Much like advances in photography that allow us to watch flowers bloom and oranges decay in rapidly, time-lapse phonography allows us to experience large pieces of sound in a compressed amount of time. R. Luke DuBois' process involves capturing the sonic frequencies of his subjects and combining them all into one display of sound. While Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Schaeffer, and John Oswald (of Plunderphonics) decontextualized sounds, allowing them to be heard like never before; Dubois' technique decontextualizes the audience by demanding a wholly new approach towards listening.
R. Luke DuBois' Billboard is a composite of all the Billboard No. 1 Hits from 1958-2000.
DuBois analyzed all 857 songs digitally, and created a "spectral average" a sonic summation of all frequencies in the song for each one. He then allocated each song 1 second for each week it was No. 1 on the charts. The resultant 37-minute-long piece contains beautiful washes of sound, serving as a unique chronicle of the history of US pop charts and the songs' continually-changing longevity, tonality, and production.
DuBois applies this theory to two other classics - Books I and II of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier ("Clavier") and the entire soundtrack of Casablanca ("Time Goes By").
