When we search for music on YouTube–the number one music discovery channel on the web and the number one destination for kids, we never think we are contributing to the sexual grooming and sexploitation of the most vulnerable and marginalized girls and their aspirational bedroom play. Tween twerking videos sit at the intersection of music monetization, search recommendations, and sexually-objectifying comments and disclosure tactics. This talk unpacks how girls turn up to music that is situationally banking on their consent to patriarchal violence and anti-Black sexism.

Ethnomusicologist Kyra Gaunt uses song, scholarship, and digital media to disclose disconnects in music, culture, and technology that perpetuate violence against girls online. Her first book, The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop (NYU Press) and subsequent publications, contributed to the emergence of hip-hop music studies, black girlhood studies, and hip-hop feminism. She was featured in the viral TED video “How the Jump Rope Got Its Rhythm” reaching over 7M+ views published in over 28 languages and in 2020 she became a Senior TED Fellow. Her article “The Magic of Black Girls Play” was an editors’ pick in the New York Times in July 2020 and her next project is titled PLAYED: Twerking at the Intersection of Music, YouTube, and Violence Against Black Girls.

Presented Eastman School's Musicology Department.