Cyberpunk Music Workshop

Schmeink, Lars et al. Cyberpunk Music Workshop. Announced on SFRA ListServ <SFRA@JISCMAIL.AC.UK>.

[...] first Cyberpunk Research Network Workshop on Cyberpunk Music. More information: http://cyberpunkculture.com/1st-cyrn-workshop-cyberpunk-music/

The presentations are online already and can be read/watched beforehand, on Friday we will do the discussions via Discord - just register for CyRN (for free) and join us on the Discord to discuss (text-based) the following presentations:

Introducing our #CyRN #Cyberpunk Music workshop presenters:

§1 is Nicholas Laudadio, whose paper broadly introduces cyberpunk music in industrial, EDM, metal, hiphop and synth soundtracks. Discussion from FRI Dec 4th 5 pm (UTC) onwards: http://cyberpunkculture.com/1st-cyrn-workshop-cyberpunk-music/§1-nicholas-laudadio/

§2 - Joseph Hurtgen on "Records that Warp" talking about cp's influence on techno, electro, and synth ... Discussion FRI 6pm UTC http://cyberpunkculture.com/1st-cyrn-workshop-cyberpunk-music/§2-joseph-hurtgen/

§3 - Jim Osman "Neo-Opera, 21st Century Post-Veristic Opera as Cyberpunk Provocation” talking about the potential of cyberpunk to revolutionize opera. FRI 6.30 pm UTC http://cyberpunkculture.com/1st-cyrn-workshop-cyberpunk-music/§3-jim-osman/

§4 - Andrew Wenaus "The Engineer and Architect of Cyberpunk Cut-up Music: Iannis Xenakis’ Granular Synthesis” ... music theory and synthesizers... FRI 7 pm UTC http://cyberpunkculture.com/1st-cyrn-workshop-cyberpunk-music/§4-andrew-wenaus

Announcement of event notes intertwining, or braiding, of cyberpunk and music:

Cyberpunk Research Network – 1st Workshop: Cyberpunk Music FRIDAY December 4th, 2020 – #CyRN

Cyberpunk’s indebtedness to music is obvious from the moment that Bruce Sterling acknowledge the Movement’s relation to the “modern pop underground” (xi), and kinship in the “rock video”, “in the jarring street tech of hip-hop, and scratch music; in the synthesizer rock of London and Tokyo” (xi-xii). And cyberpunk has picked up this relation, shown us rockers and rappers—from Cadigan’s synthesizing rock in Synners to the Wachowski’s tribal techno party in Matrix: Reloaded. But that is literary or cinematic representation of music—what about the other way around? What influences did cyberpunk have on the development of music, pop or otherwise? 

Karen Collins argues that industrial and cyberpunk share the same “tradition of twentieth-century Western dystopias” (167) and analyses their similarities in theme, ideology, imagery and style. And Roy Christopher argues for a relation between cyberpunk and hip-hop in his book Dead Precedents. Similar arguments can be made for synthesizer music, electro and techno, but also for metal and prog rock. Not to forget that cyberpunk films have had radical and interesting soundtracks to provide their imagery with a sonic relation.

RDE, finishing, 2Dec20