Audio Cultures & Modernities - MUS00099M
Module summary
Music and sound production carries a set of inherited assumptions about who makes records, what counts as good practice, and which aesthetics get taken seriously. This module examines those assumptions through feminist, queer, postcolonial and accessibility-oriented perspectives, asking you to reconsider the cultures and traditions of the discipline and to propose alternatives to the dominant narrative.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 2026-27 |
Module aims
In this module you will engage with critical theories drawn from a range of related fields (including anthropology, ethnomusicology, film and media studies, science and technology studies, and sound studies). You will be encouraged to bring these theories into contact with your own studio experience and your aspirations as a producer, in order to develop a critical position on your own practice. Methods for applying mediation theories and critical listening approaches to the analysis of commercial productions will complement the process of deconstructing audio meritocracy myths.
The module is taught by a team of contributors, each bringing a distinct area of expertise. Sessions draw on feminist, queer, postcolonial and accessibility-oriented perspectives to examine the social, cultural and technological conditions under which music and sound production takes place, and the mechanisms by which particular practices, personnel and aesthetics come to be legitimised. Lectures are paired with listening seminars in which you will develop and apply analytical tools, drawing interconnections between sonic aesthetics, production personnel, genres and cultures.
Assessment consists of an essay anchored in a specific recorded artefact, examined through a critical framework drawn from the module content.
Module learning outcomes
By the end of the module you will be able to:
- analyse existing music and sound productions within their sociocultural context and impact, drawing oncritical frameworks, and moving beyond a description of production techniques and technologies
- select appropriate academic references, critically evaluate them and cite them accurately
- identify intersecting social biases and gaps (including those relating to gender, race, sexuality and disability) in the relevant literature and creative industries
- contribute to the dialogue around transforming and diversifying music and sound production narratives
- articulate and defend your own position as a producer, with awareness of your own situatedness and of the gatekeeping mechanisms operating in the field
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
Students will submit an essay that will focus on the aesthetics, socialities, creative processes, and production context and impact of an album, soundtrack, producer, mixing engineer, production company, label, studio, and/or artistic movement, with links to the module content and references (c. 3000 words)
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Module feedback
You will receive written feedback in line with standard University turnaround times.
Indicative reading
Bennett, S., & Bates, E. (Eds.). (2018). Critical approaches to the production of music and sound. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Campbell, M. V. (2022). Afrosonic life. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Chattopadhyay, B. (2022). Sound practices in the Global South: Co-listening to resounding plurilogues. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Eshun, K. (1998). More brilliant than the sun: Adventures in sonic fiction. London: Quartet Books.
Gaston-Bird, L. (2019). Women in audio. New York: Focal Press.
Reddington, H. (2021). She's at the controls: Sound engineering, production and gender ventriloquism in the 21st century. Sheffield: Equinox.
Schulze, H. (2018). The sonic persona: An anthropology of sound. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Smalls, S. P. (2022). Hip hop heresies: Queer aesthetics in New York City. New York: NYU Press.
Weheliye, A. G. (2005). Phonographies: Grooves in sonic Afro-modernity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Zagorski-Thomas, S. (2014). The musicology of record production. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Further reading:
Albertine, V. (2014). Clothes, clothes, clothes. Music, music, music. Boys, boys, boys: A memoir. London: Faber & Faber.
Bates, E. (2016). Digital tradition: Arrangement and labor in Istanbul's recording studio culture. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bennett, S. (2019). Modern records, maverick methods: Technology and process in popular music record production 1978–2000. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Brennan, I. (2019). Silenced by sound: The music meritocracy myth. Oakland, CA: PM Press.
Brown, D., Jr. (2022). Assembling a Black counter culture. New York: Primary Information.
Cox, C., & Warner, D. (Eds.). (2017). Audio culture: Readings in modern music (Rev. ed.). New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Devine, K. (2019). Decomposed: The political ecology of music. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
García-Mispireta, L. M. (2023). Together, somehow: Music, affect, and intimacy on the dancefloor. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Schulze, H. (2020). Sonic fiction. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Tutti, C. F. (2017). Art sex music. London: Faber & Faber.
Wark, M. (2023). Raving. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Wolfe, P. (2019). Women in the studio: Creativity, control and gender in popular music sound production. Abingdon: Routledge.
Womack, Y. L. (2013). Afrofuturism: The world of Black sci-fi and fantasy culture. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books.