The Hartt Music History Forum Welcomes Dr. Robin James

The Hartt Music History Forum welcomes Dr. Robin James as its Fall 2021 speaker. Dr. James will present:

No Genres, Just Vibes: Perceiving Ourselves How AI and Finance Perceive Us

In the last decade, the language of vibes has migrated from its historical place in various countercultures (think hippies, DJs, and VIBE magazine) to a place of prominence among mainstream social media users, brands, and music streaming services Spotify and Apple Music. Across those platforms, users are inundated with messages such as “pop isn’t just a genre … it’s a mood” or  “Genre-less. Quality First Always.” My talk studies the contemporary use of vibe as both a social media hashtag on visual platforms such as Instagram and TikTok and as a musical category.

Though brands and influencers use the catchphrase “no gender, just vibes” to present vibes as a popular feminist solution to cisheteropatriarchal binary gender, I argue that vibes are translations of what anthropologist Nick Seaver calls “the ‘postdemographic’ ideology of algorithmic recommendation” (16) into qualitative musical terms. As such, they don’t fix or transcend genre’s identity-laden baggage, but remake the race, class, and gender relations the music and media industries have traditionally managed with the discourses of genre and format into terms compatible with the speculative mathematical tools that dominate contemporary tech and finance.

 

Dr. James's talk will be held from 12:45 p.m.-2 p.m. on Wed, Nov 17. Due to Covid-19 policies ,this lecture will be held in-person in Fuller 349 for students and faculty enrolled in the Music History Forum. All other attendees, whether on- or off-campus, may also attend simultaneously via Zoom. To register and receive the meeting link, please email Dr. Karen Cook at kacook@hartford.edu by Monday, Nov 15.