Afrofuturism and Black Sound Studies

This book interrogates the meeting point between Afrofuturism and Black Sound Studies. Whereas Afrofuturism is often understood primarily in relation to science fiction and speculative fiction, it can also be examined from a sonic perspective. The sounds of Afrofuturism are deeply embedded in the speculative – demonstrated in mythmaking – in frameworks for songs and compositions, in the personas of the artists, and in how the sounds are produced. In highlighting the place of music within the lived experiences of African Americans, the author analyses how the perspectives of Black Sound Studies complement and overlap with the discussion of sonic Afrofuturism. Focusing upon blackness, technology, and sound, this unique text offers key insights in how music partakes in imagining and constructing the future. This innovative volume will appeal to students and scholars of sound studies, musicology and African American studies.

Erik Steinskog is Associate Professor of Musicology at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Erik's work primarily deals with twentieth and twenty-first century music, with an approach inspired by interdisciplinary cultural studies. He also works with parallels between music and other means of expression, as well as how an understanding based in afrofuturism can go into dialogue with other perspectives and other musical expressions, so far less understood in relation to afrofuturism.