UC Irvine

Melodies of a Sub-Subculture: Explorations of Asian American Creative Identity on the Fringe, is an examination of Asian American identity within underground music communities, as well as an investigation of the alienation and melancholia that often accompany this position. It is a practice-based dissertation that manifests in the production of an album and subsequent album release performance. The written portion of the dissertation contextualizes the creative work in a body of scholarship dealing with Asian American identity and so-called “underground” music. It examines the simultaneous openness and exclusivity of underground music scenes, and it also examines the creative and aesthetic choices made in my work as they relate to my own identity.