Sound, Music, Affect: Theorizing Sonic Experience

by Marie Thompson (Editor), Ian Biddle (Editor)

Sound, Music, Affect features brand new essays that bring together the burgeoning developments in sound studies and affect studies.

The first section sets out key methodological and theoretical concerns, focusing on the relationships between affective models and sound. The second section deals with particular musical case studies, exploring how reference to affect theory might change or reshape some of the ways we are able to make sense of musical materials. The third section examines the politics and practice of sonic disruption: from the notion of noise as 'prophecy', to the appropriation of 'bad vibes' for pleasurable aesthetic and affective experiences. And the final section engages with some of the ways in which affect can help us understand the politics of chill, relaxation and intimacy as sonic encounters.

The result is a rich and multifaceted consideration of sound, music and the affective, from scholars with backgrounds in cultural theory, history, literary studies, media studies, architecture, philosophy and musicology.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2013