Sounds Ability to Enhance Entertainment
Recently for the first time last Friday I attended a Blue Jays game and even though it wasn't at full capacity as an avid sports fan it brought me into a realm of sound which i dearly missed. This past week our class read the "The Walkman Effect" by Hosokawa, it focused primarily o the sound experience one gets from listening to music through headphones. One of the main quotes from the reading was that, "When we listen to the beat of our body... the surface tension of the skin loses its balancing function through which it activates the interpretation of the self and the world" (Hosokawa, 113). Illuminating that sound can allow individuals to leave their own body and feel on within that moment outside the physical world.
Now even though when you attend a sporting event one won't be listing to it over headphones, but I would argue that an individual can still experience sound that releases them from the physical world. Take this as an example, it's a video of Blue Jay's Star Shortstop Bo Bichette hitting a go-ahead homerun in a crucial game down the stretch run this season.
In a scenario where the was no fans presence would the energy in the stadium be the same? Listen to sound closely in the video... How does that make you feel? Because as a fan at that game, I felt as if I was part of the Blue Jays team over filled with excitement and joy allowing my body to leave the physical world and experience a sensation that I could not get through a television. In my opinion on, sound allows individuals to fully feel a well rounded experience of an event driven by audience noise. Providing individuals an experience, which strictly visually is not he same without that background noise presence at that moment in time.
Great post! As an avid sports fan as well, this concept is one I also find interesting. To take your idea a step further, this sort of influence on the human body and psyche is so evident that in the midst of sports facilities just starting to open up after COVID's first few waves, professional sports arenas began simulating the noises you've described from crowds and sport environments in order to stimulate that scene. Taking away those sounds inherently takes away a significant element of the game that is often under-looked; emotion, adrenaline, etc.
ReplyDeleteHi Anthony,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree and resonate with your sonic experience and now lack there of. Being Jamaican and a lover of the track and field sport go hand in hand. Even though Jamaica did so well in the Olympics this year, the experience was not nearly the same for us Jamaicans at home. The Olympic trials were done without spectators which forced us all to watch from our televisions, smartphones and laptops. The experience that us Jamaicans usually have around the Olympics time is one like no other, which sound plays a huge part of. I encourage you to watch this video of one of the biggest races in the history of Jamaican track and field: https://youtu.be/SWx-S7iY024
In Jamaica, we have this sound device called a vuvuzela which is like a horn (heard in the background of the video) and it is sold and utilized at events such as stage shows and sporting events but it most used at sporting events. It is so widely used at every sporting event that when I hear the sound, it automatically makes me feel as if I am at the stadium watching the races. Sometimes when a race is not being run and the crowd is bored, we create beats with it and the whole stadium will be doing it even when we do not even know each other. It is just a part of the sonic experience of going to watch the races. The reading by Paul Jansen also speaks to this concept of a sonic experience where each human body in that space can just be taken over and filled with emotion (joy in this instance) as we all congregate for the purpose of supporting our athletes while being entertained. This sonic experience goes beyond the surface of a 'horn sound' but it unites us in a way like no other. Violence is so very prevalent in Jamaica but when it comes on to going to the stadium and supporting our athletes and blowing the vuvuzela, you almost forget about the fact that our stadium is located in one of the most violent ghettoes in our capital city. During a popular race like the one seen in the link I've attached, some spectators are brought to tears, which is obviously not because of the sound of the horn but because of the whole experience - the peanut man selling peanut and candy and soda, the sound of the vuvuzela and people cheering on their favorite athletes and seeing an athlete who you know has went through trials and tribulations win a race and make it to the Olympics. The whole sonic environment is so unique and multi faceted and the entire experience is like no other, I can't imagine it without certain sounds.
I really enjoyed your take on Hosokawa's writings on the walkman in relation to sporting events. I think there are some interesting things to consider when talking about this. In terms of your connection of sound to sports, I agree that certain events, and more importantly, the sounds of them, can completely remove a being from their physical surrounds and transport them to a new dimension of sound. However, I don't think this is exactly what Hosowaka is getting at in terms of his writing of the Walkman. I think we can more broadly look at the concept of the soundscape as discussed by Schafer. Here is think is exactly where he reach Schafers point of improving the world soundscape through the appreciation of the auditory. Environmental sound needs to hold great importance. The soundscape that surrounds us can be considered a musical composition. Under these ideas, I think it is easy to understand how the auditory experience of sporting events can make up its entire composition. When you talk about audiences and the importance of their sound, I believe that this is what you can consider a vital part of the soundscape of a particular event. The audience, the sounds of the players, the MC blasting over the speakers, and the music playing in between plays are all elements of the soundscape that encompasses any particular sporting event.
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