Afrofuturism and Black Sound Studies: Culture, Technology, and Things to Come

by Erik Steinskog

Overview

This book interrogates the meeting point between Afrofuturism and Black Sound Studies. Whereas Afrofuturism is often understood primarily in relation to science fiction and speculative fiction, it can also be examined from a sonic perspective.


The sounds of Afrofuturism are deeply embedded in the speculative – demonstrated in mythmaking – in frameworks for songs and compositions, in the personas of the artists, and in how the sounds are produced. In highlighting the place of music within the lived experiences of African Americans, the author analyses how the perspectives of Black Sound Studies complement and overlap with the discussion of sonic Afrofuturism. Focusing upon blackness, technology, and sound, this unique text offers key insights in how music partakes in imagining and constructing the future.


This innovative volume will appeal to students and scholars of sound studies, musicology and African American studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319881614
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	05/23/2018
Series:	Palgrave Studies in Sound
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2018
Pages:	241
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

Erik Steinskog is Associate Professor of Musicology at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Erik's work primarily deals with twentieth and twenty-first century music, with an approach inspired by interdisciplinary cultural studies. He also works with parallels between music and other means of expression, as well as how an understanding based in afrofuturism can go into dialogue with other perspectives and other musical expressions, so far less understood in relation to afrofuturism.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: Afrofuturism and Black Sound Studies.- Chapter 2. Blackness, Technology, and the Changing Same.- Chapter 3. Space and Time.- Chapter 4. Vibrations, Rhythm and Cosmology.- Chapter 5. Interstellar Space, Outer Space, and Inner Space.- Chapter 6. The Sounds of the Future.- Conclusion.