Feminist Sonic Futures!

A sonic piece with guitar performed by Chooch and vocals by Christine Alcindor. Chooch sampled Christine's lived experiences from a 25 minute interview conducted between the two. Enjoy:)

This episode of "Feminist Sonic Futures" explores the convergence of queer elements in Peking Opera and feminist themes in Chinese rap, focusing on Vava's song "My New Cloth." It discusses the decontextualization and recontextualization of traditional elements in modern music, comparing this with similar practices in American hip-hop. The episode also delves into issues of...

This podcast discusses how podcasts have given a space to ‘alpha male podcasts’ and how they are changing the ways we view masculinity as a whole. We start out by discussing the idea of a manosphere or this world full of men’s rights activists, men’s lifestyle podcasters, and masculinity coaches that push podcasts describing the type of man one needs to be. Through Keir Keightley’s lens in “'T...

In this episode I explore the relationship between sound and identity and how this relates to ideas of lineage, home, and belonging. I will draw on Art Blake’s “Finding My Voice while Listening to John Cage” and Kevin Quashie’s “Sovereignty of the Quiet” to understand how sound shapes gender and racial identities. I will also look to Madeleine Campbell’s interview “TRNSGNDR VHS on Reexamining her...

In this episode, we delve into the topic of live coding through a cyber feminist lens. Through looking at the namesake paper by Joanne Armitage and Helen Thornham, this episode aims to broaden the listener’s understanding of what it means to live code and how normative masculinity permeates its world.

Let's talk about prenatal sound systems and the relationship between neoliberal capitalism, eugenics, and the sonic environment. We will discuss the nature of prenatal sound systems and the histories that led to their development.

In today's episode, we're discussing Elena Krell's experiences with Joe Steven's and analyzing Stevens' experiences as a white, middle-upper-class, transmasc, disabled Americana folk singer through the lens of noise and voice.

What is "sound"? For many, it is an auditory experience. But for Christian Sun Kim, a deaf artist, it's a visual, a vibration, a concept, and a form of cultural capital. By redistributing its value among the senses, she neutralizes its authority and allows for a shared experience of sound that includes the deaf optic. The episode introduces the idea of "deaf optic" and refl...

In this episode, Mia talks about the article "Look at all those big knobs! Online audio technology and sexy gear fetishes" by Elliot Bates and Samantha Bennett (2022) which analyzes a toxic culture surrounding audio gear, objectophilia, fetishization, connoisseurship, and much more.

In this episode, I will be exploring the first chapter Kevin Quashie's The Sovereignty of Quiet. I'll investigate how Quashie complicates the traditional ideas used to explain Black experiences while he formulates his own: quiet!

This podcast is based on the article “Sizing up record collections: Gender and Connoisseurship in Rock Music Culture” by Will Straw. It talks about the lack of women record collectors and how this hobby came to be so gendered. We discuss the how men are involved in validating subjects along with the popular notion that women don't have hobbies. We also broach the subject of fashion as a form o...

In this episode, I explore gender expression and performance in its relationship to a stable sense of identity. I mainly use Jay Szpilka's text "'Yr beast': gender parrhesia and punk trans womanhoods" as the backbone of this episode.

Podcast discussing some history of synthesis with an STS lens.

Hello everyone! My name is Ariana Zwern and I am a student in MUSC 1240S! This is Episode 15 Season 2 of our podcast Feminist Sonic Futures. In this episode, I discuss the genesis of sound through vibration and the possibilities for assistive technologies made legible by attending to this process. I argue that when we scrape what we think we know about sound and consider how it operates at a physi...

"Reaching for Gladys" is a short sound piece engaging with details, themes, and speculations about the life of Gladys Bentley. Gladys Bentley was a prominent blues composer, pianist, and vocalist from the early 20th century. She rose to fame in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance and was well known for performing in formal menswear and parodying famous standards with hypersexual lyrics.  At...

Perhaps like us, sound can’t exist without air :)

On this episode of Feminist Sonic Futures, we'll talk about a 2010s Internet trend referred as the "hilarious black neighbor." This trend saw news interviews of Black people becoming viral, and often being remixed into heavily auto-tuned songs. In this episode, we'll talk about why these videos went viral and how listening comes into play when we think about these videos. We'll also discuss vocal...

Lyrics: They wanna control us There’s this image of The perfect woman, seen As cis and pretty That one’s on my screen She lives a binary Of this that, either or The part that’s primary Is femininity Vapid and unskilled Weak and needing help from A strong man who’s strong-willed More powerful than her She’s been crafted by society But she’s Losing her voice Losing her sound She’s being pushed down...

In this episode of Feminist Sonic Futures, we’ll be discussing the place of pleasure in sound, specifically through a Black cyberfeminist lens by exploring the soundscape of pleasure in Janelle Monaé’s emotion picture and studio album Dirty Computer. We will be listening to the tracks "Make Me Feel," "Dirty Computer (feat. Brian Wilson)," "Screwed (feat. Zoë Kravitz)," "Django Jane," and "Pynk (fe...

In my Final Podcast, my friends and I explore women in sound and the journey of a woman through sound. We discuss modern technology, ethics, obstacles, and much more.

This sonic piece was created by Becca Rosenzweig as apart of the class, MUSC1240S: Feminist Sonic Futures, taught by Dr. Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo. This piece is a mix of ambient sounds, vocal samples, instrumental samples, and effects. This sonic piece is meant to highlight different aspects of the talents, confidence, and beauty from Black female-identifying artists in reference to a number of read...

I interviewed Queen Scott- professor of performance at Berkely in Boston and MC.  We discussed her experience as a woman in the rap industry. We also delved into the art of DJ and the notion of erasure as opposed to accessibility when it comes to female DJ's infiltrating the space. Listen to find out more! 

Hi everyone! My episode touches on the development of GoGo music and its role in the black community. Using Alison Martin's article, I discuss the issues that surround GoGo which include racism, surveillance, and purpose. I reflect on women in GoGo, disagreements about the modernization of GoGo, and much more. 

A little discussion of immersion using some spatial audio technologies to express different notions of immersion and space and sound. Best to listen with over the ear headphones - regular earbuds may not pick up some of the spatial features of the audio.  

In this episode, I (she/her) am joined by two friends, Lotus (she/her) and Sabrina (they/them) to eat burritos while talking about etymology and the implications of colonization on sound engineering. We use the reading "The Recording Studio as Fetish" by Louise Meintjes (2012) as a jumping off point. Thank you!