Sounds

This set of readings is quite interesting because it made me realize that I never think of sound. I let sound happen, but do not pay attention to the miracle of sound and how beautiful it can be. In "Listen" this man brought up an interesting point. He claims that today, there is too much sound which is a problem. I would tend to agree with this statement. Although I never really experienced what it was like before recordings, I took a look at my life and realized that sound has progressively taken over. Before ipods, the artificial sounds I heard were TV, radio, and CDs. I appreciated these sounds very much and was forced to listen to songs I did not always like with CDs and the radio. This actually made me appreciate the songs I liked even more. Now, with access to every movie, TV show, and song we could ever imagine, it has become increasingly harder to love the media we once loved. This means all of the sounds associated with this media do not resonate as strongly in our brains and might not bring back the same powerful nostalgic memories. In addition, we can repeat songs over and over again as many times we want. Our sounds do not "commit suicide" like they used to, decreasing their quality. This is certainly a problem, maybe a problem different than Schafer suggests, but this is what I got out of it. In terms of nature, I believe this increase in sound has also affected our ability to appreciate the simpler, natural sounds of life. Another thing I found very interesting was that Harley has copyrighted their motor sound. I wonder if I could tell the difference between a Harley and a suzuki? If maybe over time my ears have become to tuned to Harleys because their sound is different. Another thing I found fascinating was the Japanese's sacred soundscapes. First of all, a soundscape is nothing I have ever even thought about as a term. I understand the sounds that happen in a certain environment and I might flock towards certain soundscapes, however I never consciously thought about controlling these environments and creating soundscape. It is so nice to see that the Japanese actually keep sacred the sound sounds they find most pleasing. I think this brings people back to the roots of sound before it was drowned out by artificial noise. Sound is awesome!