Victor Szabo Interview (Why Is(n’t) Ambient So White?)
Victor Szabo is Elliott Assistant Professor of Music at Hampden-Sydney College. His most recent article is “Why Is(n’t) Ambient So White?” As Victor explains, it’s an exploration of how the genre has “become racialized as ‘white’ relative to other genres of popular/electronic music (say, house music).”
Can you please briefly describe yourself and what you do?
I am an Elliott Assistant Professor of Music at Hampden-Sydney College, a small liberal arts college in southern Virginia, where I teach music history, theory, composition, and appreciation. I broadly study the history and socioaesthetics of anglophone popular music, and my recent research specifically deals with the formation of the ambient music genre and its roots in psychedelic culture and art.
What about this area of study is so interesting to you?