Sonic studies

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook chapterResearchpeer-review

The chapter is a discussion of sound and music in sf. Starting with a consideration of music in literature and film, it ends with a longer reading of the experimental hip hop band clipping.’s sf concept album Splendor & Misery (2016). In the literature examples the music must be imagined, whereas in the films discussed both pre-existing music and music composed for the particular film are discussed. In this, the focus is upon how the music both gives atmosphere to the stories, but also partake in the storytelling. With Splendor & Misery, the chapter argues for a continuum between the different elements on the album: lyrics, voices (included distorted and manipulated voices), instruments and noises. The interaction between these elements, and the continuum between voices and technology, is read with an Afrofuturist framework, where echoes of the past haunt the depicted future. Together these different uses of music within different sf media help thinking about how to listen differently, and thus how both heard and unheard music contributes to a sonic sf.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe New Routledge Companion to Science Fiction
EditorsMark Bould, Andrew M. Butler, Sherryl Vint
Number of pages8
Place of PublicationMilton Park
PublisherRoutledge
Publication date2024
Edition2
Pages473-480
ISBN (Print)9780367690533
ISBN (Electronic)9781003140269
Publication statusPublished - 2024

ID: 394602621