The Queer of Color Sound Economy in Electronic Dance Music

Abstract

Within electronic dance music cultures (EDMCs), musicality and experimentation have been indebted to black and Latinx DJs of color since its inception in the 1980s. Even today, queer DJs of color continue to push the envelope of experimental EDM by showcasing dance music from the “global south,” centering remix styles that border between hip hop and EDM, and sampling cultural references popular in queer communities of color. This article explores music’s complex entanglements with identity and community for queer people of color in underground electronic dance music scenes. To be specific, the individuals within these communities self-identify as racial/ethnic minorities on the genderqueer spectrum of non-normative gender and sexual identities (gay/lesbian, trans, nonbinary, etc.). Moreover, I argue that these socio-economic positions act as an impetus of a sound economy – the shared system of socio-cultural aesthetics – for queer communities of color in EDM. The first section discusses the identity politics that underlie this sound economy by tracing how intertextuality allows DJs to display these minoritarian1 perspectives. I then highlight why (re)centering racialized queer identities is radical by tracing EDM’s political shifts. Specifically, I highlight how narratives surrounding EDM changed due to the demographic turn in Europe during the 1990s. The last section explores the re-emergence of pivotal queer DJs of color and the scenes they founded in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York by focusing on the flows of culture and people between cities to point to a more extensive global network of racialized queer communities in constant musical and political dialogue. This section also examines how the intercity networks of social media, identity-based collectives, independent records labels, and social activist organizations coalesced into an “underground” music culture and industry that focuses on the care and the pursuit of equity for queer people of color. Lastly, I argue that this industry disrupts the cultural and musical hegemony of unmarked whiteness in the power structures that gatekeeping in mainstream EDM.