A Sound Diary

Hi, I'm Alicia. This is my life through a patchwork collection of sounds. Each week, I will post a song of the week and a sound of the week, along with a reflection about each.

[thenoisefloors-blog]

The beep.

Since the beginning of the year (probably the beginning of time), there has been a beep that can only be heard late at night, when the world, and even the dorm, has gone to sleep and I'm laying in bed. Every night when I hear the sound, I whisper into the dark, "Rosalie, do you hear that?" and she always mumbles "Yeah." It's not incredibly loud, just a steady, medium pitched beep. One note, that goes on forever. Although human beings are inevitably unnerved by prolonged or repetitive sounds, we are usually able to desensitize ourselves and learn to ignore it. However, when there is no other sound to concentrate on, that task becomes much difficult. It's all I can focus on. What's worse is that it is an anomaly because it's a mystery. The beep is without context. I have no idea where it comes from, what it comes from, or what cause it. It's like a word without a signifier, meaningless. When a sound it meaningless, I believe it inevitably turns into noise. It has no place in my soundscape because I can't understand it's relevance. This semester studying sound, I've come to realize how integral a sounds significance is. A sound is not a carnal noise, it is implicated with meaning and context, both of the sound and the listener. As a college student, I live in a dorm that's kept by people removed from me. I have no one to ask about the beep. I also have a certain arsenal of sounds I'm familiar with, and this is not in it. In all my years as a hearing-abled being, I've not encountered a sound such as the beep, or at least not one that I've payed much attention to. One day, maybe I'll figure out where the beep originates from and I can justify it's existence, discriminate it's meaning and it's place in my soundscape. Maybe it will forever haunt me at night and I'll never know where the sound comes from, even after the beep seizes to exist. 

[sleepytimemusic]

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Bright Eyes // Shell Games

[thenoisefloors-blog]

Song of the Week 10.26.2012

"My private life is an inside joke; no one will explain it to me."

[thenoisefloors-blog]

Soundscapes of Home

My dorm room is in a suite on the second floor of Seneca in College in the Woods. Six girls living together can be noisy, at times. I play calm indie bands, my roommate blasts upbeat alternative rock, my suitemate Danielle listens to long symphonies or occasionally show tunes, and her roommate plays reggaeton. We generally avoid making our noises a competition, but it's not rare for different types of music to be playing in different rooms. They converge in the common room, where we turn on the TV to watch a show or leave on as background noise to our conversations. When the door is propped open, we hear the boy down the hall playing the guitar and the side door loudly open and close. Voices of the boys on our floor, some familiar and other anonymous, are also heard. The voices of my roommate and suitmate, their favorite songs, the sound of the Buffy theme, and the frequently heard coed's voices have become the identifiable sounds of my home at school. They provide comfort because they are constants and are familiar. I relate to the college life I lead-- watching too much Netflix, spending countless hours with my friends, socializing without much pretense, trying to do work, getting ready for class or to go out. The sounds here are safe and nonthreatening. We exist in a bubble where we're allowed to make noise, where it's not okay to be loud most of the time, and where different types of young people, and there noise, exist together.

At home, the sounds are completely different. My parents voices fill the air, but there is much more complexity in this sound. Their speech comes in different varieties. It's scolding sometimes, nagging sometimes, and occasionally proud. When my mother's reading, I can't turn my music up too loud. When my sister has her friends over, I hear the sound of a heard of teens moving around. At night, I'll hear the sound of news anchors while my parents watch the news. My enjoy the sound of my cats' purrs and my dogs heavy breathing.  I can distinguish the sounds of the footsteps of each of my family members because I have known them so long. This home, my family home, sounds much more silent, but similarly safe as is my home at school. Though the sounds are less boisterous, they signal a connective warmth. Together, we create a soundscape of our home. Our noise is reflective of being a white, middle class nuclear family-- it is composed and appropriate. It is also indicative of our suburban neighborhood-- where too much loudness it bothersome and taboo.

[meganchung]

You Remind Me of Home - Benjamin Gibbard

[thenoisefloors-blog]

Song of the Week 11.19.2012

[phenomenaaa]

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[thenoisefloors-blog]

Signed, Sealed, Delivered - Stevie Wonder

Song of the Week 11.5.12

I chose this as this weeks song for obvious reasons. The song, which acted as the soundtrack to Obama's election for a second term in office, struck me. It's soulful. It tells America "I'm yours."

[thenoisefloors-blog]

Deaf

This weekend, I drove to Rochester Institute of Technology to visit some friends from High School. The deaf population is particularly high there because one division of the school is the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. On Saturday, I attended a "deaf party" and interacted with deaf and hard of hearing individuals. My sign is pretty shabby; I can sign my name and a few random terms and curse words. My friend, however, is fairly proficient. Many of the deaf kids can read lips exceptionally well, as well, so communication, though stunted, was very possible. The party had music with a particularly loud bass so that the deaf kids could feel the vibrations.

Many of the deaf students wore cochlear implants and hearing aids and it caused me to question how they listened. Cochlear implants help those with damaged hair cells in their cochlear to hear. The sound quality of the implants is different than "natural" hearing, but can still allow them to hear voices and even enjoy music.

In this weeks readings, the topic of Sound Fidelity was hashed out. While discussing different sorts of sound-reproduction technologies, I thought about the kids at NTID who used technologies just so they could hear. In Sterne's article, he would refer to such technologies as a "network... of relations, practices, people, and technology." Deaf people with hearing aids and implants listen in the context of a person whose hearing is less than par. They listen to others talk to them as if they were mentally incapable and they listen to music as something they can feel rather than hear. They way they hear might be categorized as less "authentic" just because it's different. I however, am awed by the technology that enables deaf individuals to interact with the world through their sense of hearing.

[hallow-tone]

Do They Know its Halloween

Featuring 

 Beck  The Arcade Fire  Yeah Yeah Yeahs  Devendra Banhart  Sum_ 41  Feist  Anna Waronker  Thurston Moore  Buck 65  David Cross  Gino Washington  Les Savy Fav  Malcolm McLaren  Dntel  Rilo Kiley  Roky Erickson  Smoosh  Peaches  Sparks  Sloan  Wolf Parade

[thenoisefloors-blog]

Song of the Week 10.29.12

There are albums upon albums of Holiday jingles, but Halloween songs are few and far between. This collaboration and parody of the song Do They Know It's Christmas has a spooky soundscape, getting us ready for the autumnal celebration on October 31st.

My roommate, a Halloween aficionado, has a playlist dedicated to this special holiday. It made me question what characterizes a song as a holiday song and what roles holiday music plays in the culture of holidays.

For Halloween, the vibe of the music is dark, with a prevalent element of the supernatural. You have classics, like the Monster Mash or Thriller, where you get your yearly fill of ghouls, ghosts, and zombies. Additionally, songs from films like Rocky Horror Picture Show have become identified with the culture of Halloween. Tonight, I'm seeing RHPS live, where the choral, rock sounds of the Time Warp work to excite the audience with the help of the live actors. Once songs and sounds, like a werwolf howl and an echoing voice, become connected with a holiday, the connection becomes inextricable. It evokes a mood and connects the listeners, giving them an instant cue to the season.

Christmas music, which has virtually become a genre in and of itself, allows for radio stations to play jingles for hours without repeat. There are classics and new hits, with numerous remakes. The longevity of this holiday music strikes me because we are able to listen to these songs each and every year without getting sick of them. There is a novelty in this music because of it's specificity to Christmastime. Sounds of jingle bells and themes of winter and togetherness are rife in this music. Like Halloween music, Christmas music puts the audience in a collective sort of mood. It has become intrinsic to the holiday season as decorations, cookies and sweets, warm drinks, or presents. 

[imfuckinupmylifeforrockandroll]

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The Mountain Goats - Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1

From the new album Transcendental Youth

[thenoisefloors-blog]

Song of the Week 10.22.12

I've been a bit obsessed with this album for the last few weeks. I mean, the first lyric is "Do every stupid things that makes you feel alive." It was practically written for a college student with a mild identity crisis, with overarching themes of anxiety and longing.

[thenoisefloors-blog]

My Noise, Your Music

When exploring the meaning of "noise," I did with a bit of self-reflection. What do I consider noise? The first thing that came to mind was the grating, pulsating, persistent beep that I hear in my dorm, usually at night. I find it bothersome because it disrupts me when I want to sleep, pulls my focus, but also because I do not know the source of the incessant sound. I consider the dribble of the basketball the floor above me a noise. Noise, in my opinion, is not only unwanted, but becomes a nuisance as it becomes continuous. I also found that I consider sounds noise more easily when I'm generally agitated or whether the environment is more commonly accepted as a silent place, such as a library or if it's nighttime. I consider things that aren't my taste, like Miley Cyrus' voice or   Justin Beiber's over mixed pop music, noise more readily than my favorite bands, like Bright Eyes or Death Cab. The main problem with debates on noise and with initiatives that reduce noise is that, because it is such a subjectively driven issue, we are forced to evaluate whose classification of "unwanted sound" is paramount. While I consider my younger sisters bubble gum pop music retched, she might, similarly, consider Conor Oberst's voice utterly unappealing. Who, then, gets the say? Similarly, my roommate can study with a the TV on and conversations bouncing around our room. I, however, need the silence in order to focus. Is one opinion the right one? How can we deal with such conflicts?

These issues, which I face on a small scale in my everyday life, become augmented problems with society at large. During "The War on Noise," class, race, and ethnic differences came into play as Curran, the judge, brought his "superior aesthetics" into the courtroom. He applied his tastes to what acceptable sounds were and what was deemed noise based on personal preference. Similarly, in the debate over the drums in Harlem, members of the community faced strife as the African American drummers felt like their sound is integral to their cultural, while their new neighbors, primarily white middle class people, feel the drums are noise -- they disrupt their sleep and ability to think straight.

The question remains -- Who is right? Whose opinions on noise are paramount? I believe the only solution is reasonable compromise. In my life, that means that for every Mountain Goats song I play on a road trip, my sister gets a One Direction song. Then again, I am the oldest...

[nneuw-deactivated20131216]

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Andrew Jackson Jihad Hate, Rain on Me

[thenoisefloors-blog]

Song of the Week 10.15.12

This band was introduced to me by my really awesome roommate and is great for several reasons. 1)Punk/Folk is an underrepresented genre 2)They covered the entirety of the album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea 3) The lyric I want to put on my sweatpants but don’t you know that I’m trying to quit, I want to give a shit again.

[thenoisefloors-blog]

I found Maile Colbert's lecture about her work in sound very interesting because of her passion for and experimentation with sound. She describe her work as "not pure" because of her processes of editing and mixing, and I particularly enjoyed this aspect because it made her productions artful and dynamic.

"The Passenger at Home" project struck me because of its conceptualization, first and foremost. Portraying home through the medium of experimental sounds, images, and performance, aside from being a large undertaking, gives the project context and meaning. It tells a story, shows a journey, and describes a place. Sense I have began studying sound, I have often tried to conceptualize an inclusive soundscape of my "home" here at Binghamton. In my head, it has always sounded very literal -- an overlap of the varying music my 5 suitemates and myself listen to, the sound of the basketball bouncing from the floor above us, the distant noise of construction vehicles, the microwave that I am convinced beeps more than any other microwave in existence, the clicks of keyboard keys being pressed. However, Maile Colbert's conception allows her to portray her home, in conjunction with her history, creatively. I found this compelling because, besides music, I never approached sounds, or sound studies, in this way. 

I also enjoyed the variety of sounds within this experiment. I enjoyed the melodic, haunting voice I heard and, underneath that, the persistent sound of water. When Maile shared how she went about recording the sounds and explained what the sounds were, it struck me the deception that can occur with sound. Some of the sounds you might have never identified because of how they were used and mixed, essentially creating new sounds. The way the visual intertwined with the aural was intriguing, I think. Together, they formed a unique sensory experience that told a story through the combination of overlaid sounds, images, and performance. 

[thenoisefloors-blog]

Soundscape of a Matt and Kim concert

"We sing along, but the notes are wrong."

On Saturday, I went to an Indie rock concert back home in Buffalo and examined the atmosphere with a more critical ear than I had at a concert before. It occurred that me that concerts may be one of the only settings where the aural takes precedence over the visual. The sounds hype up the crowd and the band alike. As we waited for Matt & Kim to come onstage, there was chanting and cheering. Everyone was impatiently standing around in the over packed venue and you could sense this anticipation and excitment from the bursts of noise from the voices in the crowd. When the duo came out, the music changed to pop tunes to further build up the room for a night of dance music and a positive atmosphere. The audio clip is the recording of this introduction along with the first song of the set, Block After Block. Though the volume wavers and there are shrill screams, it's evident that the room is being amped up, which is a direct reaction to the sounds occurring around them. During the show, the group had some problems with there instruments, and Matt says "We've had more technical difficulties than we've ever had, yet I was up here and I had more fun that I've had yet on this tour." Live music has inevitable variables. Recorded music has the chance to be perfect, while live music doesn't enjoy that luxury. However, I believe having the chance to experience music in such an authentic setting is rare and worth the imperfections of live music. The musicians are able to have a direct connection with the audience and are able to feed off their energy. There was an air of youth, both expressed through the sounds and music, and a sense of vitality. Another interesting aspect of Matt & Kim is there do-it-yourself approach to music. Kim plays drums and Matt does vocals and plays keyboards. There music is a manifestation of their relationship and there lives together in New York, with many songs alluding to the city. They are partners who make music together, and I think that's an interesting dynamic. 

[thenoisefloors-blog]

Sound of The Week 10/1/12

The sound of the Tardis takeoff is as iconic and nostalgic to me as is Hedwig's Theme. It's textually written as "Vworp Vworp Vworp" but I believe that doesn't do it much justice. The sound is diegetic, sometimes acoustamatic and other times visualized, depending on the situation. It is also a fictional soundmark, a specific sound that is easily identifiable and particular meaningful to those who have experienced or traveled with The Doctor.

This sound is unique in that I relate it to the sound of the Tardis taking off, or dematerializing, which is obviously not "naturally" brought about due to the fact that the Tardis is a fictional time machine. In contemplating the Tardis' sound, I couldn't describe something in the natural world that sounds like it, so I looked up how the sound was produced. I learned that the effect was created by dragging a set of house keys along the strings of an old, gutted piano. The sound was recorded and processed with echo and reverb. I found it interesting that even now that I know the sound's origin, I will still only visualize the Tardis when I hear it. The sound moves me, so that when I hear it I'm excited to explore new planets with the Doctor, to eat cake Marie Antoinette, to have words with Einstein, or to see what the next generation of human beings have stirring. The sound is a sad sound of leaving and a thrilling sound of adventure.

[cloudsandseas]

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[thenoisefloors-blog]

John Williams : Hedwig’s Theme

Song of The Week 10/1/12

Choosing a score for the song this week was a given, considering that we have began studying sounds' role in television and film. The choice was a difficult one for me because I've got quite the fetish for cinematic compositions (If you share my admiration, listen to This Playlist. It's 7 hours, 90 tracks, and great for reading or studying). Music in film is not only aesthetically beautiful, but also has the ability to evoke poignant emotion because it was written with intent to do so and is interconnected with the motion picture.

John Williams makes the mythical tangible in this piece, which absolutely soars as it  evokes whimsy and movement. When I hear it, I can see witches and wizards flying about on their shabby broomsticks, battling the forces of darkness, swishing their wands to create chaos or wonderment, and traveling through the depths of the eerie Forbidden Forest. At the same time, the score of this film works to augment the emotions of the audience, enhancing it's visual aspects. This speaks to the "marriage" between sound and image that Doane discusses in her article.

In Chion's article, he classifies background music as extradiegetic, or a sound that's only for the audience ears. Music, specifically, isn't bound by space or time the way all other sounds in film are and can actually be a means to move through space or time. Each Harry Potter film, except for the two part conclusion, takes us through a school year and explores the vast grounds of Hogwarts. Therefore, the music in this film is essential to seamlessly flow through space and time. Without music, the film would fall so flat, move so awkwardly, and fail to make us laugh, cry, and quiver in anticipation. 

[thenoisefloors-blog]

Even more sounds of dial up! This time, it's slowed down 700%. It's eerie but almost beautiful.

[thenoisefloors-blog]

Sound of The Week 9/24/12

I chose to tweet this sound for tweet a sound day! I heard this a few months ago where it was likened to the sounds of an exorcism, and it gave the nostalgic, impatient noise of dial up a whole new meaning!

[mmdetritus-blog]

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[thenoisefloors-blog]

Patrick Wolf : Lycanthropy

Song of the Week for 9/24/12

After reading Bonenfant's article "Queer Listening to Queer Vocal Timbres," I knew I'd choose to post a Patrick Wolf song this week, for a few reasons. The first and obvious one is that Bonenfant referenced Patrick Wolf in the article, identifying him as a queer vocalist and describing his voice as a "marked, pushed, yet low baritone." The second reason is that Bonenfant called into question the nature of vocal timbres and how humans tend to "fall in love with a voice." I, personally, tend to fixate on voices I find melodic or unconventional. Patrick Wolf is one of those artists, whose low, powerful, and impassioned tone I deeply admire. Lastly, I chose this song because it shows that music and how we listen to it is effected by certain social filters, such as that of the queer identity.

Identity is in large part reflected by the sound we try to amplify. We express ourselves through our sounds, as was discussed earlier when discussing "The Noise You Make Should Be Your Own." There are certain expectations of how ones voice should or will sound as well as the type of music one will listen to, which is largely based on ones race, class, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation.

Music, for example, is gendered. There is a dichotomy between male music and female music. Just as there are gender norms in society, there are gender norms in music. It is much less commonplace for a male to cover a song originally suited for a female voice. In the Introduction of Madonna's "What it feels like to be a Girl," there is a spoken segment that says "Girl's can wear jeans and cut their hair short, wear shirts and boots, because it's okay to be a boy, but for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, because you think that being a girl is degrading." I think that this applies to music to an extent, as well.

The queer identity is reflected in music when artists choose to orient their music differently. Patrick Wolf does a wonderful cover of Lana del Rey's song "Born to Die." In this song, the lyrics are very much representative of gender dysphoria, a common issue faced by queer people but not often discussed in mainstream culture, certainly not music. I like that the lyrics are shocking, especially when sung in Patrick Wolf's haunting voice. There is a mythical element to the song, which metaphorically uses lycanthropy, the transformation of man to wolf, to describe gender dysphoria. The flute at the beginning gives it a mythical tone, which juxtaposes with the electronic elements that give it a chaotic feel.