Science fiction has many definitions, with cognitive estrangement being the most accepted method of distinguishing works of science fiction from other genres. Finding the cognitive estrangement in music is more difficult to do compared to literature and cinema, as it presently is an almost unknown area of study. Professor Istvan Csicsery-Ronay of DePauw University came up with a list ofseven cognitive attractions, or the “7 Beauties of Science Fiction” that make science fiction literature and cinema interesting to audiences. In his attempt to understand the commonality of science fiction in all its varieties, he discovered the enormous number of conventions of literary and cinematic science fiction found in music. Not only did he find music with qualities adopted from literature and cinema, but music “created its own conventions”. From this discovery, we no longer can look at science fiction in musical creation with the same lens that we do other works.

In an attempt to break down the established standards of music from the performance to the very tone produced, artists in the 20th century began experimenting with non-musical sounds and noises. According to Professor Csicsery-Ronay, these experiments were largely inspired by the utopian call to “free the ear from enslaving habits of tradition”. At the same time, artists contrasted this with the “dystopian vision of the dehumanization of the musical imagination”. Through the experimentation of electronic technology with music, productions truly became cyborg.

When one thinks of science fiction in music it usually involves lyrical interpretation. Professor Csicsery-Ronay goes beyond the words to examine the ‘science fictionality’ of the very sounds produced themselves. The sounds heard by the listener are the cognitive estrangement. The sound one hears is in itself the novum of the work. Professor Csicsery-Ronay labels such sounds as neosonics, which are “new sounds that the audience believes, in its moment of aesthetic suspension of disbelief, have not been heard before, and which indicate a future (or alternative) world in which new faculties of hearing and new ways of musical cognition have emerged.” In other words, the very sound of the music in its rhythm and melody (or lack thereof) take the listener to another time and place from which they are forced to react differently to the experience of hearing sounds.

We are fortunate to live in a world where the acoustic limits of the past are no longer existent. Humanity has once again opened the doors to a newfound dominion of exploration. Voltage and aesthetics have merged to redefine what we consider to be art. Artists with no ‘musical’ background have mastered the world of sound waves and oscillations to bring any human – regardless of gender, color, or creed – to experience euphoric sensations never felt before. Such artists have cultivated the ultimate form of aesthetic expression: one without tonal, societal, or scientific barriers. Never before has human speculation been derived from sound frequencies interacting with the eardrum. This newfound phenomenon may soon disappear. The recent strain and restrictions of the mainstream music industry have limited artistic expression, with certain themes such as sexuality and violence being ‘fashionable’ and in high demand. To revisit Donna Haraway, it is up to the public to ensure that the creative barriers recently broken by technology are not rebuilt in other places. Humans must move past ethnocentrism and narrow-mindedness and ‘let the drummer kick it’.

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