The conversation about sex and music rarely goes beyond what makes the best hookup soundtrack, but one Northwestern student’s graduate work explores deeper links between the two.
The 25 students who came to Sex Week’s Tuesday afternoon event, Mapping Orgasm and Sexual Pleasure in Rock Music, listened to a schoolyard rhyme together instead of a rock anthem.
A vocal performance graduate from Carnegie Mellon University and Bard College, Liz Przybylski examined how deeply involved some songs are with sexual pleasure. She said she has learned how to hear the “sexual structure” and the “musical structure” simultaneously.
Przybylski, a graduate student at Northwestern working for her PhD in musicology, started her presentation with the classic school nursery rhyme: Mike and Susan, sitting in a tree/ K-I-S-S-I-N-G/ First comes love/ Then comes marriage/ Then comes the baby in the baby carriage.
Przybylski is currently researching gender roles in punk music, a topic she said is not too natural for the academic world. “How would people want to do that, particularly given a preponderance of sexual violence? But I think the situation is a lot more complicated than that. It’s a particularly interesting opportunity for male and female performers to reinvent themselves and recreate their gender identities through performing. And bringing that, confusing that, to a point where it no longer makes sense to divide it.”
She quickly moved from nursery rhymes to pop songs and offered some examples:
“Too Tough” by The Rolling Stones
Przybylski broke down this song with transcriptions and lyrics to focus on the driving back beat. “When you listen to this piece,” she told the room, “I want you to listen for something that’s called a phallic backbeat. The beat you hear starts and continues throughout the piece and doesn’t change very much and is extremely insistent. It’s pounding, it’s thrusting, it’s the core rhythmic organizing structure.”
The album cover is a little suggestive too.
“Endless Love” by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie
In this duet by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, Ross’s voice smoothly stretches out over the whole song without ever climaxing. Richie didn’t go for the “hegemonic rock persona,” Przybylski said. He complemented Ross’s feminine sexuality with a mellow, manly voice. Instead of forgoing his sex drive, he focuses it differently.
“Creator” by Santogold
Przybylski switched the focus from the performer to the spectator when she began playing club or dance music. Santogold, along with many others, makes music to make you move. The simple driving beat encourages close dancing that never climaxes nor regresses. “There’s dance music, with a certain embodied angle,” she said. “There are certain genres that are really focused on physical movement.”
“Tranny Two-Step” by Actor Slash Model
Sex isn’t only for the heterosexuals, and neither is music. Przybylski played Actor Slash Model without explaining exactly who they were. Simon Strikeback and Madsen Minax (members of Actor Slash Model) comprise the Chicago acoustic/folk band and sing about the transgender and queer identity. The best line wonders why he doesn’t fit in at the lumber yard with the other guys.
For those into domination, Butt Boy has composed hours of dungeon music to set the mood. With no lyrics or traditional style, his albums were meant to be enjoyed while being tied up with something else.
All of these songs aren’t meant for recess, but Przybylski showed that sex is deeply ingrained in our musical culture. Wouldn’t our kindergarten teachers be proud?