Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Where does queerness in music come from? How might we experience it? What would queer music sound and feel like? This study explores such questions to better understand how musicality and sexuality converge in theory and practice. Inspired by Suzanne Cusick’s pioneering essay “On a Lesbian Relationship with Music,” I start by discussing the pre-discursive nature of music. The notion of music as the ineffable will then be integrated with such ideas as affect, body, pleasure, and queer temporality, aiming to lay the groundwork for elucidating the queer possibilities induced by music. Finally, an examination of songs from David Bowie’s glam rock repertoire illustrates how ineffability and queerness could be experienced through music listening.