We’ve been tasked to keep our ears open for a week, and think about how we or people we observe “use” music. This fits in quite nicely with both a personal project of mine and with my work with Tom Jenkins for Computers for the Rest of You, so here’s a big jumbled reply.
I’m continuously fascinated with the way people use music in their daily lives — not in the sense of what their particular tastes cater to, but rather how they use it to preserve or change their mental states, block things out, facilitate experiences, and so on. I know that I personally use my headphones as a barrier — when I put them on, they close out the world, both in terms of changing what I hear and in terms of sending a message to those around me. Standing on a subway, you can see an army of people doing this, especially during the rush hour times when people are packed in like sardines. As a Jersey City resident, taking an 8 a.m. train is very different from 11 a.m. — the 8 is packed solid, dead quiet, and usually filled with people providing their own music for themselves. The 11 is usually open, and the people seem less likely to have headphones on. The streets seem about the same during those times.
I took particular note of what was being played when I went into stores and restaurants, and how it affected people’s behaviors while there. Upbeat music at the corner store kept me moving quickly and out the door, unobtrusive radio rock music at the pizza place did the same. Bad dance remixes at Apple Bar made me feel awkward, while the great D.C.-sound mix at Revival really got me in the mood to talk to people. Radiohead covers at Think made me put my headphones back in.
I also choose what I’m listening to according to the task I’m facing. If I’m going to be working on something that requires writing, I’ll put on instrumental and electronic music; if I’m going to be soldering and building, it’s usually energetic breakbeat or rock with strong drums; if I’m happy and it’s nice out, it might be reggae or acoustic music; if I’m hung over and sleepy, it’ll likely be sleepy-sounding bands as well. This week I pretty much followed this pattern: I wrote blog entries playing Pele and Mogwai, I worked on my Conflux installation while blasting Evil Nine and Hybrid, I played Third World and Easy Star All-Stars on the weekend and The National early Sunday morning.
I’ve personally never been a person who could listen to music while trying to sleep (I always end up paying attention to the songs too much) or wake up to music (I hate mornings, and don’t like cross-referencing music with being grumpy), but I know many people who do. One of my roommates when I was an undergrad would fall asleep with the stereo on every night — usually blasting something really heavy and rhythmic. When I asked him about it, he noted the bands that he’d play: Tool, A Perfect Circle, Deftones — all very drum-heavy. For him, it put him in a proper mental pattern to sleep. I wish it worked for me.
But what I’m most amused by is the symphony I participate in on my way in and out of the city each day. It’s not just when the music in your ears syncs with the city (and I swear, the whole world locked in with Enon’s Hocus Pocus one day the week before last), but how you adjust your footsteps to lock in with music you hear, how the cars passing blast songs that blend into one (good or bad) soup of sound, how the construction gives a beat to the dog walker’s daily route. I really hope to explore that more this semester.
However, back to point, what I’m very interested in at the moment is what we’re letting ourselves miss — what we’re blocking out as we cruise through the city, how we’re walling ourselves against the noise. To address this, firstly I have the wonderful fortune to show off a project of mine which explores this at Conflux this weekend (all the blah about that here), which essentially seeks to call attention to the sounds you’re missing at night. Secondly I’m working with Tom Jenkins to study the levels and quality of sound that you ignore during the day, record the data (the levels, not the actual audio) for a few days, and then try to visualize it, especially with the addition of additional sensors (photocells, accelerometers, heartrate sensors, etc). I think that’ll bring up a lot of interesting points.
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