From Doll to DJ: Trans Synthesis and The Sound of Tomorrow

Brooke Bousley 

Music Journalist

For those who have spent hours engaging with varying intersections of internet culture and the electronic music scene, an inevitable encounter with a recurring joke occurs: the vast majority of transgender women are DJs, music producers, or have the latest versions of Pro Tools, Splice, Serum, FL Studio, or Ableton Live downloaded to their computers. Similar to the bulk of the internet’s endearing humor, this particular stereotype persists due to it being rooted in an overarching truth. The modern-day electronic music scene is currently experiencing a colossal shift, essentially guided by the innovative spirit of trans women — typically, and affectionately, referred to as “dolls” within the LGBTQ+ community. However, this phenomenon shouldn’t come as a surprise, but rather, a reunion.  

Electronic music has historically served as a sanctuary for the LGBTQ+ community, directly deriving from Black and Latin underground settings where house and techno genres not only thrived but operated as a safety net from the external trials and tribulations the world had to offer. Trailblazers such as Honey Dijon, Mykki Blanco, and Big Freedia have consistently championed electronic and experimental territories, allowing for the studio and the stage to act as venues garnered towards liberation. To this day, an ever-expanding lineage of trans women and queer artists remains persistent in their efforts to actively renovate the architecture that binds electronic music, furthermore, metamorphosing the underground into an explicit blueprint of the not-so-distant future of music as it is currently defined.  

The junction in which transness and electronic music intertwine occurs within the act of creation itself. To exist openly as a trans woman or queer individual is to generally counteract the rigorous confines of an assigned reality. In a similar regard, software synthesizers and digital audio workspaces provide a reciprocal malleability, which was a sentiment that was required to a profound extent by none other than the late electronic musician and visionary Sophie Xeon. SOPHIE, who was regarded as the pioneer of a popular subgenre of electronic music, better known as Hyperpop, deconstructed the constraints that existed between ductile aspects of pop aesthetics and abrasive, industrial sound design. During a 2018 interview with the digital culture magazine Arte TRACKS, she accentuated this distinct ideology when she said, “You have the possibility with electronic music to generate any texture, in theory, and any sound, so why would any musician limit themselves?” For SOPHIE, unifying sounds were synonymous with synthesizing the self, in which the physical and the digital realms amalgamate into sheer liberation.  

SOPHIE’s creation of hyperpop opened the floodgates, allowing for a plethora of transgender and gender non-conforming artists to populate the scene with a striking force. For example, Laura Les of 100 gecs took the internet by storm mid-pandemic, utilizing excessive levels of autotune and distortion to formulate a genre-bending universe that mirrored the chaotic energy of the earliest moments of social media and the digital age. Additionally, Ayesha Erotica cemented a renowned framework for 2000’s inspired electronic pop. Furthermore, Arca has continuously established herself in the electronic scene through her avant-garde approach which employs deconstructed club textures that act as a sonic representation of the visceral metamorphosis that is the human experience. Overall, these artists are not merely creators within the electronic genre, but rather, conquerors of the divinity that lies within the unknown: dysphoria, euphoria, and evolution.  

Throughout the mid-2020’s, a new generation of LGBTQ+ artists are furthering this revolution through the expansion and examination of what the new age of the digital realm is capable of. Artists such as Jane Remover and Underscores are integrating components of emo, shoegaze, and glitch into frenzied electronic landscapes, reiterating the elusive attributes that correspond with electronic music. In addition, Angel Prost of Frost Children incorporates an 8-bit inspired electroclash element to the electronic scene, while Noelle Stockwood of Femtanyl delivers an onslaught of hardcore digitized forces in terms of production. For these electronic musicians and producers, the digital audio workspace functions as a blank canvas in which no rules are applicable. While society persistently rewards conformity in terms of presentation and gender identity, the projects produced by these artists reject this urge by operating autonomously, therefore prioritizing agency over expectation.  

The influence of transgender stories and presence is no longer restricted to the underground. For instance, in 2023, Kim Petras became the first openly transgender woman to win Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the Grammy’s. The only other transgender woman in history to win a Grammy Award was Wendy Carlos in 1970 for Best Classical Album, Best Engineered Classical Recording, and Best Classical Performance, though she was not out at the time of her initial wins. Throughout Petras’s speech she dedicated the award to the transgender icons who came before her, more specifically her late friend and collaborator SOPHIE. Whether it be dominating obscure sections of SoundCloud or making historical advancements at the Grammy’s, the impact is undeniable. Transgender women aren’t solely a participant in the electronic space, they are the innovators who will unceasingly mold its future, thus converting a lighthearted internet trope into an enduring legacy.