Vocal Ability and Musical Performances of Nuclear Damages in the Marshall Islands

Marshallese women from Bikini and Rongelap Atolls use 'radiation songs' to sonically represent the physical and physiological impacts of U.S. nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands (1946–1958). These compositions, analyzed through recurring motifs like disabled vocal techniques, text setting, silences, and rhetorical questioning, expose the broader cultural and structural violence of radiation exposure. The study proposes a stylistic framework that familiarizes listeners with the sonorized logic of radiation, highlighting its political significance in challenging biopolitical controls and revealing confined disability as a consequence of nuclear damage.

Schwartz, J. A. (2016). Vocal Ability and Musical Performances of Nuclear Damages in the Marshall Islands. The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies, 476–494. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199331444.013.37