MTF3B wk1

Issues in Contemporary Music Technology
How we listen to music - 'listening culture'



Portable music has changed the way we listened. It creates a soundtrack to life. Yet is it isolating us from our surrounding environment, or is it a way of combating the isolation of urban life? People are turning their walkmans ever louder. Does this enhance the listening or is it desensitizing us and making us oblivious to subtle/soft dynamics? The amount of listening has increased through the portablility of music, yet has this meant that the quality of listening has gone down?

Has the ability of making music becoming cheaper and easier democrasized music? Or has it simply meant that there is more music of lesser quality? At the end of the day the generic sound seems to proliferate our environment and it comes down to 'fishing' for the music which truly interests you through things like Radio Adelaide and Last FM and internet Radio sations.

Peoples attention has been diverted by multiple things and thus they aren't actively listening. A lot of us enjoy just submersing us in the music, which shows just how much we really appreciate the act of listening. However multimedia shows how much the general population enjoy multiple sensory stimulation.

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 1 – Semester 2, 2008: Listening in the Age of Technology.” Workshop presented at EMU Space, Level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 31st of July 2008.