ABSTRACT
This chapter considers developments within the realm of technological reproduction and the positioning of the voice in the mix. It argues that techniques in recording have contributed to the 'produced voice', marking a special moment in mimetic expression. Becoming the site for interiorizing notions of identification, the recorded voice offers the listener access into a fantasy world. Sean Cubitt claims that the recorded song 'slips in under the censoring eyes of our social conscience', allowing us access to pleasures that are otherwise unattainable. If vocality translates into artifice, ostentation or even 'ordinariness', what makes a performance dandified through singing? And how does production influence the mannered voice, transporting it into our personal space? At the heart of this issue is subjectivity. Staging one's persona through singing, though, is dependent on carefully calculated predictions of reception, as much as recording production.
