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    Diss Music

    
      December 5, 2020 

      
      music
      
      writing
      
      research
      
    

  

  


  
    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. It’s 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 I’m writing or reading.

I’m also a long time LastFM user. So all the music I listened to over this period was logged (or “scrobbled”). 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 dissertation–or 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




2015-11 
  Moderat / II




2015-12 
  Deerhunter / Fading Frontier




2016-01 
  David Bowie / Blackstar




2016-02 
  Library Tapes / Escapism




2016-03 
  Twincities / …plays the brown mountain lights




2016-04 
  Moderat / III




2016-05 
  Radiohead / A Moon Shaped Pool




2016-06 
  Tigue / Peaks




2016-07 
  A Winged Victory for the Sullen / A Winged Victory for the Sullen




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




2017-04 
  Goldmund / Sometimes




2017-05 
  Deerhunter / Halcyon Digest




2017-06 
  Radiohead / OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017




2017-07 
  Arcade Fire / Everything Now




2017-08 
  oh sees / Orc




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 / You’re Dead! (Deluxe Edition)




2018-11 
  Porya Hatami / Kaziwa




2018-12 
  Sven Laux / You’ll Be Fine.




2019-01 
  Max Richter / Mary Queen Of Scots (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)




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




2019-11 
  Big Thief / Two Hands




2019-12 
  A Winged Victory for the Sullen / The Undivided Five




2020-01 
  Hirotaka Shirotsubaki / fragment 2011-2017




2020-02 
  Luis Miehlich / Timecuts




2020-03 
  Federico Durand / Jardín 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






  




      

    


    
  
  
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