Pink Noises

Tara Rodgers (Analog Tara) is an independent writer, composer, and musician, and the founder of Pinknoises.com, a website devoted to women DJs, electronic musicians, and sound artists. Her electronic compositions have been released on several recordings and exhibited at venues including the Eyebeam Museum in New York City and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto. She has received the New Genre Composition Prize from the International Alliance of Women in Music and a 2006 Frog Peak Experimental Music Award. Rodgers has an MFA in electronic music from Mills College. She is a Ph.D. candidate in communication studies at McGill University.

“[Rodgers] conducted thoughtful, detailed interviews with a wide range of artists. . . . Even when I don't much care for the artist Rodgers is talking to . . . the discussion is lively and interesting. . . . Rodgers clearly understands many disparate modes of music making, and sounds equally authoritative whether she's talking about elaborate programming schemes, the language of analog synthesizers, or record buying.” - Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader “One of the best music books of 2010, Tara Rodgers’s Pink Noises, gave an accessible window into what looks to be many years of research into gender, identity and electronic music. . . .” - Frances Morgan, The Quietus “Pink Noises is an extremely well informed, informative and inspiring discussion of some of the most crucial aspects and developments in electronic music. The innovators and actors behind these developments happen to be women and Pink Noises thereby highlights the astounding male centeredness in standard accounts and representation in electronic music.” - Anna Gavanas, Dancecult “[A] vitally needed book, and it really is wonderful to read so many women talking passionately about the subject.” - Emily Manuel, Bitch “Pink Noises touches upon nearly every aspect of female involvement in the evolution of electronic music and sound. . . . This book would be worthwhile if only for its excellent, clearly written glossary of essential terms and its basic primer on the history of the speed-of-light changes of a mega-industry and tools that most westerners use-in our current climate of relatively affordable consumerism: (if not necessarily civilization)-on a virtually daily basis and that we take for granted.” - Deborah Frost, Women’s Review of Books “Pink Noises is an original and important contribution to discourse inelectronic music, musicology, and gender studies. Rodgers’s unique background as both electronic musician and scholar allows her to ask incisive questions about both creative process and cultural situation. And the introductory essay is nothing less than groundbreaking in its attempt to birth an alternate historiography for electronic music and to theorize the language and systems of electronic music.” - Betsey Biggs, Women & Music “Pink Noises is a breath of fresh air when you look at how many electronic music books are about more of the same: boys with toys. From the Middle Eastern–inflected electronica of DJ Mutamassik, to the Punjabi rhythms of DJ Rekha, to the academix of Pamela Z and Pauline Oliveros, Tara Rodgers’s examination of women as central figures in the creative processes of twenty-first-century art and music is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of music in our hyper-connected and hyper-post-everything contemporary life.”-Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky “What does it mean to be a female electronic musician? This seemingly simple question lies at the heart of Pink Noises, Tara Rodgers’s compelling exploration into the relationship between technology and gender. . . . Rodgers’s book serves as both an introduction to the world of music and technology, even providing an extensive glossary, and inspirational manifesto, revealing that to succeed as an artist is to follow one’s own unique path, no matter what.” - Nick Zurko (Tom Tom Magazine) “Pink Noises is an extremely well informed, informative and inspiring discussion of some of the most crucial aspects and developments in electronic music. The innovators and actors behind these developments happen to be women and Pink Noises thereby highlights the astounding male centeredness in standard accounts and representation in electronic music.” - Anna Gavanas (Dancecult) “Pink Noises is an original and important contribution to discourse in electronic music, musicology, and gender studies. Rodgers’s unique background as both electronic musician and scholar allows her to ask incisive questions about both creative process and cultural situation. And the introductory essay is nothing less than groundbreaking in its attempt to birth an alternate historiography for electronic music and to theorize the language and systems of electronic music.” - Betsey Biggs (Women and Music) “Pink Noises touches upon nearly every aspect of female involvement in the evolution of electronic music and sound. . . . This book would be worthwhile if only for its excellent, clearly written glossary of essential terms and its basic primer on the history of the speed-of-light changes of a mega-industry and tools that most westerners use-in our current climate of relatively affordable consumerism: (if not necessarily civilization)-on a virtually daily basis and that we take for granted.” - Deborah Frost (Women's Review of Books) “[A] vitally needed book, and it really is wonderful to read so many women talking passionately about the subject.” - Emily Manuel (Bitch) “[Rodgers] conducted thoughtful, detailed interviews with a wide range of artists. . . . Even when I don't much care for the artist Rodgers is talking to . . . the discussion is lively and interesting. . . . Rodgers clearly understands many disparate modes of music making, and sounds equally authoritative whether she's talking about elaborate programming schemes, the language of analog synthesizers, or record buying.” - Peter Margasak (Chicago Reader) “One of the best music books of 2010, Tara Rodgers’s Pink Noises, gave an accessible window into what looks to be many years of research into gender, identity and electronic music. . . .” - Frances Morgan (The Quietus) "I love opening this book and flipping to a random interview. Each one is extremely personal but also technical and conceptual, exploring the artist's unique relationship to sound and space. It's refreshing to read about these women's musical journeys in the context of a male-dominated field like electronic music." - Lyra Pramuk (Artforum)

• Acknowledgments ixIntroduction 1Part 1. Time and Memory 25Pauline Oliveros 27Kaffe Matthews 34Carla Scaletti 43Eliane Radigue 54Part 2. Space and Perspective 61Maggi Payne 63Ikue Mori 73Beth Coleman (M. Singe) 81Maria Chavez 94Part 3. Nature and Synthetics 105Christina Kubisch 107Annea Lockwood 114Chantal Passamonte (Mira Calix) 128Jessica Rylan 139Part 4. Circulation and Movements 157Susan Morabito 159Rekha Malhotra (DJ Rekha) 169Giulia Loli (DJ Mtuamassik) 178Jeannie Hopper 190Part 5. Language, Machines, Embodiment 201Antye Gueie (AGF) 203Pamela Z 216Laetitia Sonami 226Bevin Kelley (Blevin Blectum) 235Part 6. Alone/Together 243Le Tigre 245Bev Stanton (Arthur Loves Plastic) 255Keiko Uenishi (o.blaat) 263Riz Maslen (Neotropic) 273Glossary 283Discography 295References 301Index 313