Prompt 4.2 - inquiry
As I continue to research music, material culture and listening, I find myself reminiscing on a future past. Whether it was going to the store to buy music or listening to an album as a shared activity, I wondered to myself,
In this contemporary landscape, what are the collective spaces for music listeners and lovers to gather?
If in the past the record store was a home base, with music now primarily experienced in the digital format, what are the physical spaces for the digital listener? Just because we can obtain music individually doesn't mean we don’t want to share in it collectively.
Enter the Japanese and the listening bar.
Listening bars, a “subset of the kissaten, the small and idiosyncratic coffeehouses dotting the side streets in Tokyo (Ben Ratliff, New York Times),” are spaces where the sonic, aural and musical experience take priority. Positioned as the ‘third place’ outside work and home, listening bars are not only a place for people to listen together in hi-fidelity but also a place for being and recovery.
Through this project and creating spaces for people to listen, I am interested in investigating:
2. What are the materials that affect (collective) listening experiences?
3. How do people enjoy listening to music with others?
For this second week, I spent most of the time reading, exploring and backing up my research questions.
For reading, I read 2 research papers.
First Radio Emily meeting!
The first paper I read was “Radio as a social media”. In the paper, the authors Bonini et. al. attempt to reposition radio as a technology for social good. In it, they discuss radio in contrast to social media. As it stands, the authors argue that contemporary social media platforms are commercialized, algorithmically driven and “commodify the attention of the audience” (6). Instead of community engagement, power remains in the hands of a few. The authors argue that radio can hone on a pure sense of sense of the phrase ‘social media’ and empower listeners towards community and social building. One way that the author frames this as possible is by radio becoming “convivial”. As opposed to industrial productivity, conviviality is when people are engaged and have conscious relationships with the tools and technologies that proliferate their world. Convivial tools should allow users to believe they have the power to create and shape the world they live in (6).
I love the notion of conviviality that the authors use here. A lot of what I am thinking surrounds low-tech and how the path of technological advancement that society is going down is not the only path forward. I have also been thinking about social practices and the ways people can connect, feel empowered and come together. Convivial in some ways brings these two interests of mine together. One quote from the reading that I find especially poetic:
‘old technology does not cease to develop just because it is old. In fact, the interpretation of technology is subject to ongoing construction, maintenance and repair, a point we miss if we train our ears only on new technologies’ (6).
I find the term convivial helpful in my research because it not only gives me the vocabulary to speak on this feeling I am having, it also helps me position the idea of a listening bar in a greater context. Part of my interest in facilitating a listening space comes from a previous era when I used to listen to albums from front to back with friends and family. The last time I can clearly remember doing this was back in June 2021 with my friend Laythan. Tyler the Creator dropped “Call Me If You Get Lost” and he and I are big fans of his work. A couple of days after the album came out he and I set a time to listen. In that hour not many words were shared between us but something deeper was happening. Afterwards, we recapped our thoughts and feelings and throughout the week when we saw each other we would update each other on how the piece was sitting with us. In some ways, listening to albums like this is “old technology”; a lost art of sorts. My hope is by conducting a series of listening room workshops I can learn more about this lost art.
The final version of “Scrapbook” alongside other music formats
The second paper I read was “Exploring territories by documentary: The appropriation of public spaces by collective listening” by Luciana Roça et. al. In this paper, the authors explore how collective listening can be territorial, how making documentaries can be used as a research method and how music carries cultural values. In São Carlos, São Paulo State, Brazil, teenagers and young adults on Friday nights gather at Coronel Square. They take over this square by playing loud funk music and turn a public space into a private party.
Two of the more interesting points I took from this paper are a concrete definition of collective listening and how music innately carries cultural value. I have been using collective listening as a keyword to describe my work but up until reading this paper, I have not been able to find a definition that resonated with me. In the paper, they define collective listening as…
“a sound environment which establishes a common ground among listeners, which can be listened attentively or not. It may invite people to participate within a determined event or not since it addresses cultural value to the activity.” (Roça, 7)
In conversations with Cameron, he reminds me that music isn’t neutral and embedded within are cultural meanings and connotations. When I relate this point to Roça’s definition of collective listening, I start to understand more of what he means. For example, in the article, the author explains how Brazillian Funk music is often seen as a lesser form of music and people associate it with subcultures that are portrayed in the media as violent and deviant. Therefore, when these teenagers and young adults play this music out loud, people associate certain meanings with the party and temporarily on the space. When I think about what music I select for the listening spaces I am now starting, I am beginning to think more along the lines of curation and what I hope people may feel, think and gain from the experience. For example, I am considering playing the album Lahai by Sampha. Sampha is an artist whose voice is instantly recognizable and has worked with some of the biggest names in the world. I think he is a brilliant artist and deserves to be heard by many. Selfishly, part of my selection of this album is based on my taste preferences but it’s also something I think the people I invite could like but just haven’t heard yet. However, in future iterations of this listening space, I can see it taking shape as almost a cross between a book club and going to a movie. Let's say the next album I choose is NWA Straight Out of Compton. I would choose this album (outside of its musical merits) because I think it could be a method of getting people to talk about different socio-cultural-political themes such as police brutality or racism.
Searching through ECU library I couldn’t find any academic papers or books specifically about listening bars. The most I could find are periodicals that listed different ones worldwide. I turned to visual media to help supplement my knowledge. I stumbled on a series that Resident Advisor (RA) did about listening bars. They profiled a handful in Japan and then others that sprang up in Europe as a reaction to the Japanese. One of the first listening bars that opened is called SHeLTer. Their mission from day one was to provide the best music-listening experience in a relaxed environment that can be enjoyed with the company of others. Hence the name SHeLTer is akin to a place to recover.
Although the listening bars that sprang up around Japan, Europe and the US differ slightly, they all carry the same spirit. This is my current understanding of the essence that connects them all:
Audio-First
Prioritize the best listening environment
Hifi
Spatially setup for the best listening experience
Vinyls/Analog is preferred (I may disagree*)
A ‘third place’
Homey, relaxing, comfortable environments
Social (to some extent)
Collective listening
DJ is not the center of attention
From this stance, a listening bar is this sweet spot (or maybe a new space) between a club and a cafe. I have talked extensively with friends and other DJs about a certain apathy toward clubs being the only environment to hear DJs play. Don’t get me wrong, I think clubs are valuable and I still attend frequently. Still, we often discuss and hypothesize other places where you can enjoy a DJ set without it always being a big spectacle and with the DJ at the front and the center of attention. With the listening bars and a refocus on the musical experience rather than the DJ, I think this not only reconfigures that crowd’s expectation but also lends itself to a new form of DJing. One that relies less on spectacle and that allows DJs to take thematic risks and tell a more cohesive story with a mix.
Open decks at b-side radio
I spent some time this week exploring listening spaces. One event I went to was called Nautical and it was on a Sunday evening. A friend whom I met at a b-side radio event invited me. We both did not know what to expect and when we arrived I was at first taken aback. The poster said the music would be chill and the music they were initially playing when we walked in was purely ambient. The event was also supposed to be an “Open Deck” (open decks refers to an event where anyone could technically DJ. In comparison, a ‘closed deck’ is if you go to a club, concert or private event when they have a lineup of DJs performing).
After talking to the DJ and understanding the vibe better we were told that this event is once a month and a place for people to hang and chill after the long week/month. The DJ who was playing also showed distaste for DJ sets that prioritize big drops and quick transitions rather than making people wait and crave something more. My friend and I started to meet other people at the event and eventually got a chance to play. I didn’t realize until writing this but in some ways, this Nautical event was a listening bar based on the different elements I distilled. Outside listening to the music, I also found it enjoyable to be able to talk with other like-minded people about music, audio and related topics.
The second listening space I explored this week was the b-side radio open deck event. Although it contrasted the vibe of Nautical, higher tempo, quicker transitions and less chill, It still carried the same spirit. Everyone there was interested in music and DJing to some extent. Although in the purest form, I wouldn’t call this a listening bar, it still is a listening space for like-minded people to gather and appreciate music and the culture that surrounds it.
This upcoming week I plan on solidifying my ideas of what a listening space can be and look like and start to formulize workshops I can run with people in the MDes program to test it out.
*I would push back on listening bars needing to play vinyl for it to be a “listening bar”. I think more than what format of music these spaces choose to play, what I see as the biggest drawing factor is their ability to create a space that prioritizes one’s musical experience outside of a club setting and creates a homley environment for people to recover. I think Vinyl is one way to do it but by no means the only option.