Researchers from all over Europe are meeting in Oldenburg at the "Tuning the Noisegate" conference. In this interview, organiser Susanne Binas-Preisendörfer explains why it is worth talking about power relations in pop music.
Ms Binas-Preisendörfer, you teach and research the relationship between music and media and are organising a specialist conference at the University of Oldenburg entitled "Tuning the Noisegate". What is it about?
The term "noisegate" originates from analogue and digital music production. It is a method used to suppress aesthetically undesirable noises in an audio production. However, this also results in the loss of attractive, exciting and unique moments in the sound design, such as breathing noises when singing or the sliding of fingers over guitar strings. Sound elements are excluded, heavily customised, perfected or smoothed out.
But the conference and your research are about more than that.
Exactly. We see the "noisegate" as a metaphor for very different phenomena in pop music. Again and again, the question arises as to who is heard, who is allowed to participate or who is promoted. These symbolic "noisegates" reveal power relations. It's about decisions between inclusion and exclusion, mainstream and niche, or between noise and silence. Among other things, we ask ourselves what causes certain sounds and voices in pop music not to penetrate and others to be amplified - and how exclusion could be counteracted. However, tuning also has a positive meaning when sounds become aesthetically more attractive or previously marginalised identities are made visible.
Doesn't music already have to conform to certain grids and patterns - in terms of form, sound or marketability, for example - in order to have any chance of getting through these "noise gates"? There are already aesthetic and formal expectations of what is considered pop music...
Yes, popular sounds, the images of artists or the dress codes in popular cultures live from standards and stereotypes. Recognisability and mass use are a prerequisite for popularity. It is also the opposite of spiritual contemplation, in which an audience trained in intellectual standards finds favour. It plays a role in the everyday lives of a great many people and is therefore also cultivated on markets, i.e. capitalised. In addition to recognisability, it is also something special, the ear- or eye-catcher, that draws our attention.
Where do you start in your research on the "noise gate" in pop music?
Pop music is embedded in a complex system of cultural and economic conditions. Visualising the mechanisms of attention strategies is an important method of research. We look in particular at the gatekeepers - those who act as filters or amplifiers. This can be a technology, a certain professional group or an institution.
Do you have specific examples in mind?
Think of the current economies of streaming platforms and the developments surrounding AI. Algorithms determine what is listened to and what is not listened to. The recommendation system helps to shape our playlists. Another example is bookers who plan the line-up for concerts and festivals - which is why musicians are dependent on their goodwill. A contract with a commercially operating major label, state cultural funding and even work materials for music lessons in schools also define what popular music sees the light of day and filter out what they think doesn't belong. Even the bouncer is almost literally a gatekeeper. They decide who is allowed into the music club and who is not.
Why do you and your colleagues study such pop cultural phenomena scientifically?
For many years, the study of popular music and pop culture played no role in the humanities and social sciences. At the beginning of the 1990s, there was only one professorship for popular music in German-speaking countries. Now there are significantly more, and colleagues are working on this topic from very different perspectives. I think that's important, because anyone who deals with questions of pop culture also gains very precise insights into our modern societies, such as digital media cultures and the power relations at work in them. At the Institute of Music at the University of Oldenburg, I therefore also focus on these exciting cross-connections as part of my professorship for "Music and Media".
