Matthew Ord - ‘“A Pervading Feeling of Truth”: Sound Recording and Authenticity in Traditional Music’ - 11 March 2026

In the context of musical revivals, sound recordings can afford a powerful experience of authenticity. This paper explores the authenticating power of recorded sound in both its phenomenological and discursive aspects, considering the 'pervading feeling' of authenticity that listeners experience through recordings alongside the social processes through which authenticity claims are constructed and affirmed. 

Revisiting Allan Moore's (2002) classic article 'Authenticity as Authentication,' this paper examines the role of recordings in twentieth and twenty-first century folk revival culture and discourse. Drawing on André Bazin's ontology of the photographic image and Owen Barfield's notion of 'double perception,' it explores the idea that recording's authenticating power reflects a dual aspect of the technology; how recordings seem to present neutral, material evidence while making non-phenomenal 'essences' (tradition, community, sincerity, authenticity) powerfully present.

Through analysis of folk music recordings from the early twentieth century up to recent mobile phone recordings of sean nós singing, the paper explores this authenticating role of the technology across changing contexts and shifting authenticity criteria, revealing how recordings have both reflected and shaped understandings of tradition over time.  

Dr Matthew Ord is a musicologist working at the intersection of traditional and popular music, sound recording, and the creative economy. His research explores how technology, place, and creative labour shape the production and reception of music in contemporary culture.

Drawing on ethnographic, cultural-historical, and discourse-analytical methods, his work has examined post-war folk recording practice as a site of aesthetic and technological innovation; the entanglements of place-identity and ecological consciousness in contemporary British folk; and the growing role of musicians as curators of place-based musical ‘experiences’ within the context of creative and cultural tourism. Across these strands, he addresses questions of mediation, value, participation, and how musical traditions are continually reimagined within new social, technological, and economic contexts.