Ian Sinnett (Cultural Studies) was a CHR 2023 Summer Research and Residential Fellow who spent this Fall developing his project "Hip Hop Sampling and the Aesthetic Repair of Spatiotemporal Disjuncture."
Ian helped us better understand his project by explaining that "I've always been interested in music and the ways in which the music local to an area interacts with and/or reflects social conditions. My specific project is focused on hip hop and digital hip hop sampling (which, to define, is the process of cutting and pasting together pieces of earlier recordings with the use of computerized technologies). In particular, I am investigating the question of how and/or in what ways different socioeconomic conditions interacted with the emergence of digital sampling as the genre's dominant compositional method, which occurred around 1986. In this sense, I am interested in the spatial and temporal logics of this moment, as in how living in postwar New York City, especially for disenfranchised communities of color throughout the city, shaped the cultural form of hip hop and the particular aesthetic practice of sampling. I am also really fascinated with how sampling interacts with the past, and how the past is conjured into the present through these sonic snippets, and what impacts this may have in a sort of cultural, social, and political sense."
You might be curious as to how a scholar gets involved with such a project, and so were we at the CHR. So we asked Ian about his connection to hip hop.
"I've been a huge fan of hip hop since I was in my teens," Ian told us. "I was always drawn towards the style when I was a kid, but I became much more passionate about the genre in my teens as I was becoming more politically conscious. I was drawn towards the political messages of artists like Public Enemy, and as I listened to more artists and became exposed to different styles I found myself engrossed in the genre and excited by its verbal/linguistic and musical complexities. I also was introduced to the field of memory studies by Dr. Alison Landsberg during a course I took with her, and it sort of opened up a whole realm of possibilities in how I understood music and especially hip hop and sampling. This was all deeply important to the formulation of my dissertation ideas."
Ian sees his interest in hip hop as dovetailing with his goals as a scholar to not only deepen our understanding of the genre but of the role of music in society. "I hope that I can further the study of hip hop through my specific emphasis on digital sampling. There's been some work in this regard, but I think what I'm doing is relatively unique and hopefully adds a novel and insightful perspective into the field of hip hop studies and popular music studies in general. I also hope that I can impart some particular knowledge of the layers of history and politics that are embedded within and between samples, giving some further appreciation for the art form and, maybe, some type of insight into how the sampling form may shape consciousness and political awareness."
Ian's long-time interest in hip hop reflects a deeper attachment to music that still drives his work and scholarship. "I've always been passionate about music. I've been a drummer since the second grade and have always been into a wide range of genres and scenes. I travelled a lot with my band in my late teens going on tours and stuff, and I think this is when I found myself particularly fascinated by the intricacies of different scenes, the musical styles coming from various communities, and things like that. This eventually led to my interest in the cultural studies methodology that takes the material conditions of an area and time very seriously when thinking about any form of cultural expression. I also think that hip hop is an inherently political art form, and has been since its inception, thus I find analysis and appreciation of it to be important. I also just get excited when I listen to a beat and realize I can identify a bunch of different samples!"
Research looks different for each scholar, and this seemed especially true for Ian's work. We were interested in how Ian went about his work. Did he spend hours listening to music and hip hop samples?
"Well, it's honestly a lot of reading," Ian laughed. "Reading into the history of hip hop, New York City, theories of Black cultural production, theories of memory and memory studies, sound studies, aesthetics, things like that. Also writing, hours of putting down ideas, synthesizing research, trying to make sense of relatively complex social and cultural processes. I also can spend hours combing through samples using various online sampling databases in order to see who was sampling what and when, towards what ends, etc. I haven't quite gotten to the aesthetic analysis of my project yet. When I do it will include lots of music listening."
Ian's work serves as an excellent example of the types of transdisciplinary work the CHR supports and our emphasis on the ways the humanities intersect with culture. Indeed, both of these aspects account for not only what drew Ian to study at Mason but what keeps him coming back to the CHR. "I was particularly drawn towards the Cultural Studies PhD program here at Mason. I had applied and been accepted to several other programs, but the Cultural Studies program here seemed to be the best fit for me as the faculty were welcoming and interested in my research ideas. Also, as the oldest standalone Cultural Studies program in the country, it was pretty exciting to be a part of it. I was also drawn towards the area because of the proximity to DC, and the resources that are available there in terms of museums and music scenes."
"The CHR has been extremely valuable for me!" Ian said. "Even before my time as a Residential Fellow this semester, I have found a number of talks hosted by the CHR to be engrossing, and the reading groups have been spaces of engaging intellectual discussion. My time as a Fellow has also been fantastic. Working with fellow academics from outside of my specific discipline has provided me with invaluable perspective into not just my work but their research and topics related to the theme of the semester. The fellowship has allowed me to focus solely on my dissertation which, having just started working on it this past summer, has been extremely beneficial. My fellow cohort members have been integral in guiding my dissertation through these early and often challenging stages, and I've found their insight into and encouragement of my work immensely important."
To connect with Ian and his work, email him at isinnett@gmu.edu.
December 05, 2023