The main concepts in the title of this course (sound, affect, commodity) point to the three prominent current trends in music anthropology/ethnomusicology: sound studies, affect studies, and economic ethnomusicology (also related to material culture studies). This course will therefore present new research and new publications (many of them prize-winning) from these cutting-edge subfields of cultural and music anthropology (ethnomusicology), which concomitantly challenge some problematic preconceptions in academia as related to rigid binary social constructions, for example, sound vs music (in sound studies), cultural vs precultural, political vs apolitical, or referential vs embodied (in affect theory), taste and value vs class and economy, or capitalist vs noncapitalist exchange (in economic ethnomusicology), and animate vs inanimate objects (in material culture studies). The class will include the following thematic sections: music and capitalism (production of value, neoliberalism, gentrification), music and neoliberalism (in Western electronic music, Indian bollywood dance, and Peruvian huayno), the social life of music instruments/technologies in the global political economy (Gibson guitar, Turkish saz, recording formats), music, commodity, and affect at political demonstrations (in Thailand and UK), music and affective community (stranger intimacy and affect in Western and Jamaican electronic dance music cultures), affective music labor (female kafana singers in ex-Yugoslavia, jazz clubs in New York, cultural activism in Sao Paolo), management of affect on music streaming platforms (and Youtube), racial and colonial soundscapes (in Colombia and the US), sound/vocality and gender/transgender (African female ululations, Indian Hijra performances), studies of war sounds (Iraq war), soundscapes of silence (Korean Hiroshima survivors, 9/11 commemorations, Greek Orthodox monks). Ultimately, the course will attempt to address the question of the interrelatedness of sound-affect-community-and-commodity. The course will be based on weekly readings and in-class discussions. Students will also have to prepare one class presentation (for BA and MA students), and submit a final paper (only for MA students). We will also host two guests (authors of two articles assigned for this class). Appropriate for both BA and MA students. Prerequisites: students should have completed at least a couple of sociocultural anthropology, and/or cultural studies courses before registering for this class.
Last update: Verbuč David, M.A., Ph.D. (17.02.2025)
The main concepts in the title of this course (sound, affect, commodity) point to the three prominent current trends in music anthropology/ethnomusicology: sound studies, affect studies, and economic ethnomusicology (also related to material culture studies). This course will therefore present new research and new publications (many of them prize-winning) from these cutting-edge subfields of cultural and music anthropology (ethnomusicology), which concomitantly challenge some problematic preconceptions in academia as related to rigid binary social constructions, for example, sound vs music (in sound studies), cultural vs precultural, political vs apolitical, or referential vs embodied (in affect theory), taste and value vs class and economy, or capitalist vs noncapitalist exchange (in economic ethnomusicology), and animate vs inanimate objects (in material culture studies). The class will include the following thematic sections: music and capitalism (production of value, neoliberalism, gentrification), music and neoliberalism (in Western electronic music, Indian bollywood dance, and Peruvian huayno), the social life of music instruments/technologies in the global political economy (Gibson guitar, Turkish saz, recording formats), music, commodity, and affect at political demonstrations (in Thailand and UK), music and affective community (stranger intimacy and affect in Western and Jamaican electronic dance music cultures), affective music labor (female kafana singers in ex-Yugoslavia, jazz clubs in New York, cultural activism in Sao Paolo), management of affect on music streaming platforms (and Youtube), racial and colonial soundscapes (in Colombia and the US), sound/vocality and gender/transgender (African female ululations, Indian Hijra performances), studies of war sounds (Iraq war), soundscapes of silence (Korean Hiroshima survivors, 9/11 commemorations, Greek Orthodox monks). Ultimately, the course will attempt to address the question of the interrelatedness of sound-affect-community-and-commodity. The course will be based on weekly readings and in-class discussions. Students will also have to prepare one class presentation (for BA and MA students), and submit a final paper (only for MA students). We will also host two guests (authors of two articles assigned for this class). Appropriate for both BA and MA students. Prerequisites: students should have completed at least a couple of sociocultural anthropology, and/or cultural studies courses before registering for this class.
Last update: Verbuč David, M.A., Ph.D. (17.02.2025)
