Fieldwork on Commercial Soundscapes

 

Fieldwork on Commercial Soundscapes

MUSI3041: Music and the Environment

Assignment 1

September 2022

Over a Saturday afternoon I witnessed many different acoustic experiences in various places as I still look to find my way around a new area.

In a mall lobby was a live, 4-piece jazz band.  We went to watch and we were not alone; many shoppers had stopped to listen for extended periods of time.  This was not light, background jazz but up-beat and at a relative volume; much like a performance.  Rather than encouraging people to buy more and spend more money- as is often understood to be the aim of music in malls- this caused people to stop and spend time outside of shops and not browsing or spending.

Elsewhere in the mall high-end shops were observed; fancy jewellery and stylish handbag stores.  In the main corridors of this area the weekend hubbub was punctuated with the sound of electronic, beat-box style music.  This was striking as the hip-hop music seemed quite out of place amongst the high-end accessory brands.  The shopping mall also featured many temporary art exhibitions.  These, further made the hip-hop music feel out of place.  The music I would have expected in this situation would have been quite light, background music; perhaps flowing classical music or some light jazz. 

In an electronics shop I was struck by loud, bass heavy music.  Within this shop were various sections selling different types of electronics, e.g., home electronics, kitchen appliances, etc.  Each section was playing its own music.  The music was all similar style but a different track in each area.  The layout of the shop did not, in my opinion, lend itself particularly well to multiple tracks as more than one track was always being heard- almost fighting with each other- at any given time.  I, personally, was not keen on this choice of acoustic presence; I felt overloaded with audio input. 

One supermarket was playing ‘light pop music’.  This was relaxing and put me at ease while shopping.  However, the music spontaneously changed to very fast paced and high energy music with Cantonese vocals which I was unable to understand, but I wondered if this might have been an advertisement of some kind.  If this was an advertisement, then it seemed to be successful in its ambition since it caught my attention and made me stop to listen.

Another supermarket was playing what I sounded like Classical Spanish guitar music.  The physical architecture was the most interesting thing about this shop as there were only a handful of speakers scattered around the store.  They were so spread out that there were times when I could hear no music at all.  So, walking around the store featured cycles of music getting very loud when standing underneath the speaker on the low ceiling to not being able to hear any music at all.

My ears and mind have now been opened to listening more attentively to music in stores/malls and I hope I will now have more of an appreciation of sounds in these locations.

 

u3599599

Word count: 498