History Of The Fade Out - Mini Documentary

In this short documentary from Vox, we take a look at the history of the ubiquitous fadeout – a popular trend in music production that is clearly more than a mere decrease in volume.

The fade out in music is one of those necessary tools in a record producers arsenal. But if you listen to today’s hits it’s much more likely you’ll hear a song that has a hard abrupt electronic ending. Bill Weir, wrote a great piece at Slate a few years ago tracking the rise and fall of the fade out in pop music: from one of the very first fade outs created by a literal wooden door to the epic 4 minute fade out of “Hey Jude.” In the video above he brings me through that sonic journey.

It’s certainly understandable how a fadeout can make a song feel everlasting, however it’s subtlety and frequent usage in popular music makes the fadeout difficult to notice most of the time…perhaps that is the point!

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