Musical Difference: Computational and Postcolonial Perspectives

The field of music information retrieval (MIR) offers tools for the analysis of music and sound, for example in archives of historical recordings; but it has also been widely critiqued for bias toward Western music and Western epistemologies. There seems to be a gap, or even an irresolvable friction, between computer science-based MIR tools, problems, and methodologies, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, humanities-based research in music and media that examines sound from critical and postcolonial perspectives. In this talk, I investigate the causes of this divide, arguing that the problem is not bias per se—in fact, the bias of technologies can provide meaningful insight into our human social world and how we listen. Rather, I focus on deep ontological differences in key concepts across the sub-disciplines: concepts such as music, genre, culture, and difference. Through a case study, I propose that with a better understanding of these disciplinary differences, there is potential for MIR tools to help answer critical questions in a colonial media archive.