Locating Transness in Experience of Popular Music: A Queer Phenomenological Approach

Trans experience has historically been fetishised and othered in musicology through case
studies preoccupied with Art Music and biological gender; however, research has since
reflected that transness in popular music permeates musical components, lyrics, visual
performance aesthetics, and performer identity. In a new approach towards understanding
trans experience of popular music, I, a non-binary person, intend to identify and examine
how popular music locates transness through a queered phenomenological lens. I will do
this through detailed analysis of pieces of music under the hip-hop and dance music
umbrella, and the experience of it, in specific spaces; drag shows, ballroom events, and
fashion shows.