High-octave soprano to auto-tuned rapper: Item numbers and technologies of sonic eroticism

Abstract

Abstract The item number, a microfilmic musical form, has been shaped by a wide range of intersecting influences: the fashion industry, music video culture and the 24/7 music television format introduced with globalization in India. The name item number (a special song and dance sequence) is probably derived from the term ‘item’ (nowadays used for petite gay men as well), the Bombaiya equivalent of the slang ‘looker’, the worst way of objectifying a human body by disintegrating it into individual units (items). Item numbers tend to be big budget productions, like stand-alone attractions that are staged to have a life independent of the narrative. The production economy for these dances is intricately designed with a special focus on sets, costumes, make-up, digital technologies for lighting, music, cinematography and editing. The identifying marker of an item number is the way in which it foregrounds the body as a sexualized force. In this article, I locate the sensual affect of the item number in its sonic template. DJs, rappers, playback sopranos and mixing engineers are the assembling figures of this article. While questions of new media technologies, in terms of lip-syncing and digital mixing battles, form the vortex of enquiry here, cultural references to the gender and sexual charge of the voices are equally significant. I argue that the technical matrices of its circulation, sound amplification and the performative force of the item number conjure a new sonic ecology that heightens the wildness that is associated with its loud sound. The article also enquires into censorship debates that frame this sonic eroticism.