Sonic Sovereignty - Postmillennial Pop by Liz Przybylski Paperback

About the Book

"As an embodied practice of Indigenous self-determination through musical expression, sonic sovereignty offers a frame to listen for the effects of expressive culture in the world. Experimenting with possibilities of listening in relation to time and perspective, this book coalesces reflections across time and vantage point so that readers can listen backwards and forwards into possible futures"--

Book Synopsis

Winner, 2024 Greg Tate Prize, given by the International Association for the Study of Popular Music-US Branch

Winner, 2024 International Association for the Study of Popular Music Canada Book Prize

Honorable Mention, 2024 Alan Merriam Prize, given by the Society for Ethnomusicology

What does sovereignty sound like?

Sonic Sovereignty considers how contemporary Indigenous musicians champion self-determination through musical expression in Canada and the United States. The framework of "sonic sovereignty" connects self-definition, collective determination, and Indigenous land rematriation to the immediate and long-lasting effects of expressive culture. Liz Przybylski covers online and offline media spaces, following musicians and producers as they, and their music, circulate across broadcast and online networks.

Przybylski documents and reflects on shifts in both the music industry and political landscape over the course of a decade: as the ways in which people listen to, consume, and interact with popular music have radically changed, extensive public conversations have flourished around contemporary Indigenous culture, settler responsibility, Indigenous leadership, and decolonial futures.

Sonic Sovereignty encourages us to experiment with temporal possibilities of listening by detailing moments when a sample, lyric, or musical reference moves a listener out of normative time. Nonlinear storytelling practices from hip hop music and other North American Indigenous sonic practices inform these generative listenings. The musical readings presented in this book thus explore how musicians use tools to help listeners embrace rupture, and how out-of-time listening creates decolonial possibilities.

Review Quotes

"Sonic Sovereignty is both a scholarly and political achievement. It compels us to listen differently, to explore, and to recognize music as a land where the struggle for Indigenous futures is already being sounded, one lyrical bar and beat drop at a time."-- "American Indian Culture and Research Journal"

"Illuminates discussions on the revitalization of Indigenous communities and how these communities continue to demonstrate grit and resilience. Przzybylski's thoughtful analysis proves mainstream hip-hop culture and listening practices can be decolonized and reimagined to consider a multiplicity of voices rooted in love."-- "Critical Studies in Media Communication"

"Liz Przybylski's Sonic Sovereignty is a remarkably exciting text that employs a multipronged interdisciplinary methodology that emphasizes how musical expression can act as a powerful decolonial force and is one that I wholly recommend."-- "CHOICE"

"The rich ethnography details the rise of sonic self-determination in contemporary culture through radio broadcasting and live concert events. Writing in smooth, poetic prose, Przybylski asserts that understanding music requires an understanding of its cultural space."-- "CHOICE Connect"

"Excavates Indigenous rap's role in moving us in decolonial directions. Liz Przybylski teases out the confluence of mainstream forces that (re)produce silences while spotlighting artists' refusals, prompting new expressions of audibility. Sonic Sovereignty gifts us with insight into the intimacies of listening and the political possibility of learning to listen differently."--Imani Kai Johnson, author of Dark Matter in Breaking Cyphers: The Life of Africanist Aesthetics in Global Hip Hop

"Extends our understanding of music across landscapes where belonging and self-determination are enacted daily. Through hybrid ethnographic and participatory research, Liz Przybylski examines the infrastructure of settler media terrains and, more importantly, Indigenous artists' ruptures of it. Her examination of the online-offline divide, practices of distribution, and regulatory environments of broadcast systems are coupled with the power of Indigenous artists who encourage us to go beyond hearing. Through deft close readings of artists' practices, she introduces us to the possibilities of relational listening."--Mishuana Goeman, author of Mark My Words: Native Women Mapping Our Nations

About the Author

Liz Przybylski is Associate Professor in the Department of Music at University of California, Riverside and is the author of Hybrid Ethnography: Online, Offline, and In Between (SAGE, 2020). Her research appears in Ethnomusicology, the Journal of Borderlands Studies, and IASPM Journal, among others. She is an awardee of the National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Fellowship.