Arab Techno for the People analyzes electronic music soundscapes as a field site to explore the lived experiences of cosmopolitan, Arab individuals living in Toronto and Montreal, Canada. This book seeks to move readers-and Canadians more broadly-to a more nuanced understanding of the misinterpellation, discrimination, and racism faced by those perceived as Arab and/or Muslim in Canada.
Despite the expectation that they will conform to unified and reductive definitions of Arab and Muslim identities, Arab house and techno musicians who are understood as (or understand themselves as) Arab in Montreal and Toronto use their musical participation to define themselves in diverse ways contingent on their ethnic, religious, gender, and sexual identities. This book proposes that the Arab diaspora in multicultural Canada can be "sounded" by unveiling the experience of memory and nostalgia, presence and absence, racism and (mis)interpellation, and the various subtle realities that Arabs must consider when ethically navigating such cultural complexities.
This ethnography is a reflection of musical practices beyond the dancefloor as coping methods with systemic racism. Fulton-Melanson's whiteness is vital to the conversation and reflection of decolonial and anti-racist methodology. The objective is that readers will recognize their own racist assumptions in the text and actively redress them. Jillian Fulton-Melanson is based between Toronto and Casablanca. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from York University and has training in ethnomusicology, education, and music performance. She is a member of various education and research teams at York University, the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Society for Ethnomusicology, and the Polish Academy of Sciences.
