equipment and acoustic properties of the Stax studio itself.
