Annoying Music in Everyday Life

Abstract

Just as music has the power to inspire, it has the power to irritate and enrage. Why does certain music annoy us? Why does it force us to leave rooms, invade our personal space and affect us on a visceral level? Based on more than 70 interviews, this book discusses the everyday challenges of living together with unwanted music. It examines issues of taste, individual rights, private and public spaces, violence and the law. The interviews explore various relationships with forced listening and the behaviors that result. Interviewees talk about emotions and reactions to the nuisance caused by music, highlighting matters of otherness, individualism and rights. They discuss experiences with neighbors, at stores, on the street, while commuting and even in their homes - and reveal the complex social interactions mediated by music and sounds in our day-to-day lives.

AI-based soundscape analysis: Jointly identifying sound sources and predicting annoyance

“…According to the statistical results in DeLTA (Mitchell et al, 2022), the average annoyance score for clips with Music sources is 4.01, while the average annoyance score for clips without Music sources is 3.29, which implies that most of the presence of Music in DeLTA causes an increase in annoyance rather than being relaxing. Previous studies also show that there are various types of annoying music in daily life (Trotta, 2020).…”

Janelas Sonoras em Tempos de Pandemia

“…Interestingly, in another moment, this same resident received these artists on the balcony of his house where they played "for two more hours" (Bass, 1864, p. 17). This maneuver operated by a member of the neighbor demonstrates that the application of interdictions and sanctions has social limits related to power relations (Trotta, 2020). The discussion is not restricted to the universe of European countries, a similar movement takes shape on the other side of the Atlantic.…”

Gosto musical, moral e incômodos

“…É possível especular -embora seja importante destacar que se trata de especulaçãoque parte de seu desgosto por artistas pop-funk como Anitta tenha a ver com essa desavença doméstica, e possivelmente esse conflito musical esteja cercado por outros em sua parceria. A música é um elemento de conflitos domésticos, eventualmente bastante intensos (Trotta, 2020). A dimensão pessoal do gosto musical é tomada como um traço significativo na avaliação da própria relação, que em seu caso parece ser bastante tensa para ele.…”

“…As entrevistas foram realizadas no Rio de Janeiro e em Edimburgo (Escócia), no período de um estágio como pesquisador visitante. Os resultados dessa pesquisa foram publicados no livro Annoying Music in Everyday Life (Trotta, 2020) e despertaram nuances instigantes sobre a função do gosto musical nas experiências musicais classificadas como incômodas.…”