Des del punt de vista de la tradició occidental, els primers exemples d'aquest art inclouen Luigi Russolo i la seva família d'instruments musicals intonarumori, i els experiments que a continuació va realitzar el dadaisme, el surrealisme i el situacionisme.[3]
Álvarez-Fernández, Miguel. 2009. "Panorama del arte sonoro y la música experimental en la Península Ibérica / Outlook on Sound Art and Experimental Music at the Iberian Peninsula", in Experimentaclub – LIMb0: proyecto iberoamericano de intercambio artístico y cooperación cultural, Javier Piñango and Jorge Haro (eds.), Madrid: Experimentaclub, pp. 53-64. ISBN 978-987-25783-0-5.
Attali, Jacques. 1985. Noise: The Political Economy of Music, translated by Brian Massumi, foreword by Fredric Jameson, afterword by Susan McClary. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-1286-2 (cloth) ISBN 0-8166-1287-0 (pbk.)
Bandt, Ros. 2001. Sound Sculpture: Intersections in Sound and Sculpture in Australian Artworks. Sydney: Craftsman House. ISBN 1-877004-02-2.
Barber, Llorenç and Montserrat Palacios. 2010. La mosca tras la oreja: de la música experimental al arte sonoro en España. Madrid: Fundación Autor. ISBN 978-8480488150.
Cage, John. 1961. "Silence: Lectures and Writings". Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. (Paperbak reprint edition 1973, ISBN 0819560286)
Cox, Christoph. 2003. "Return to Form: Christoph Cox on Neo-modernist Sound Art—Sound—Column." Artforum (November): [pages].
Cox, Christoph. 2009. "Sound Art and the Sonic Unconscious". Organised Sound 14, no. 1:19–26.
Cox, Christoph, and Daniel Warner (eds.). 2004. Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. New York: Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-1615-5.
Drobnick, Jim (ed.). 2004. Aural Cultures. Toronto: YYZ Books; Banff: Walter Phillips Gallery Editions. ISBN 0-920397-80-8.
Hellerman, William, and Don Goddard. 1983. Catalogue for "Sound/Art" at The Sculpture Center, New York City, May 1–30, 1983 and BACA/DCC Gallery June 1–30, 1983.
Iges, José (ed.) 2012. Ars sonora, 25 años: una experiencia de arte sonoro en radio. Madrid: Fundación Autor. ISBN 978-8480488440.
Kahn, Douglas. 2001. Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-61172-4
Kim-Cohen, Seth. 2009. In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art. New York: Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-2971-1
LaBelle, Brandon. 2006. Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art. New York and London: The Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-1844-9 (cloth) ISBN 0-8264-1845-7 (pbk)
Lander, Dan, and Micah Lexier (eds.). 1990. Sound by Artists. Toronto: Art Metropole/Walter Phillips Gallery.
Licht, Alan. 2007. Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories (with accompanying compact disc recording). New York: Rizzoli International Publications. ISBN 0-8478-2969-3
Lucier, Alvin, and Douglas Simon. 1980. Chambers. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-5042-6.
Nechvatal, Joseph. 2000. "Towards a Sound Ecstatic Electrónica". The Thing.
Wishart, Trevor. 1996. On Sonic Art, new and revised edition, edited by Simon Emmerson (with accompanying compact disc recording). Contemporary Music Studies 12. Ámsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers. ISBN 3-7186-5846-1 (cloth) ISBN 3-7186-5847-X (pbk.) ISBN 3-7186-5848-8 (CD recording)