Sonic geographies

Abstract

Research into the geographies of sound and music has developed over the last 20 years, yet such work largely remains reliant on conventional verbal-textual methods of data collection and dissemination. In this paper we conduct a review of current approaches to sonic research, demonstrating that the erasure of audio media within geography silences a rich seam of empirical data. As a result, we propose that phonographic methods-including listening, audio recording, and playback-need to be developed further. We consider a range of epistemological implications of phonographic methods, and possible future directions for their development in human geography.

Music Geographies and Iconic Music Legends: Mapping Céline Dion’s Outstanding Contribution to Music and Global Popular Music Culture

“…To portray Dion's music and to understand its meanings and messages, discography and videography analysis (with English and French versions) helped with careful consideration of the messages that the artist has attempted to convey to her global audience. Therefore, phonographic methods through listening investigation, songs research and lyric analysis -as suggested by Carney (1998b), Gallagher and Prior (2014), Gallagher et al (2017) -provided important information. 7 This helped in understanding how this iconic music legend gained her unique international music stardom mirrored in the outstanding contribution of the artist to global popular music culture and in the musical meanings of her performances.…”

Problematizing Sound Methods Through Music Research-Creation: Oblique Curiosities

“…More recently, sound scholars have drawn from the theoretical possibilities of the feminist new materialisms (e.g., Thompson, 2017b). Concomitantly, a broader interest in the ontological turn has explored sound as affective (e.g., Clough, 2013;Gallagher, 2016;Gershon, 2013;Henriques, 2010;Thompson, 2017a;Thompson & Biddle, 2013); more-than-(e.g., Truman & Shannon, 2018) or nonrepresentational (e.g., Gallagher & Prior, 2014); in excess of, or more-than-, human (e.g., Scrimshaw, 2013); and as ontological vibration (e.g., Gershon, 2017;Goodman, 2010).…”

Dissonance: scientific paradigms underpinning the study of sound in geography

“…He distinguished between cyclical natural rhythms and linear capitalist rhythms, arguing that the former have been progressively substituted by the latter with the aid of modern technologies. His views on the relation between rhythm and social structures have been criticized for its rigidity (Simpson 2008), yet some authors still found his insights on the relation between body, rhythm, and power valid (Edensor 2010;Tiwari 2010;Reid-Musson 2017). While Lefebvre's writings seem to have had a considerable impact on geographies of sound shortly after his work was translated into English (e.g.…”

“…Since Rodaway's discussion, the term 'sonic geography' seems to have become more common in the Anglophone community (e.g. Matless 2005;Boland 2010;Boyd & Duffy 2012;Gallagher & Prior 2014), but the term 'listening geographies' also emerged (Gallagher et al 2017), meaning roughly the same as what Rodaway meant by aural geographies.…”

“…For this reason, while there have been significant theorisations of sound in geography in the last years (Gallagher & Prior 2014;Doughty et al 2016;Revill 2016;Gallagher et al 2017), there is still no significant discussion to how sound has been conceived throughout the discipline's history. In order to tackle this issue, in this article, I approach the different conceptions of sound -and its relations to the underlying scientific paradigms -that emerged through the history of geography.…”