Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound

by Tara Rodgers

Pink Noises brings together twenty-four interviews with women in electronic music and sound cultures, including club and radio DJs, remixers, composers, improvisers, instrument builders, and installation and performance artists. The collection is an extension of Pinknoises.com, the critically-acclaimed website founded by musician and scholar Tara Rodgers in 2000 to promote women in electronic music and make information about music production more accessible to women and girls. That site featured interviews that Rodgers conducted with women artists, exploring their personal histories, their creative methods, and the roles of gender in their work. This book offers new and lengthier interviews, a critical introduction, and resources for further research and technological engagement. Contemporary electronic music practices are illuminated through the stories of women artists of different generations and cultural backgrounds. They include the creators of ambient soundscapes, “performance novels,” sound sculptures, and custom software, as well as the developer of the Deep Listening philosophy and the founders of the Liquid Sound Lounge radio show and the monthly Basement Bhangra parties in New York. These and many other artists open up about topics such as their conflicted relationships to formal music training and mainstream media representations of women in electronic music. They discuss using sound to work creatively with structures of time and space, and voice and language; challenge distinctions of nature and culture; question norms of technological practice; and balance their needs for productive solitude with collaboration and community. Whether designing and building modular synthesizers with analog circuits or performing with a wearable apparatus that translates muscle movements into electronic sound, these artists expand notions of who and what counts in matters of invention, production, and noisemaking. Pink Noises is a powerful testimony to the presence and vitality of women in electronic music cultures, and to the relevance of sound to feminist concerns. Maria Chavez, Beth Coleman (M. Singe), Antye Greie (AGF), Jeannie Hopper, Bevin Kelley (Blevin Blectum), Christina Kubisch, Le Tigre, Annea Lockwood, Giulia Loli (DJ Mutamassik), Rekha Malhotra (DJ Rekha), Riz Maslen (Neotropic), Kaffe Matthews, Susan Morabito, Ikue Mori, Pauline Oliveros, Pamela Z, Chantal Passamonte (Mira Calix), Maggi Payne, Eliane Radigue, Jessica Rylan, Carla Scaletti, Laetitia Sonami, Bev Stanton (Arthur Loves Plastic), Keiko Uenishi (o.blaat)

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Feminism, Gender, Gender Studies, Academic

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Tara Rodgers (Analog Tara) is an independent writer, composer, and musician, and the founder of Pinknoises.com, a website devoted to women DJs, electronic musicians, and sound artists. Her electronic compositions have been released on several recordings and exhibited at venues including the Eyebeam Museum in New York City and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto. She has received the New Genre Composition Prize from the International Alliance of Women in Music and a 2006 Frog Peak Experimental Music Award. Rodgers has an MFA in electronic music from Mills College. She is Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and 2011-12 Faculty Fellow in Digital Cultures & Creativity at the University of Maryland.

Reviews

[Mentai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ohh why wasn't this book around when I was in high school!!? Or music undergrad for that matter? I love the conversational tone Rodgers takes with her interview subjects. (and she lets the reader know if this is done via email.) Although the musical focus 'electronic music and sound' a range of genre, subgenre and context is covered. Very useful is a glossary of terms at the back of the book. This book is very user friendly but also doesn't shy away from technical details if that's what an artist or musician is into. The interviews display the creativity of the women, their journey toward their breaks successes and their attraction to technologies. The hows and the whys. This should be in every high school library...
If there's any criticism or questioning I have of the book it is that nearly every one represented did have a mentor or family that helped them step up in the studio for the first time, who showed them what to do. I wonder about those who never had the lucky studio break, who ended up with a different kind of journey into music or electronic music. anyway (that's my own little bugbear).

[milo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super livre qui contient des tonnes d’interviews de tonnes de femmes dans la musique électronique. C’est juste passionnant à lire, et plein de sujets sont abordés. C’est tout à fait accessible à des non-musicien-nes curieux de lire plein de vécues de femmes artistes des années 90-00 et antérieur. C’est aussi super bien pour les musiciens-nes qui veulent un regard critique du monde de la musique, les interviewées étant des femmes, souvent queer et non-blanches et ont des trucs beaucoup plus innovants et intéressants à dire que les milles mecs blancs lambda habituellement au cœur de la scène électronique. J’aurais aimé le lire à sa sortie, c’est super inspirant et empowering.

[flannery · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not an electronic musician so I have no frame of reference for some of this. But it's inspiring to read interviews with women at the fringes who take their art seriously and think about it complexly.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting collection of interviews engaging with women involved in electronic music on many levels. I learned a lot about various musicians and their struggles and discovered some fascinating artists. Recommended.

[Adela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read and dnf at about 50%

[alexa · Rating 5 out of 5]

im shook that I finished this. perfect 4 me - casual reading u can get really into if u feel like exploring further. really awesome to hear from different women in the field re: creating original works nd finding one's way thru the learning processes nd sonic, social etc. possibilities of music production.
here's misc. cool shit tht reading this led me toward
1.
https://redthunderaudio.com/post/1607...

2.
https://vimeo.com/389770313

3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwsnW...

4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBAKJ...

5.
https://womentakebackthenoise.bandcam...

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book. Pink Noises is worth seeking out even just for the introduction, which turns a much needed critical eye toward the gendered culture of modern music. But it's also a wonderful chance to gain direct insight from some of the most crucial composers, performers, and sound artists of the past fifty years, many of whom remain woefully underrepresented in discussions and considerations of contemporary music.

[モーリー · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book and full of important oral history. But, and this is probably my shortcoming, I couldn't plug through a whole book of nothing but interviews. A little more context and questions more attuned to the interviewees' experiences (rather than generic and rather uncritical ones about gender impacting work) would have added a lot.

[Anja Kin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me feel more confident and formed my vision and behaviour on the sound art scene. I really appreciate every person who has contributed to this piece. I wish all the subject that has been discriminated by gender was recovered by this kind of literature, so the history is gonna be more fair and fixed.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a self-taught electronic musician with not a lot of resources (very limited gear, bog-standard laptop) I found this book so validating and encouraging. The message I received from the interviews is that there are many ways to do electronic music, and no one way is more valid than the other.

[Maya Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect collection of interviews

[Uladzimir · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Pc...

[caro · Rating 4 out of 5]

maybe at the end of the day. the real 8-bit samples and drum machines and turntables is the glorious community we made along the way

[KJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Masters Thesis Research

[Dean Wilcox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful set of interviews, although surprised that Laurie Spiegel was not included.

[Raychel Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome book for interviews of influential women composers of electronic music, including the historically ignored.

[Margit · Rating 5 out of 5]

See on kergelt feministlik kogu intervjuudest naistega, kes teevad elektroonilist muusikat või on DJ-d. Peale seda, kui olin end vapralt teaduslikest terminitest kubisevast sissejuhatusest läbi närinud, jõudsin intervjuudeni. Alustuseks oli raske lugeda, kuna ette tuli elektroonilise muusika alaseid termineid, millest ma enamasti mõhkugi aru ei saanud. Siis aga harjusin ma nende terminitega ära, ning raamat muutus mu jaoks äkki põnevaks ning inspireerivaks. Ma hakkasin märkmeid tegema meeldejäävatest ütlemistest ning huvipakkuvatest tehnilistest seikadest-soovitustest. Minu üldine kokkuvõte raamatust on – selleks et muusikat teha, ei pea sa klaverit või flööti õppima, tänapäeval võib ka arvutiprogramm olla sinu instrument. Kuigi vähemalt pooltel nendest naistest oli klassikaline muusikapõhi all, liikusid nad sellest eemale ning leidsid endile midagi uudsemat. Osad neist lõid ise muusikatöötlusprogramme, osad ehitasid endile ise instrumente või siis leidsid täiesti uudseid viise, kuidas teha muuskat või siis ühildada muusikat ja skulptuuri; muusikat ja kunsti; muusikat ja performance-t.
Mõned nendest naistest tunnistasid, kuidas elektroonilises muusikas ei ole eriti naisi, kuna ühiskond ei soodusta naisi tegema tehnilisi asju. Ja kuidas naised kardavad olukordi kui nad ei oska teha tehnilisi asju, aga tegelikult ei oska mehed ka - nemad lihtsalt teesklevad, et ei karda (ühiskonna survel, muidugi) ning sukelduvad asja sisse.
Muide, Pink Noises on ka samateemaline veebileht.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pink Noises consists of a lengthy introduction followed by 24 interviews with women working in the medium of electronic music. It spans celebrated figures of contemporary music like Pauline Oliveros and Annea Lockwood to people working in dance and electronica to women working as DJs. It was a very interesting book, not only providing insight into the work of women whose work I already knew but also introducing me to work of those I had never heard of. However, Pink Noises does suffer from the downfall of most interview compilations: a lack of true trajectory. It's all fascinating, but there is not much in the way of a larger point. Nonetheless, this books is well worth the read for all the new musical discoveries.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I read a book published by the publisher I work for. Coworker Amy told me this book was good, and I read the whole thing on a flight to Phoenix. Loved it, even though I knew very little about any of the musicians. It made me want to go and listen to their music, which I will do as soon as I have time!

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the book, and was quite inspired to get more creative in my own electronic music. I appreciate it when artists articulate their art in specifics and also express their artistic and wider concerns. Good job on the interviews, Tara Rodgers.

[Chi Chi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of interviews with women working in electronic music. I've got a lot more records to buy now.

[Stantontas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great to dip into. I wrote about this book here, still enjoying browsing it on bus journeys:
http://www.diskant.net/blog/2011/01/0...

[lindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be mandatory reading for anyone had ever made/written about/HELL, LISTENED TO electronic music. School yrself on the foremothers.

[Jess Gro · Rating 5 out of 5]

interviews with awesome women. a book to jump in and out of.

[Liliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really inspiring ! Definitely one of the better music-related books I've read. Reading about women in general makes the topic easier to connect to.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

SUCH A GREAT RESOURCE!

[A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid overview of a history of women in electronic music of various mediums. Some technical jargon that I didn't understand, but overall very important/reverent work.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tara rodgers is cool