Digital Commons Network^™

The Sounds Of The Shore: An Afrofuturistic Double Record Performed Through Vernacular Technology, Collin Bright

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Predominately white institutions are socially exclusive hostile environments that uphold white heteronormative patriarchal systems (Harper, 2013; Holliday & Squires, 2021; Razzante, 2018). The everyday task of existing on campus is a struggle for students of color as they are asked to enter spaces/places that are not diverse, inclusive, equitable, or accepting. To address the oppressive and dismissive forces of campus, my thesis uses Afrofuturism to reimagine what it means to exist as a student of color at a PWI. Afrofuturism is a “counter-imaginative cultur[al]” aesthetic-based practice that uses creative postcolonial critiques to reimagine future possibilities (Asante & Pindi, 2020; Pirker …

Korean Pop Idols: The Dark Side Of The Limelight, Ashley Chase

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Korean pop music has risen to an international consciousness during the surge of the cultural Korean wave. However, many are still unaware of the struggles that idols face when pursuing a career in this industry. Many artists in the industry struggle with their physical and emotional health due to rigorous schedules in training and as a performing group, high expectations of performance and appearance, and restrictive contracts known as “slave contracts” that limit their personal freedoms and financial resources. These factors lead to the industry being highly damaging to the stars that participate in it.

In this documentary, I take …

Tragedies Of The Cultural Commons, Etienne C. Toussaint

Faculty Publications

In the United States, Black cultural expressions of democratic life that operate within specific historical-local contexts, yet reflect a shared set of sociocultural mores, have been historically crowded out of the law and policymaking process. Instead of democratic cultural discourse occurring within an open and neutral marketplace of ideas, the discursive production and consumption of democratic culture in American politics has been rivalrous. Such rivalry too often enables dominant White supremacist cultural beliefs, values, and practices to exercise their hegemony upon law’s production and meaning. The result has been tragedy for politically disempowered and socioeconomically excluded communities.

This Article uses …

Embodying The Divine Feminine: Doja Cat’S Use Of Vocal Timbre, Text, And Body In Planet Her To Construct A Feminine Soundscape — Annotated Bibliography, Tommy Dainko

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

In 2021 Doja Cat released her album Planet Her, an imagination of a planet where there was no bigotry, and everyone could live in peace. The main theme of her album, however, revolves around femininity and the divine feminine. This paper will examine how Doja Cat constructs these concepts through a variety of ways. This paper will use Black feminist work to position Doja Cat’s work as feminist. Through the use of a variety of ‘feminine’ vocal timbres—both hers and from featured artists on her album—Doja Cat creates a feminine soundscape. Doja cat also embraces femininity and embodies the …

Enter Hallownest: How The Music Assists The Narrative In Hollow Knight, University Of Denver

Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship

Annotated bibliography exploring sources on how music communicates story within the context of video games.

“The People Are Tired, And Just Want To Have Fun”: Mahraganat Music And The Struggle For Sonic Presence In Post-2013 Egypt, Mohammed Elfeky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Building upon Asef Bayat’s notion of the “unintelligibility” of Egypt’s subaltern politics, this thesis investigates how mahraganat music is rendered “unintelligible/nonsense” by influential Egyptian cultural figures and is targeted for censorship. Mahraganat is a musical artform that arose from the lower-working classes neighborhoods in Egypt to become a dominant genre in the country. In 2020, the Egyptian Musicians Syndicate, headed by Hany Shakir, banned mahraganat artists from performing officially in Egypt. Before and after the ban, state media debated the genre's status; its detractors framed the music as nonsensical, “absurd”, “meaningless”, “vulgar”, and a “low-brow” dilution of Egyptian cultural production …

The Japanese Church And Cultural Engagement, Sarah Jane Garon

Masters Theses

This thesis addresses the current cultural engagement done by the Japanese church, with particular attention given to music and the arts. Japan has hosted Christian missionaries for over five centuries and yet most of the population do not claim the religion as their own. Much research has been devoted to understanding the history of Christianity in Japan and the relationship between Japanese Christians and non-Christian Japanese culture. However, very little research has been done on the interactions between Japanese Christians and music and art specifically. This thesis, therefore, is dedicated to discovering how Japanese Christians are currently engaging with music …

Hip Hop Music And Communicative Messages: Non-White Resistance Of Marginalization Experienced In America, Fatima Albrehi

Kaleidoscope: A Graduate Journal of Qualitative Communication Research

The purpose of this research is to understand how non-white, marginalized races and/or ethnicgroups feel about utilizing hip hop music to address and combat structural violence. Structuralviolence includes any institutional, social, and political barriers that prevent equality. Twenty-six non-white participantswere recruited and asked to listen to and watch music videos for three contemporary hip hop songs: Nowhere Fast by Eminem ft. Kehlani (2017), This is Americaby Childish Gambino (2018), and Nothin’ Newby 21 Savage (2017). Participants then conversed with one another through a focus group session in which questions were asked about how they felt …

Early Sound Systems Of The Irish Dance Bands And Showbands, Niall Coghlan

Irish Communication Review

This paper examines the culture and technologies around the sound systems used by the Irish dance and show bands of the 1950s and 1960s. With limited financial and technical resources available to the average musician of the period, many performers were forced to adopt a DIY approach, adapting or building their own instruments and sound equipment to meet changing tastes and needs. Literary sources are augmented by material drawn from interviews with two musicians who played with the showbands. The evolution of the technologies from the post-war period is documented and a self-sufficient, DIY approach is evidenced, prior to the …

Local Garage Psychosis Rockabilly Disease: Glocalization And The Athenian Psychobilly, Michael Tsangaris

Journal of Global Awareness

Music is an art that permeates every human society. It is used for such diverse social purposes as ritual, worship, coordination of movement, communication, or entertainment. There are no limits to music as it can move freely in space through sound waves, radio, cinema, television, and the new digital technologies. Music is directly related to subcultures in that cultural identities and lifestyles can be mediated through music. This article aims to use the development of music scenes such as psychobilly to establish a link between music, subcultures, globalization, and the global-local dialectic.

Yusef Lateef, Autophysiopsychic Music And Oboe Performance, Ellen Hummel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document intends to explore Yusef Lateef`s expressiveness applied to oboe performance in order to contribute to the expansion of the language of oboe playing and oboe teaching. A thorough review of the literature suggests a lack of studies about the oboe as a principal instrument in genres other than classical music; particularly jazz, blues and popular music. We live in a time that questions the boundaries of all genres. Because improvisation is at the heart of genres like jazz and blues, educators are beginning to stress the importance of teaching improvisation to all musicians. Yusef Lateef’s concept and method …

King Behind Colonial Curtains: Kasilag And The Making Of Filipino National Culture, Paul Gabriel L. Cosme

International Studies Honors Projects

Filipino National Artist Lucrecia “King” Kasilag sought to preserve folk cultures and melded these with her Western training to produce works—scholarly, pedagogical, and compositional—that shaped national music and culture. This thesis is a critical biography that combines perspectives from postcolonial studies, political economy, and musicology to highlight forces that shaped Kasilag’s life while illustrating her successes and shortcomings on national culture. Through this biography, I argue, Filipino national culture must originate from intersectional struggles and negotiation among elites and masses; that this culture is about both resistance and acceptance—a national culture that is syncretic and quintessentially dynamic.

Opera As Statecraft In Soviet Armenia And Kazakhstan, Knar Abrahamyan

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

This dissertation reconceptualizes Soviet music history by focusing on the artistic productions of ethnic and racial minorities under the Communist Party’s subjugation. According to communist propaganda, the Soviet state overthrew Russian imperialism and—as part of a cultural revolution—commissioned national operas to celebrate the diversity of each republic. I argue, however, that under the guise of modernization, the allegedly anti-colonial Communist Party used opera as a colonial technology of rule to negate difference. The Soviet national opera project thus pursued the age-old Russian imperial practices of assimilation and subjugation, which allowed communists to maintain rule over a multiethnic population. Each of …

The African Christian History Of American Songs Of Slavery, Elizabeth Adekale

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Christianity is an African traditional religion that played a vital role in the formation of American songs of slavery, also known as spirituals. These songs were created by the enslaved Africans in America to express their longing for freedom and preserve African Christian tradition. Within the lyrics of spirituals are coded messages that provided secret information to the enslaved African population. The text of many spirituals came directly from the Bible and speaks of the Spirit working in and through God’s people to set things right. Saint Augustine (354-430 AD) was an African Christian theologian and philosopher whose spiritual authority …

Exploration Of Student Development Through Sonwriting, Patricia E. Riley

Visions of Research in Music Education

This research explored the personal development resulting from songwriting interactions of undergraduate liberal arts students in two sections of a first-year experience course working to develop and refine songwriting skill. The goal of the course was to help students communicate and express themselves through songwriting in a supportive and collaborative environment. In-class activities included students collaboratively analyzing and discussing existing songs, interacting with guest songwriters, and discussing two texts. Student assignments included creating five original songs, analyzing pre-existing self-chosen songs, mentoring and collaborating with each other regarding their original songs, performing in a coffee-house presentation, and reflecting on their development …

Importance Of Teaching Native American Music, Kimberly Lorene Fowler

Masters Theses

Music Education has always been the doorway to experiencing something new and wonderful. Music Education, before now in America, has always taught western-styled music. Today, culture has become an essential ingredient to being an American. The learning and appreciation of other cultures have become particularly important in a student's journey within music to ensure the feeling of community, respect for others, and the experience of different styles. Native American music has become threatened with extinction by the shortage of information available and the lack of instructors that can teach it. Generations upon generations have lost this opportunity to learn and …

Bad Bunny’S Purplewashing As Gender Violence In Reggaeton: A Feminist Analysis Of Solo De Mi And Yo Perreo Sola, Dairíne Hoban

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bad Bunny has skyrocketed to fame in the past few years, gaining worldwide recognition as one of the best reggaetoneros of his time. His self-promoted image as an ally to women’s movements and the Queer community has garnered him the recognition of being a role model for youth and as an anomaly in the misogynistic genre of reggaeton. However, few have looked beyond the assertion of allyship to see if his work truly does support women and anti-gender violence ideology. While scholarship on reggaeton has well documented the prevalence of gender violence in the lyrics, videos and overall culture of …

How Can Music Most Effectively Be Used In The English Learner Classroom, Robert Ryden

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Music is an omnipresent part of everyday life. Whether it’s in the background or the foreground, music is everywhere. This capstone project aims to deliver the best answer to the question: How can music most effectively be used in the EL classroom? Effectively using music in the EL classroom involves understanding how to thoughtfully select the right music for the right situation, how to use music to build community and social skills among students, and how music can be used to positively impact the language learning process. Through this project, educators are also given the opportunity to participate in a …

The Sound Of 1001 Indigenous Drums: The Catalytic Cycle Of Fire Eagle, Golden Eagle, Thunderbird, Davita Aphrodite-Lee Marsden

Indigenous Studies

I have witnessed Indigenous students experience marginalization, being ignored, being labelled, and earning developmental designations, all as a way to continue systemically oppressing them. Indigenous students traditionally did not sit in rows, they did not compete for the highest mark, an A+ or a B. Indigenous education and learning is a process, and no one fails. Systemic oppression continues in public education where Indigenous students are alienated, being pushed out, kicked out, or continuously transferred from school to school. After fasting for 1,000 days, I received a vision of how to move Indigenous education forward: I began making Indigenous drums; …

The Bourgeois Blues: Representations Of Race And Authenticity In The Songs Of Lead Belly, Jonathan Lower

Madison Historical Review

Abstract to come.

“They’Re Worth My Investment”: Cultivating Intimacy Through Fan-Lead Financial And Support Initiatives Among Bts Fans, Tvine Donabedian

Asia Marketing Journal

This research outlines the motivations behind the fan-lead marketing and promotional endeavours undertaken by musical group BTS’s fan community, also known as ARMY. In highlighting the reciprocity in intimacy between the group and their fans, I argue that ARMY’s desire to elevate BTS is embedded within structures of affect, despite the financial nature of the benefits the group and their company may reap. These fan-lead initiatives represent efforts towards a common goal, where success, whether it comes in the form of money or not, is a gift of gratitude and a show of mutual understanding from fans to BTS. Based …

On The Total Communicative Efficacy Of Music And Its Synthesis To Written Word Through Bob Dylan And Kendrick Lamar, Skyler Addison

CMC Senior Theses

In a social conversation, words spoken carry less than 35% of the interaction’s social meeting, with 65% conveyed by the non-verbal. While poetry relies on the word and it's subtext, songwriting may also weld the other 65%. By dissecting the dynamic communicative aspects of song, modern poets may find useful ways in which they can make their lines have more staying power with the listener, encompassing both the rhythmic catchiness of their lines to an all-encompassing emotive transfer. We may isolate the interwoven components of a song that dictate how a story is told in order to better understand how …

Singing Solidarity: Class Consciousness, Emotional Pedagogy, And The Songs Of The Industrial Workers Of The World, Tara Forbes

Wayne State University Dissertations

Singing Solidarity looks at songs and song culture in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) from its inception to its decline near the start of WWI and examines how IWW songs engaged with, transformed, and directed workers’ feelings to “spur [them] to action” (Gould 47). Songs in the IWW repertoire created a sense of group identity and cohesion, supporting the IWW’s project of class consciousness and working-class solidarity. This solidarity, I argue, was felt rather than theorized. The felt solidarity of the IWW collective was intensified through the act of singing as a group, which was simultaneously an instantiation …

The Fringe Or The Heart Of Things? Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Musics In Australian Music Institutions, Clint Bracknell, Linda Barwick

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Teetering on the fringe of Australian music scholarship and knowledge institutions, research and teaching of local Indigenous musics hold a marginal place, belying the positioning of Indigenous music-makers at the centre of international representations of Australian culture, and the dynamic local connections of Indigenous music-making to Australian landscapes and social realities. Music’s ubiquity and diversity worldwide show its potential as a tool to manage the changing world in societies of the past and present, yet this potential is largely neglected in contemporary Australia, and our theories and evidence base are limited by the narrow western focus within our knowledge institutions. …

Music In Steam: Beyond Notes, Hao Huang

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Given current debates about STEAM, it would be well to remember that more than five centuries before STEM was conceived, the original Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci, wrote in one of his notebooks that "To develop a complete mind, study the science of art, study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else." (Spong 2006) A discussion of the effectiveness of teaching music and its accompanying technology in conjunction with math and the science education follows. .Given the recent shift from in-classroom teaching to online instruction compelled by the Covid 19 pandemic, an …

The Ontological Status Of Sound Recording: An Artistic Blend Between Documentation And Sonic Aesthetics, Gaute Barlindhaug

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper discusses how different ways of defining the ontological status of recorded sound have developed throughout the 20th century. My claim is that even within the period of analog technology, sound recording was moving away from its purposes of preserving and documenting real life musical performances. I will illustrate this by using three different examples. First, I will look at how John and Alan Lomax´s folkloristic documentation of blues music in the 1930s changed the very culture they documented by introducing a new medium that enabled the sharing and dissemination of music beyond the word of mouth. Secondly, I …

Warfare And Welcome: Practicality And Qur’Ānic Hierarchy In Ibāḍī Muslims’ Jurisprudential Rulings On Music, Bradford J. Garvey

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

While much ink has been spilled by musicologists on the legal standing of music in Islamic jurisprudential scholarship, few scholars have offered as comprehensive a view as Lois Ibsen Al-Faruqi. Thirty-five years after her major works on this issue, this article seeks to reassess her model of musical legitimacy within Muslim scholarship. Al-Faruqi places Qur’ānic recitation at the apex of a unidirectional continuum of sound art, with genres less similar to the recitation of the Qur’ān located progressively further away from it. Based on fieldwork in the Sultanate of Oman in 2015-17 and engaging with recent reinvigorations on the anthropological …

“Take Those Old Records Off The Shelf” A Uses & Gratifications Study Of Different Music Platforms, Emily Hawk

Theses

The platforms people use to listen to music have evolved rapidly in the last fifty years. Digital streaming and digital downloads are the most popular platforms to consume music, but physical platforms like CDs and vinyl are still common or, in the case of vinyl, even growing in use. This study investigated the needs being met and the reasons behind listening to music on these different platforms. This study also compared the differences in gratifications sought between physical music platforms and non-physical music platforms. A survey shared via email, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, as well as via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk …

Musicians’ Hairstyles: A Glimpse Into The Meanings And Messages Of Funk, Punk, And Rap Hair From The 1970s To 1990s In The Usa And France., Carolle Pinkerton

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This thesis is an introspective study of our culture by looking at the meaning and messages in hairstyles of popular musicians. It seeks to understand how popular musicians have shaped their sense of style by the political and social movements of the time especially focusing on punk rock, funk, and rap genres in the United States and France. The research also considers the similarities and differences found within the genres across the two countries. The paper studies and analyzes what hairstyles are dominant in each genre and why. Hairstyles that migrated from America to France within the genre, social and …

Multicultural Orientations In Music Therapy Education, Debra Jelinek Gombert

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

This mixed-methods study examined music therapists’ experiences with, education regarding, and attitudes about music therapy with people who have multiple intersectional cultural perspectives. In the first phase, a survey created by the researcher was used to gathered information about participants’ (n = 474) education, training, attitudes, and skills regarding culture. In the second phase, 7 individuals were interviewed to learn about their experiences regarding multicultural education.

Survey data was analyzed to compare the attitudes/skills of participants. On average, participants were more confident in their ability to work with adults and people with disability than they were in their ability …