Looking for Scholarly Research Related to Looksmaxxing and Music

[Benjamin Avenue]

Hi everyone,

I am writing a research paper for a college pop music seminar, and I thought it'd be interesting to do a deep dive on the popular music related to looksmaxxing and its effects on perceived confidence, attractiveness, and exactly why certain songs rose to prominence over others. My exact research question is:
What is the role of popular music in the looksmaxxing phenomenon, and what are the underlying mechanisms involved in this relationship?

Some of the staple example songs I've included in this research paper are:
SUICIDAL-IDOL: ecstasy (2023)
Lumi Athena: ICEWHORE! (2023)
Clovis Reyes: Fluxxwave (2023)
Punkinloveee, H3artcrush: Freak Show (2020)
akiaura, LONOWN, STM: Sleepwalker (2023)
Britney Manson: FΛSHION (2023)

These songs are all very much in the realm of what I would consider "popular music", as they've amassed millions upon millions of streams on streaming platforms.

I am wondering if anybody has any pertinent scholarly articles they could send my way related to looksmaxxing and the music of looksmaxxing in some way. From my own research, all I've found in regards to the looksmaxxing angle specifically is mostly negative takes relating to inceldom, the sigma male ideology, toxic masculinity, the alt right, etc. The thesis of my research paper (so far) is that music can positively impact perceptions of confidence and attractiveness, and music popular in the looksmaxxing communtiy in particular can be more helpful than other forms/genres because it fosters a sense of community. I am therefore trying to paint looksmaxxing and the music of looksmaxxing in a positive light. As an avid follower of the looksmaxxing community myself, I might have some internal bias in asserting this thesis, and so I would like to include more articles of others' works on the subject. These articles don't necessarily have to be related to looksmaxxing or the music of looksmaxxing per say, they can be about a wide range of topics, i.e. fashion, runway music (which I believe has a direct correlation with looksmaxxing), other forms of popular music (hyperpop, nightcore, house, specific genres popular to the community), the sigma male ideology (which I believe looksmaxxing very much arose out of), psychological, anthropological, or sociological studies pertaining to facial attractiveness or popular music, relationships between music and attractiveness, etc. etc. I am not only trying to tie together the already available research on music, fashion, beauty, aesthetics, and culture in general to looksmaxxing, which is a relatively new and unresearched phenomenon, but also fill in these gaps which are lacking in scholarly research. If you guys have any good scholarly articles, please send them my way, it would help me out incredibly. As some examples, here are a few sources I've already picked out:

D’Errico, Mike. 2015. “Electronic Dance Music in the Dubstep Era.” Oxford Handbooks Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935321.013.74.

Marin, Manuela M, Raphaela Schober, Bruno Gingras, and Helmut Leder. 2017. “Misattribution of Musical Arousal Increases Sexual Attraction towards Opposite-Sex Faces in Females.” PLOS ONE 12, no. 9. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183531.

May, J.L., Hamilton, P.A. 1980. “Effects of musically evoked affect on women's interpersonal attraction toward and perceptual judgments of physical attractiveness of men.” Motiv Emot 4, 217–228. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00995420

Schaap, Julian, Michaël Berghman, and Thomas Calkins. 2022. “Attractive People Make Better Music? How Gender and Perceived Attractiveness Affect the Evaluation of Electronic Dance Music Artists.” Empirical Studies of the Arts 41, no. 1: 284–303. https://doi.org/10.1177/02762374221118526.

I am also reading Foucault's The History of Sexuality, Volume 3: "The Care of the Self", but won't be citing it directly in my paper as it's a lengthy and extremely dense theoretical work.

Thanks in advance!

 

[IAMNOTANINCEL]

devastatingly brutal no reply pill

 

[LancasteR]

bye bye!

 

[scrunchables]

Don't know how to help with that since I don't really keep up with that kind of stuff, but good luck on that.

 

[StrangerDanger]

Don't have any research except from own experience but it happend quick, only the few years prior PSL started to develop a common taste in music with songs like these that captured the brutality of the blackpill and all the recent songs you mentioned have just spiraled on very recently. Probably began with Lady Gaga as her lyrics perfectly portrays all these male archetypes and her music has a certain melody. I don't think the aim is to promote confidence/attractiveness it just captures the aesthetic, similarly to how sigma/feels/hyperborean edits etc have a certain music style

 

[NoReedemingFeature]

There really isn't a culture about looksmaxing, and it didn't arise from an earlier trend. It's a continuation of ideas formed on small forums related to "red pill" talk.
You can read incel wiki if you care about the history, particularly the PSL page.
The ideas that formed later on these forums were later (around 2021 period) spread to a larger audience by people like AstroSky, Brae, a bunch of face analysing channels, people that posted clips, memes, etc.
Then around 2022 is when "looksmaxxing" first gained notoriety on tiktok due to people like SyrianPsycho, Curlyheadjames and the songs he made, and a bunch of other tiktokers I don't know the name of.

 

[Gigatyrone69]

Hi everyone,

I am writing a research paper for a college pop music seminar, and I thought it'd be interesting to do a deep dive on the popular music related to looksmaxxing and its effects on perceived confidence, attractiveness, and exactly why certain songs rose to prominence over others. My exact research question is:
What is the role of popular music in the looksmaxxing phenomenon, and what are the underlying mechanisms involved in this relationship?

Some of the staple example songs I've included in this research paper are:
SUICIDAL-IDOL: ecstasy (2023)
Lumi Athena: ICEWHORE! (2023)
Clovis Reyes: Fluxxwave (2023)
Punkinloveee, H3artcrush: Freak Show (2020)
akiaura, LONOWN, STM: Sleepwalker (2023)
Britney Manson: FΛSHION (2023)

These songs are all very much in the realm of what I would consider "popular music", as they've amassed millions upon millions of streams on streaming platforms.

I am wondering if anybody has any pertinent scholarly articles they could send my way related to looksmaxxing and the music of looksmaxxing in some way. From my own research, all I've found in regards to the looksmaxxing angle specifically is mostly negative takes relating to inceldom, the sigma male ideology, toxic masculinity, the alt right, etc. The thesis of my research paper (so far) is that music can positively impact perceptions of confidence and attractiveness, and music popular in the looksmaxxing communtiy in particular can be more helpful than other forms/genres because it fosters a sense of community. I am therefore trying to paint looksmaxxing and the music of looksmaxxing in a positive light. As an avid follower of the looksmaxxing community myself, I might have some internal bias in asserting this thesis, and so I would like to include more articles of others' works on the subject. These articles don't necessarily have to be related to looksmaxxing or the music of looksmaxxing per say, they can be about a wide range of topics, i.e. fashion, runway music (which I believe has a direct correlation with looksmaxxing), other forms of popular music (hyperpop, nightcore, house, specific genres popular to the community), the sigma male ideology (which I believe looksmaxxing very much arose out of), psychological, anthropological, or sociological studies pertaining to facial attractiveness or popular music, relationships between music and attractiveness, etc. etc. I am not only trying to tie together the already available research on music, fashion, beauty, aesthetics, and culture in general to looksmaxxing, which is a relatively new and unresearched phenomenon, but also fill in these gaps which are lacking in scholarly research. If you guys have any good scholarly articles, please send them my way, it would help me out incredibly. As some examples, here are a few sources I've already picked out:

D’Errico, Mike. 2015. “Electronic Dance Music in the Dubstep Era.” Oxford Handbooks Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935321.013.74.

Marin, Manuela M, Raphaela Schober, Bruno Gingras, and Helmut Leder. 2017. “Misattribution of Musical Arousal Increases Sexual Attraction towards Opposite-Sex Faces in Females.” PLOS ONE 12, no. 9. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183531.

May, J.L., Hamilton, P.A. 1980. “Effects of musically evoked affect on women's interpersonal attraction toward and perceptual judgments of physical attractiveness of men.” Motiv Emot 4, 217–228. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00995420

Schaap, Julian, Michaël Berghman, and Thomas Calkins. 2022. “Attractive People Make Better Music? How Gender and Perceived Attractiveness Affect the Evaluation of Electronic Dance Music Artists.” Empirical Studies of the Arts 41, no. 1: 284–303. https://doi.org/10.1177/02762374221118526.

I am also reading Foucault's The History of Sexuality, Volume 3: "The Care of the Self", but won't be citing it directly in my paper as it's a lengthy and extremely dense theoretical work.

Thanks in advance!

Dnrd niga

 

[smallman]

SUICIDAL-IDOL: ecstasy (2023)
Lumi Athena: ICEWHORE! (2023)
Clovis Reyes: Fluxxwave (2023)
Punkinloveee, H3artcrush: Freak Show (2020)
akiaura, LONOWN, STM: Sleepwalker (2023)
Britney Manson: FΛSHION (2023)

These came from tiktok