Graduation Year

2026

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Second Department

Music

Reader 1

Piya Chatterjee

Reader 2

Tahereh Aghdasifar

Rights Information

2026 Sydney S Godwin

Abstract

Electronic music is not often a subject of academic papers and texts. But, despite its reputation as something that belongs in clubs, not classrooms, this paper utilizes electronic music as a lens through which essential histories of marginalized queer, trans, and QTPOC (queer/trans people of color) subcultures and groups can be explored. In chapter 1: Tracing The Queer and Trans Roots of Electronic Music in America, I detail the contributions made by queer and trans individuals in the development of some of the earliest electronic music machines as well as the development of QTPOC nightlife and culture around early electronic music genres such as disco, house, and techno, beginning in the 1960s. In chapter 2: Hyperpop: A Very Queer and Trans Subgenre, I dive deeper into a specific genre of electronic music, hyperpop. Lyrical analyses of songs by key hyperpop artists such as SOPHIE and underscores are presented to demonstrate why exactly hyperpop is dominated by queer and trans artists and audience members.As electronic music continues to gain popularity, fluctuating in and out of the mainstream, it is more important than ever to contextualize the genre within its radical histories of race, gender, and sexuality. This paper aims to provide an exploration into some of the most important figures and events that have established electronic music as an inherently queer and trans genre.

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