It is increasingly evident that popular music is utilized or appropriated as a point of reference in the works of various contemporary sound artists. Not only are artists sampling visual, material and sonic elements of popular music culture, they are doing so with an unprecedented awareness of issues within the sonic realm. To analyze the use of popular music materials in sound-based art, this MRP examines works by Dave Dyment, Laurel Woodcock and Christof Migone, three contemporary artists currently based in Toronto. In addition to negotiating critical issues in the field of sound, the artists represent the audible through
various media and modes of perception. Dyment, Migone and Woodcock employ practices of sampling, appropriation and assemblage to probe popular music’s visual, material, textual and sonic composition, as well as to raise questions regarding issues of consumerism, identity and affect in culture at large.