Donna Summer and Kraftwerk share much by way of geography and sound production. Each artist found their sound, characterized by use of the Moog synthesizer, in Munich, Germany, between 1974 and 1978. Summer, along with her distinctly European producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, was a hitmaker characterized by her outward sexual openness; Kraftwerk are a more elusive group in the public eye but their influence on the queer club scene in Europe and the United States cannot be minimized. The artists' most significant shared asset is a dedication to the creation of a sound of the future. That concept is central to my project, tentatively titled \"Autobahn Affair: Transnationalism and Queerness in the music of Donna Summer and Kraftwerk\"--what is the sound of the future, and what are its implications aurally and socially? I employ Fred Moten's theory on fugitivity, Sarah Thornton's study of the club as a space of suspended identity, and Lee Edelman's theory of anti-futurity. The work is a comparative exploration of the music of Donna Summer and Kraftwerk through a collection of creative and academic essays. Ultimately, it is clear that the sound of the future exists in the break, given the following arguments: the future is not defined by reproduction (Edelman 2004); transnationalism provides an escape from a deterministic or singular sound of the club/sound of the queer (Thornton 1995); and \"the break\" in which the sound of the future resides is a dissembled, antagonistic, Black, queer space (Moten 2003).
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"Drupal Node ID: 24095