Diss Music
I recently defended my dissertation, and am planning to write a short post here with a synopsis of what I studied. But before that I wanted to do a bit of navel gazing and examine the music of my dissertation.
To be clear, my dissertation has no music. Itâs one part discourse analysis, two parts ethnographic field study, and is comprised entirely of text and images bundled into a PDF.
But over the last 5 years as I took classes, wrote papers, conducted research and did the final write up my research results I was almost always listening to music.
I spent a lot of time on weekends in the tranquil workspaces of the Silver Spring Public Library. After the Coronavirus hit earlier this year I spent more time surrounded by piles of books in my impromptu office in the basement of my house. But wherever I found myself working music was almost always on.
I leaned heavily on Bandcamp over this time period, listening and then purchasing music I enjoyed. Bandcamp is a truly remarkable platform for learning about new music from people whose tastes align with yours. My listening habits definitely trended over this time towards instrumental, experimental, found sound and ambient, partly because lyrics can distract me if Iâm writing or reading.
Iâm also a long time LastFM user. So all the music I listened to over this period was logged (or âscrobbledâ). LastFM have an API so I thought it would be fun to create a little report of the top albums I listened to each month of my dissertation.
So this is the music of my dissertationâor the hidden soundtrack of my research, between August 2015 and November 2020. You can see how I obtained the information from the API in this Jupyter notebook. But the results are here below.
2015-08
White Rainbow /
Thru.u
2015-09
Deradoorian /
The
Expanding Flower Planet
2015-10
James
Elkington and Nathan Salsburg /
Ambsace
2015-12
Deerhunter /
Fading
Frontier
2016-01
David Bowie /
Blackstar
2016-02
Library Tapes /
Escapism
2016-03
Twincities /
âŚplays
the brown mountain lights
2016-05
Radiohead /
A
Moon Shaped Pool
2016-08
Oneohtrix
Point Never /
Garden
of Delete
2016-09
Oneohtrix
Point Never /
Drawn
and Quartered
2016-10
Chihei
Hatakeyama /
Saunter
2016-11
Biosphere /
Departed
Glories
2016-12
Sarah Davachi /
The
Untuning of the Sky
2017-01
OFFTHESKY /
The
Beautiful Nowhere
2017-02
Clark /
The Last
Panthers
2017-03
Tim Hecker /
Harmony
In Ultraviolet
2017-05
Deerhunter /
Halcyon
Digest
2017-06
Radiohead /
OK
Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017
2017-07
Arcade Fire /
Everything
Now
2017-09
Lusine /
Sensorimotor
2017-10
Four Tet /
New
Energy
2017-11
James Murray /
Eyes
to the Height
2017-12
Jlin /
Black
Origami
2018-01
Colleen /
Captain
of None (Bonus Track Version)
2018-02
Gersey /
What You
Kill
2018-03
Rhucle /
Yellow
Beach
2018-04
Christina
Vantzou /
No. 3
2018-05
Hotel Neon /
Context
2018-06
Brendon
Anderegg /
June
2018-07
A
Winged Victory for the Sullen /
Atomos
2018-08
Ezekiel Honig /
A
Passage of Concrete
2018-09
Paperbark /
Last
Night
2018-10
Flying Lotus /
Youâre
Dead! (Deluxe Edition)
2018-11
Porya Hatami /
Kaziwa
2018-12
Sven Laux /
Youâll
Be Fine.
2019-02
Ian Nyquist /
Cuan
2019-03
Jens Pauly /
Vihne
2019-04
Ciro Berenguer
/
El
Mar De Junio
2019-05
Rival Consoles
/
Persona
2019-06
Caught
In The Wake Forever /
Waypoints
2019-07
Spheruleus /
Light
Through Open Blinds
2019-08
Valotihkuu /
By The
River
2019-09
Moss
Covered Technology /
Slow
Walking
2019-10
Tsone /
pagan
oceans I, II, III
2020-01
Hirotaka
Shirotsubaki /
fragment
2011-2017
2020-02
Luis Miehlich /
Timecuts
2020-03
Federico
Durand /
JardĂn
de invierno
2020-04
R.E.M. /
Document
- 25th Anniversary Edition
2020-05
Chicano Batman
/
Invisible
People
2020-06
Hazel English /
Wake
Up!
2020-07
Josh Alexander
/
Hiraeth
2020-08
The Beatles /
The
Beatles (Remastered)
2020-09
Radiohead /
OK
Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017
2020-10
Mathieu
Karsenti /
Bygones
2020-11
R.E.M. /
Murmur
- Deluxe Edition