The dominant listening of the last seventy years.
12 topics · 10 curated works
No prior grounding assumed.
Beats to Relax/Study To: Contradiction and Paradox in Lofi Hip Hop
Emma Winston & Laurence Saywood · 2019
Argues that lofi hip hop's YouTube livestreams sell relaxation and focus by borrowing hip hop's sonic markers while stripping out the genre's…
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
Economic Aspects of Brazilian Popular Music: The Baile Funk Circuit
Simone Pereira de Sa & Gabriela de Oliveira Miranda · 2013
Argues that Rio's baile funk scene runs on an informal economy of its own, with its own production, distribution and payment circuits that operate…
+7 more at this level
Primary sources and full treatments.
Timbre and the "Zone of Entanglement" in Electronic Dance Music
Maria Perevedentseva · 2023
Argues that timbre in electronic dance music is not a fixed sonic property but something that emerges from the entangled relationship between sound,…
10 works
Emma Winston & Laurence Saywood
Argues that lofi hip hop's YouTube livestreams sell relaxation and focus by borrowing hip hop's sonic markers while stripping out the genre's original cultural and political associations.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026Simone Pereira de Sa & Gabriela de Oliveira Miranda
Argues that Rio's baile funk scene runs on an informal economy of its own, with its own production, distribution and payment circuits that operate largely outside the formal Brazilian music industry.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026Ilkin Mehrabov
Argues that the Turkish activist collective Bandista's copyleft release model is inseparable from its punk politics, treating free reproduction of its music as a form of protest rather than a licensing afterthought.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026Kim Ramstedt
Argues that Finnish sound system crews do not simply imitate Jamaican dancehall but actively localize its performance conventions, sound and language to build a scene that is recognisably their own.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026Julian Schaap & Pauwke Berkers
Finds that women are severely underrepresented among extreme metal musicians on major online platforms and argues this reflects the genre's gendered construction of extremity and authenticity rather than a lack of interest among women.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026Kathryn Hill
Reviews a history of all-female bands from the Motown era onward and argues that girl groups have been consistently written out of rock and soul historiography despite their commercial and musical influence.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026Gabrielle Riches, Brett Lashua & Karl Spracklen
Uses fieldwork in the mosh pit itself to argue that women moshers actively use physical transgression to claim space in a scene that otherwise treats the pit as male territory.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026Brendan Anthony
Argues that treating a pop record's production choices as a form of composition, taught through live recording practice, develops a producer's creative judgement better than teaching studio technique in isolation.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026Caroline Ann O'Sullivan
Argues from interviews with Dublin scene participants that indie and dance music production remains gatekept by informal, male-dominated social networks rather than by any difference in skill or ambition.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026Maria Perevedentseva
Argues that timbre in electronic dance music is not a fixed sonic property but something that emerges from the entangled relationship between sound, dancing bodies and the space of the club.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026