How to be a rebel

In this age when smoking is no longer cool, everyone has a tattoo and leather jackets are a staple fashion item, what does it mean to be a rebel? Music scholar and musician Associate Professor Sam Bennett weighs in.

We narrow our lens to the music industry in this episode, and turn our gaze to the rebels amongst us today. Our conversation takes us from Lil Nas X to the revival of vinyl, double standards, and why some rebels are labelled heroes and others weirdos. One thing is clear though: we need rebels now more than ever.

Samantha Bennett is a sound recordist, guitarist and academic from London, UK and Associate Professor in music at the ANU School of Music. She is the author of two monographs, Modern Records, Maverick Methods (Bloomsbury Academic) and Peepshow, a 33 1/3 series edition on the album by Siouxsie and the Banshees (Bloomsbury Academic). She is also a co-editor of Critical Approaches to the Production of Music and Sound (Bloomsbury Academic) and Popular Music, Stars and Stardom (ANU Press). Samantha has published numerous book chapters on the technological, sound recording and production aesthetics of recorded popular music and her journal articles are published in Popular Music, Popular Music and Society, The Journal of Popular Music Studies and IASPM@journal. In 2014, Samantha gave the biannual American Musicological Society Lecture at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Library and Archives where she also held a research fellowship in 2015. As an AHRC Doctoral scholar, she completed her PhD in popular music recording techniques and analysis under renowned musicologist Prof. Allan Moore.

As an educator, Samantha has fifteen years curriculum design, authorship and quality management experience and is the recipient of multiple teaching awards, notably a Vice Chancellor’s Teaching Fellowship at the University of Westminster (2012). She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Since arriving at the Australian National University in 2013, she has authored a broad music technology and popular music curriculum and, after securing a $250,000 major equipment grant, led the refurbishment of the School of Music's recording studio facilities to include the installation of a 48-channel Neve Genesys console and a blend of vintage and contemporary microphones and processors.

Follow Sam on Twitter @samkbennett

…

The theme music for Better Things is “One More Time” by Fab Beat.

Better Things is a production of the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences. It’s produced by Evana Ho. The production assistant for this episode was Brandon Tan.

You can find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @ANUCASS.