‘Tuning Out' or ‘Tuning in'? Mobile Music Listening and Intensified Encounters with the City

Abstract

Mobile music listening has become an increasingly pervasive part of urban life. Yet it represents an area of enquiry with which urban studies scholars have yet to engage meaningfully. This essay considers the role of mobile music devices in creating new sonic, emotional and social interactions with and within the city. While academic work in this area has emphasized the use of these devices as a 'tuning out' of the physicality of the city, we suggest that they might also be used as part of a 'tuning in' that enhances the meaning and intensity of engagements with the city. In making this case, the essay considers two areas of academic enquiry that highlight the use of mobile music devices in intensified engagements with the city: first, recent writing on the sonic ecologies of the city that emphasize 'city sounds' as part of the urban experience; and secondly, recent advances in the field of urban computing that provide technologies for location-aware music exchanges and mediated social interactions. The essay emphasizes mobile music listening as one area of critical enquiry that can help develop our understanding of the ways in which the pervasiveness of mobile devices is recalibrating the experience of urban spatiality.

Soundtracking the Public Space: Outcomes of the Musikiosk Soundscape Intervention

“…Enabling this study, technological developments of the last decade or two allow listeners to carry their musical choices “in their pocket” and to engage in mobile music listening behaviors in the ephemeral and personalized auditory private spaces delineated by headphones, usually in the context of physical public spaces. These new forms of engagement with urban public through mobile music listening subvert existing norms of social behavior by allowing public space users to control their own auditory experience on site and in real time [97,98]. Given the ample evidence on the effect of music over sociability and loitering behaviors in public spaces (e.g., [26,97,98,99,100,101]), control over music in a public context becomes “a source of social power” [102] (p. 20).…”

“…These new forms of engagement with urban public through mobile music listening subvert existing norms of social behavior by allowing public space users to control their own auditory experience on site and in real time [97,98]. Given the ample evidence on the effect of music over sociability and loitering behaviors in public spaces (e.g., [26,97,98,99,100,101]), control over music in a public context becomes “a source of social power” [102] (p. 20). Therefore, these behaviors are particularly interesting in light of increased controls set in place in highly monitored public spaces, where rules are continuously created to prohibit a growing list of such behaviors considered disruptive (including playing amplified music in public).…”

On the Move: Principal Components of the Functions and Experiences of Mobile Music Listening

“…On the other hand, music may also complement or intensify the perception of the environment, leading to enhanced attention (Gram, 2013; Simun, 2009). Taken together, the functions and qualities of aestheticization among mobile users are still debated (e.g., Beer, 2007; Prior, 2014; Watson & Drakeford-Allen, 2017).…”

Sonic geographies: Themes, concepts, and deaf spots

“…Instead, they argue that the use of these technologies must be understood both as a part of the sonic ecology of the city and as a device that aids individuals to modulate their experience of the urban sound, its meaning and intensity, instead of denying it. Watson and Drakeford‐Allen () concur with these arguments and have added the insight that technologies for location‐aware music exchanges and mediated social interactions can provide significant data to assess the relation between mobile music listening and place. Another significant line of works in music has been the relation of sound and place in spaces of musical performance.…”