Traditional analyses of music often overlook sonic elements that are difficult to notate. This is especially true of the way many fundamental aspects of sound, such as timbre, resonance, ambience, stereo placement, and countless other sonic qualities are manipulated during the recording process, but largely ignored in popular music criticism. Yet these elements, so central to recordings of popular music, are as important in conveying expression and meaning as melody, harmony, rhythm, and lyrics. They are an integral part of the music – primary colors in the recording artist’s sonic palette.2