FACULTY OF ARTS

DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL SCIENCES

Electronic Discourses: Gender and Sexuality in Electroacoustic Music

and Experimental Composition

ABTRACT
Men can be said to dominate the music industry, especially when it comes to composers and
musicians who create experimental music and sounds which fall outside of mainstream
music. Women and members of the LGBTQ+ community remain minorities within these
genres, with little research being done on these perspectives. This qualitative thesis focuses
on diminishing the masculine mastery located within electroacoustic music and experimental
compositions by focusing on female and LGBTQ+ perspectives. It critically examines how
nonheteronormative notions of gender, sexuality and emotion can manifest in these types of
music by attempting to answer the following research questions:
a) Are nonheteronormative discourses of gender, sexuality and emotion present in
composers’ and musicians’ creative processes? If so, how?
b) How do these expressions of identity contribute to the overall diversity of sound art
and experimental music?
c) Can feminist and queer activism be found within these types of music?

By having made contact with individuals, organisations, music festivals and music schools
based in Stockholm and Gothenburg, five semi-structured interviews with female and
LGBTQ+ musicians, composers and performance artists within noise, electroacoustic music
and sound were conducted in combination with analyses of 1-2 pieces by the participants.
This thesis is rooted in feminist musicology and sound studies, the literature of which will be
combined with theories of performativity, disidentification, queer temporalities and queer
subcultures. Feminist music education and other feminist and queer theories are also touched
upon when necessary. Critical discourse analysis is employed to analyse the findings as it
complements the analysis of the pieces combined with the interviews and use of theory.
Following this, conclusions will be made.