Graduate student Michael Millenheft’s article “Somos Sordos: Countercultural Noise Practice in Contemporary Powerviolence” has just appeared in the Journal of Popular Music Studies (36/1, September 2024). Michael’s autoethnographic study examines powerviolence in the predominantly Hispanic unincorporated area of El Rio, California, from the perspective of a drummer in a local powerviolence band. Exploring powerviolence as a form of “borderlands noise-music,” the article investigates the intersection of sound perception and cultural identity, particularly for Chicano noise musicians, and it foregrounds the significance of powerviolence and noise-music as accessible forms of expression, particularly for aspiring musicians who lack the means to pursue formal study. The essay argues that by amplifying voices that may otherwise go unheard, powerviolence allows noise musicians to feel audible to dominant capitalist society. Michael is a second-year PhD student in Music and Sound Studies.
