Music and the Politics of Identity

This class examines music as a powerful means for the construction and articulation of identity around the world. We will explore how individuals and groups negotiate and project who they are (and what matters to them) through music and related arts – as a strategy for both unification and differentiation, along with the ways these identities are regulated, mediated, and framed by others. A series of case studies in both historical and contemporary contexts will take into account the ways gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, nation, class, and diaspora – and their intersections (for example, the ways in which “race” is gendered or social class is racialized) – become inscribed and encoded within musical practice. We will also examine the ways these articulations are read and interpreted by others, i.e. discourses of racism, sexism etc., and ways in which communities resist these projections.

This site is dedicated to writing about and sharing our experiences interacting with music in relation to identity. Blogging here is designed to allow you to reflect on the ways in which identities are both embodied in and reflected by musical practices and the ways musical practices are manipulated to reflect identities or resist discrimination throughout the world, particularly as you apply them to musical examples with which you are already familiar.

I want to encourage you to go beyond just writing about the sounds of music in your blogs and assignments, instead to engage with and reflect on a multimedia form in a multimedia forum. Work to include images, video clips, audio clips, media article etc. in your posts and assignments.

Feel free to also post interesting tidbits (concerts, articles, clips etc) related to the themes and goals of the class here on the main page as we go alone.