Sonic Walden

For those seeking their personal Waldens in sound and solitude

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Crossing Boundaries of Noise















4. Dissonant Sounds

I
ndustrialization produced a new type of modern noise that challenged prior ways of interpreting life through one’s sonic environment. Emily Thompson (2002, 1-2) demarcates this transition as the beginning of the “soundscape of modernity,” which ultimately created a unique culture of listening that began at the turn of the 20th century. The rhythmic and dissonant sounds of industrialization began to initiate reinterpretations on personal and urban spaces (Sterne 2003).

A Log in the Ear

In the midst of the industrial revolution, consider Luigi Russolo’s Art of Noises (1913) that challenged the concept of noise as one in juxtaposition to traditional classical musical performances. In the early 1900s, he performed a series of concerts using what he called Intoners or sound machines, as he attempted to incorporate the culture of industrialization into music. He envisioned noise as the logical progression in music, as it should be expected to reflect the natural soundscapes of the era.


Ferrington (1994b, 1) describes "a human-centered soundscape" as “one most frequently characterized by the chaotic noise of our cities or the skies above.” In contrast according to Feld (1990), sound is best interpreted through a “world that is full of birds and live with their sounds” which span time and space and emerge “systematically patterned” (83-84). Sound experiences become social-political geographic events that are likely defined within personal and cultural interpretations (Forrester 2000; Schafer 1994). The people who live within a particular soundscape may comprise a sound sphere based on their common experiences.

Personal Sound Vibes

The degree to which individuals are impacted by their
soundscapes has been only minimally investigated for its influence on their world view. Mediated voices and sounds from household television sets, for instance, contribute toward a personal sonic sphere. Sound – as words, music, ambience, physical vibrations, or subconscious impressions as it exists in rural and industrial spaces – is rarely studied for its cultural significance, especially as it relates to listener perception within mainstream and oppositional spheres of influence.

Researchers investigating the role of urban noise pollution have attempted to define it scientifically, physically, socially, and economically, as well as document the impact of noise on health (i.e., sleep interruptions, mental health) in developed countries (Garcia 2001; Gitlin 2002). Noise, like sound in general, is a very subjective concept that lends itself to a multitude of cultural interpretations.

The Thin Line

Sound is evolutionary, rarely revolutionary, in this sense. Along the way, noise is merely temporary dissonance that is often commoditized and perceived as a trend by those offended (Attali 1985) until it is assimilated into the mainstream and no longer perceived as a threat. What is disturbing for some listeners might provide peace and relevancy to another group. Rap music has been both an individual and cultural means of expression that has been simultaneously criticized and lauded among cultural theorists (Mitchell 2002; Rose 1994). Adam Krims (2000) argues that rap music is relevant to cultural studies and critical theories of communication.

The discussion here suggests that we push beyond "noise" assessments of rap music in the U.S. Reggae, punk, and electronic music have significant identifiable audiences and often exist outside the public sonic sphere. McAdams (1993: 146) concurrently points out physical attributes of sound composition, as well as listeners’ behavioral responses, contribute toward shaping a sound event or experience within personal schemata: “Which associations are activated and which subsequent actions are taken depend on the local context.” At the end of the day, we begin to realize that music is only one consideration within the larger "noisy" sonic sphere of our lives.

References
*Attali, Jacques (1985), Noise: The Political Economy of Music, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
*Garcia, Amando (2001), Environmental Urban Noise, Southhampton: Computational Mechanics.
*Gitlin, Todd (2002), Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives, New York: Metropolitan Books.
*Feld, Steven (1990), Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
*Ferrington, Gary (1994b), Kids, Noise, and Orchestrating the Soundscape, Techtrends, 39 (1) (25 April 2005)
http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/wfae/readings/earlids.html
*Forrester, Michael A. (2000), Auditory Perception and Sound as Event
, Sound Journal (25 April 2005)
http://www.kent.ac.uk/sdfva/sound-journal/forrester001.html

*Krims, Adam (2000), Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity, New York:
Cambridge
University Press.
*McAdams, Stephen (1993), Recognition of Sound Sources and Events, in S. McAdams & *Emmanuel Bigand, eds., Thinking in Sound: The Cognitive Psychology of Human Audition, New York: Oxford University Press, 146-198.

*Mitchell, Tony (2002), Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
*Rose, Tricia (1994), Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary American, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
*Russolo, Luigi (1919). Art of Noises (translated 1986). New York: Pendragon.
*Schafer, R. Murray (1994), Our Sonic Environment and the Soundscape: the Tuning of the World, Rochester, NY: Destiny Books. *Sterne, Jonathan (2003), The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
*Thompson, Emily (2002), The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900-1933, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.