Interviews and 3D immersive audio field recordings of black electronic music in Paris, Lisbon, Mexico City, New York City, and Accra, for continuing book project research.
Abstract: “Chapter 15: Embodied Listening: Grassroots Governance in Electronic Dance Music Venues in Accra (Ghana)”
Electronic Cities: Music Policies and Space in the 21st Century, Palgrave MacMillan (2021)
The latest iterations of West-African electronic dance music, such as afrobeats, azonto and akayida, have been gaining ground in Accra and around the world since the 2010s. Sound is part of the societal fabric of Accra; there are noise control and building regulations in Ghana but they are outdated, and easily ignored. This research reveals that nightclubs, bars and restaurants with dance music are an elongated historic phenomenon due to the fact that the intermingling of dance and music — which I describe as “embodied listening” — morphed from traditional and popular Ghanaian dance/music genres organically into electronic versions. I employ Afrocentric indigenous auto-ethnography and informal interviews with music communities foregrounding an afro-centric discussion of the electronic music scene and community networks, including local news articles and public policies. Hence, I argue that government interventions such as arts policies, building codes and sound control policies that are relevant in the Global North could be potentially harmful in Ghana, as well as other similar communities in the Global South.
Sound Installation Text: Embodied Listening: Field Recordings of Sites of Listening in Accra
Conference Presentation and Sound Installation, Un/Sounding the Relational City (Feb, 2020)
In Ghana, embodied listening occurs through listening for pleasure and dance—new genres morph throughout existing sites of listening. From the 1890’s to 1970’s, palm wine music and subsequently highlife music (hybrids of traditional Ghanaian music and western music of the pre-independence British period) necessitated sites of embodied listening. Since then, electronic forms of Ghanaian music, such as burger highlife, hiplife, and afrobeatz, and other forms of music from the African continent have continued this tradition of embodied listening. Throughout Accra in nightclubs, taxis, tro-tros (public transport in crowded vans), outdoor bar/restaurants, and street parties play loud music to dancers and listeners alike. This is a collection of spatial audio field recordings of sites of embodied listening in Accra from September 2019.
