CS640K-Sound, Aurality, and Power: An Introduction to Sound Studies

  After reading the Henriques chapter on MCs in the Jamaican sound systems, the first person that came to mind was the man in the image, Bishop Escobar. He is not aligned with any particular sound system and he works with many, he's arguable the most popular MC in dancehall from about 2018 until now. He is known for his raunchy lyrics, comedic comments, the loudness and bass of his voice, and the antics he carries on with in the dance. In my opinion, he made the job of an MC of greater importance in dancehall, so much so that he is now signed under Romeich Entertainment. He is the only MC that Romiech manages and is the only MC that I know of, who has formal management. Here is a video of him at work  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N_D3ubXTcQ&t=93s Henriques mentions that the MC is most time not in the video light however that is no longer the case. Most, if not all MCs that I have seen since 2016 until now, have been in the video light as much as the selector and the da...

When talking about sound reproduction, I found the concepts of stereo listening and the aural blindspot extremely interesting. I really enjoyed the ways the  Krukowski  discusses these topics as they explain things that occur to us everyday but don't often think of. We unconsciously engage in these activities everyday but don't think twice about how or why they occur. Particularly, with stereo listening, localization provides humans with the ability differentiate what we hear through each ear. This allows us to locate sounds and focus on a particular sound out of many. This concept brought me back to a particular type of music that was popular at a time when I was younger. As I know now, it is called 8D audio in which you are prompted to put on your headphones and hear the music through each ear. What makes this particular type of audio so special is that it takes a certain sound track and manipulates it so that certain sounds of the track a particular sound at a particular ti...

The discussions around soundscape kept me thinking about how difference and diversity can make us feel entire places strange or near to us. In another blog post, I commented how weird it felt to be in Canada and not hear any sound on the streets. The peace and quietness that a person from Bogotá, Colombia, felt almost depressing in the first days.  Steingo (2017) was right when he said that soundscape experiences are totally different worldwide, and definitively, some vibrations can make us feel powerfully close to what we know. In Bogotá and other places in Colombia, 'noise' as most people have named it, is crucial to understand the aural public sphere (Ochoa, 2012). There are street vendors, street musicians, people talking loudly, and all kinds of sounds that immediately can transport me to my home country.  I found a video on Youtube that shows how diverse the range of sounds is in one street in Bogotá. To me is familiar, but as some authors have noted, it could be strange...

      While I was reading Paul Jasen on the 'sonic bodies,' I remembered the process of doing my thesis in my undergrad years. I remember I was so excited to work with music. I have been surrounded by music my entire life, and in those years, independent bands and groups were growing all around Bogotá. It was pretty exciting to see how these collectives and clusters started to grow as an invitation to challenge the 'majors' and the corporate dynamics behind the music and its creative process.  I look back and wish I had discovered Jasen's reading before. My research question was focused on the reasons behind the rapid growth in this independent dynamics while in Colombia, and specifically, in Bogotá, it was very challenging to afford a living while making music. Some people took it as a creative outlet, but most of them believed they could make it and keep far from the corporate stuff.  While doing my research and going to all kinds of venues, concerts, and 'toq...

Our discussions related to Henriques and Jasen’s work on ‘sonic bodies’ caused me to reflect on my own sonic body experience that I endure frequently as a bartender at ‘The Drink’ in Uptown Waterloo. Anisha’s blog post called Sonic Dominance and her reflection on Waterloo nightlife in relation to DJs and music inspired me to write this post.  Jasen and Henriques emphasize how bass and frequency affect our physical responses and emotional state through a transitory, corporeal, and irreplicable sonic experience. Specifically, Henriques emphasis on the sonic body experience of dancehall sessions created by the sound crew and voicing techniques of the emcees caused me to think about the power this holds in the nightclub scene in terms of bringing in and retaining guests each night.  One of the most recent additions we have added to The Drink experience is live instrument performances and dancers that work in tandem with our DJs and emcees. The initial reason why we added these ad...

 One reoccurring theme we've talked about and analyzed throughout the course of the semester is that of nostalgia and the feelings and memories a particular piece of music can ignite within us. For example, in Anthony's blog post "Sound Ability to Enhance Entertainment,"  he discusses how he recently experienced going to a live sports event since the lockdowns lifted and how this experience and the sounds of a live sporting event triggered fond memories of other live sporting events he's attended. Similarly, in Anisha's blog post "Sonic Dominance"  she discusses a song she listened to while at a dancehall senssion and that ever since, whenever she hears that song play it triggers good feelings and memories of that night.  I know for myself personally there are many songs and sounds that trigger different feelings and remind me of different memories to the point where I've created different playlists on my Spotify to trigger specific moods and to ...

    In Henriques' writing about sonic bodies, one of the concepts I found most compelling was of sonic dominance. As I was reading his descriptions of the examples of sonic dominance, I could almost feel it myself. I felt that I have been in so many situations where I have experienced sonic dominance but never had the word for it. It was also extremely interesting to see it from the point of view of Dancehall.      The first thing that came to mind for me was of an experience I had in Cuba during a dancehall session. I remember actually being able to feel the vibrations throughout my body; actually moving through me and making me dance to the frequencies. This was something I had never experienced before and made me feel things through sound that I didn't really know were possible. It was an unreal experience that lived on with me and one that I often go back to as such an immersive experience. The song that was playing during this particular moment was called "...

       Radio for centuries has been a form of communication. However, prior to the evolution of the world wide web, radio as per Sabine Breitsameter was viewed as a one way communicated practice. As “one sends and many receive” this was also known as broadcasting and if individuals didn’t have access to a radio station depending on a variety of factors, they could miss out on important news items, world updates and political views.       The internet has now revolutionized that creating a realm which radio can be viewed as a multi-user space. Where “many communicate with many” as a form of a two-way median according to Breitsameter. Streaming radio online has opened the door to anyone, anywhere with simply the proper headwear and software to create a podcast of their own. Essentially anyone with a creative mind and the proper tools can have a radio station which publishes audio content online.       What I found most interestin...

  Hey everyone! A big theme that we've discussed throughout the course of this class is the comparison between modern technology in the digital era to the original forms of that technology and the impacts this has on society.  Several weeks ago, I presented on the Ling reading titled "It's not your desire that decides": The Reciprocal Expectations of Mobile Telephone  which centred around the experiences and views of individuals who grew up with a landline telephone compared to individuals who only grew up in the mobile phone era. What I found interesting about this reading was how great the cultural differences were between people who grew up with landlines compared to those that did not and how only experiencing life with a cell phone created various expectations and cultural norms.  Ling specifically emphasized how people growing up with only mobile phones have a greater dependency on their phone and desire to stay connected within the digital world claiming that ...

           The way individuals listen, understand, and interact with music has seen a massive shift in landscape over the years. That shift has evolved as technology has developed. Earlier in the course we looked at scholars such as Hosokawa and Bull which both emphasized devices which kicked started a digital music revolution in the iPod and the Walkman. Both forms of technology have the power to play music through headphones.  As a class we also have had discussions in lecture, through presentations and over the blog about potential benefits of these devices, such as the ability to listen to music anywhere at any time allowing your body to feel an inner body sensation from the music itself. As well as the concern that they create the ability for individuals to self-isolated from the world, formulating a world which doesn’t encourage interaction. Furthermore, Damon Krukowski goes into more detail about the Digital Music Revolution in his book “The N...

Since we've been studying Julian Henriques and Reggae music for the past two weeks, I've been wondering what Reggae music is like in China. Therefore,  I searched and collected some materials; I think this may offer you a cross-cultural communication angle. Reggae music is definitely niche music in China, but in a country with such a vast population, even a niche implies that you will meet many people who share your interests.  Three fundamental points define Chinese viewers' comprehension of reggae: relaxed; Jamaican; off-beat. For the Chinese audience,  Reggae music moves at a snail's pace. The BPM (Beats Per Minute) ranges from 80 and 100, making it appropriate for relaxing music. And  Reggae music is commonly regarded as one of Jamaica's emblems. Furthermore, off-beat is believed as the most distinctive feature of reggae music for Chinese listeners. Reggae is off-beat with a shuffle rhythm.  In Reggae, Eighth notes are frequently employed, and bass is used a...

Paul Jasen’s work on bass, frequency, and the ‘sonic body’ has personally been one of the most fascinating readings in our CS640 course for me this term. Most notably, this is because he introduces the bodily sensational aspect of the sonic experience rather than how many authors focus solely on the textual or cultural significance of sound. Jasen’s fascination with the existence of the bodily vibrational force that bass and frequency emit ties perfectly with our earlier readings, like Stephen Goodman’s work on ‘sonic warfare’ and Bull and Hosokawa’s work on the transcendent experience and cerebral escape that music can create.  Specifically, I’d love to discuss a personal interest of mine: sound/singing bowl music, because it perfectly embodies the power of frequency as a bodily healing, vibrational force. For context, singing bowls, also known as Tibetan singing bowls, are used to promote healing including deep relaxation and bodily regeneration like relieving pain in joints, our...

The embedding of Mobile communication into society Rich Ling's article talks at length about the infusion of the mobile phone into the fabric of society.  Ling spoke of the psychological dimension of the mobile phone, as well as the rapidity by which they became mainstream.  One key argument that is perhaps beyond the scope of Ling's paper but still very central to the reason for the infusion of the mobile phone in the very fabric of society is the present Neo-Liberal economic employment mode. The present economic model which is based upon contractual, temporary employment and gig work are all hallmarks of the neo-liberal framework. Platforms such as TaskRabbit, and UBER, to name a few owe their success to the availability and ubiquitous of mobile devices in general and to the mobile phone in particular. It can be argued that the cell phone not only has a social dimension as in the case of Fisher's landline, a psychological dimension as in the case of Ling but also an econo...

     The last concert I went to before the pandemic hit was Neon Indian back in November of 2019. It was a great night, the show was great, Neon Indian preformed an extended version of Slumlord and played some music that was to be on his new album (which is still not out yet...). I had multiple other shows lined up (Roger Waters, Sloan, D.O.A., and a local experimental music festival back home) and then of course the pandemic hit. It was experiencing this loss for the first time that I realized the importance of the physicality of sound. This was not just in terms of the concerts, but in terms of the experiencing the world. The first bit of COVID-19 was extremely secluded, the rare time I remember going out for groceries there was no one around, less new sounds were being created. Sterne argues in Sonic Imaginations that more new sounds are being created then ever before, but at the beginning of the pandemic it slowed down to an incredible degree, or at least the publicit...

Hi everyone. I came across an interesting question that I’ve been thinking about while answering one of Hannah’s posts regarding “Dancehall Culture and Ties to African culture/Heritage”. In an attempt to help illustrate the significance of historical context to the (re)performance aspect involved in experiences of sonic dominance and the sonic body that we have discussed thus far, I related the collective performing experience of dancehall sessions to ball culture of New York throughout the late 1900s. I will copy and paste a paragraph from that previous post describing the premise of the ball culture for context, and then I would like to pose a question that I am interested in hearing opinions from everyone.  “Paris is Burning, 1990 (link here https://watchdocumentaries.com/paris-is-burning/) is a documentary style film that investigates the ball culture of New York and the African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender communities that often participated in it. At these events (c...