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WRI-101: Voice, Noise, Sound, Sense.

A section of Davidson College's Writing Program, exploring the intersections of sound-studies and writing instruction.

jawilson

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Davidson College Soundscapes

Abstract

For students at Davidson College, stress from the school environment is a prominent factor that dominates most of their lives. In this project, I analyze the culture of the soccer locker room and how the soundscape creates a barrier between school and a positive social environment with friends and teammates. Through different recordings, I captured the cultural aspects that accompany this space before and after practice. The recordings show the change in attitudes of the people in the locker room once being free from school versus the attitudes of individuals coming back to the school environment.  This study intends to display the impact a soundscape has on certain individuals, altering one’s mental state and the way one acts through auditory cues.

The Locker Room

The soccer locker room is a special soundscape that holds a variety of noises that change individuals’ mental states before and after practice. In writer R. Murray Schafer’s terminology, certain “keynotes” and “soundmarks” in the locker room are what make this soundscape so much different from any other place (Schafer 101). Many of these sounds are interpreted differently in the locker room. Some of my teammates put on headphones and block out all music, dialogue, and any other auditory disturbances so they can focus on performing well in practice. For others, their eyes drift, oblivious to any noises around them after an exhausting day of class, lift, and homework. For me, it is a place where I can escape the stress of school and be with friends and teammates that relax my mental state. Like many soundscapes, there is a collection of sounds going on at once, most of them we choose to ignore. Implicitly, the noises are what free me from life in the classroom. This soundscape allows me to release any tension and want to go out and play the game I love with all my friends. The sounds produced in the soundscape of the locker room create an environment isolated from the school work, thus allowing myself and my teammates to escape into a stress free environment.

Every Monday through Friday around 4:00 pm, the soccer team flocks out of their dorms or class to head past the Armfield apartments toward the locker room. Most students are tired and quietly walking back to their rooms to start their work, but the soccer players are excitedly waiting to get on the field. On one particular Thursday afternoon, I made my way up to the locker room joyfully awaiting my friends after the long day. As I walked up to the building, I could already hear music playing as well as my teammates talking and laughing. I opened the door to to the song “Keep On Loving You” by Reo Speedwagon. The calm and soothing beats and lyrics were the perfect remedy to help me forget the built up tension from school. Within the first ten seconds of the recording, my friends make me laugh while the joyful song resonates in the background. These auditory elements of music and laughter perfectly represent the keynotes alluded to by Shafer is his essay, “The Soundscape.” In the background, my friends Mateo and Stefane are joking around with each other, also acting as a special keynote to the soundscape. They are playfully fighting over a pair of socks, trying to convince each other over who they belong to. This example shows the bonds we create with our teammates in the locker room. Through this soundscape, the joking and messing around shows how comfortable we are with each other. These bonds between my teammates have strengthened due to encounters such as those pictured in the recording before practice. For example, at minute 3:45, our assistant coach walks in and greets us with multiple “Hey’s” and “What’s up’s.” This informal relationship with the coaches is a stress reliever because it makes me feel as if I can let loose and do not have to be in the serious mood that I have been stuck in the entire day for class. Instead, we have funny conversations such as where he got his new haircut. At minute 5:00 the whole team jumps in to  debate about which barber shop is the best. My friend Jaylen begins yelling “Raeford’s” to emphasize his preference, and another group begins chanting, “Sports Clips.” While the discussion continues, we all get dressed and walk out listening to “Africa” by Toto to once again lift our spirits. No longer is anybody thinking about their class or work, but instead people are focused on bonding as a team through the funny conversation before practice.

Once practice is over, we arrive back in the locker room around 6:30. Like all other days, my teammates and I stagger back to our lockers on this Thursday afternoon. This soundscape changes immensely before and after practice due to our tired mental states. There is no “Keep On Loving You” or “Africa” playing as we sit down at our lockers. Instead, all that I hear is the running showers mixed in with conversation between a couple of individuals. People are coughing, sniffing, and voices sound exhausted from the training session. The muffled sound of running water from the showers is a special keynote for this soundscape after practice. It is this sound that brings me back to my senses of the real world. While I do not physically pay attention to the sound of the showers, in the back of my head, I know what comes next. Getting dressed and going back to my room to start homework is the last thing I want to be doing after a long day. Schafer describes this situation as he writes, “Even though keynote sounds may not always be heard consciously, the fact that they are ubiquitously there suggests the possibility of a deep and pervasive influence on our behavior and moods” (Schafer 101). His knowledge on keynotes perfectly match my mental state as the noises going on in the back of my head affect the way I feel and act in this soundscape. Adding to this, the soundscape after practice is much more quiet than before. While there is a couple faint conversations throughout the recording, the silence is a prominent factor that affects my mental state. Before practice, laughing and happy music was able to take my mind off the idea of school, but the silence does not accomplish this side tracking mechanism. My mood immediately changes because now I am thinking about the loads of work I still have to do before the next day. The locker room soundscape has a different impact on myself and my teammates after practice due to certain keynotes that put us back into the stressful mindset that accompanies the school environment.

Even though the locker room is one single soundscape, the noises produced change the moods of different individuals based off how they are heard and experienced. In Emily Thompson’s essay, she characterizes this space as she writes, “Like a landscape, a soundscape is simultaneously a physical environment and a way of perceiving that environment; it is both a world and a culture constructed to make sense of that world” (Thompson 117). The locker room culture before practice is a enjoyable environment where people can let go and enjoy the company of friends before going out and playing soccer. The culture in the locker room after practice is more of a state of realization where myself and others are less energetic and ready to get back to work. Thompson also describes how individuals’ attitudes may change based on how certain keynotes are interpreted as she writes , “A soundscape’s cultural aspects incorporate scientific and aesthetic ways of listening, a listener’s relationship to their environment, and social circumstances that dictate who gets to hear what” (Thompson 117). Through Thompson’s analysis, one can understand why people may hear the same noise but may interpret them completely different. For example, players on the soccer team who hear the music before practice are compelled to feel excited to go out and play soccer amongst friends. On the other hand, people who pass by this soundscape may still hear the music but will not be filled with the same energy as the soccer players. This is because the keynote of the music has a different relationship to the players than the people passing by. The music will serve a purpose to the soccer players while the same keynote may be deemed meaningless to any other person.

The locker room is a unique soundscape of Davidson College as it incites an array of emotions based off the individual listener as well as the time of day. For players on the soccer team, before practice means laughter and enthusiasm before heading out to the fields to have fun. Joyful music is resonating through each locker while teammates are bonding over conversation and jokes. The environment positively affects our mental states after a long day of work, freeing us from the stressful thoughts of class and studying. The interpretation of the soundscape changes from before to after practice. Different key notes such as the water from the showers have different effects on myself than the joyful music. Before practice, my teammates and I are able to escape from the burdens of school to a more enjoyable mental state before having fun playing soccer. After practice is the exact opposite. Here, I am awakened by the thought of coming back to the reality of the work I still have remaining for the rest of the night. The culture of the locker room hosts a mixture of emotions, all of which can be witnessed through actions of others developed from the unique keynotes that are associated with the soundscape.  

Bibliography

Schafer, R. Murray. The Soundscape, Sound Studies Reader. Edited by Jonathan Sterne, Taylor

and Francis, 2012.

Thompson, Emily. Sound, Modernity, and History, Sound Studies Reader. Edited by Jonathan

Sterne, Taylor and Francis, 2012.

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Cultural Appropriation in Music

Over the last decade, hip hop and rap music has had issues regarding cultural appropriation among different artists. The copying of somebody’s dialect and culture adds a different element to the music, creating aspects that draws much attention, but at the same time may seem and offensive and disrespectful. In this day and age, diversity is a common theme throughout our society, giving people the determination to step outside their stereotypical category and create different genres of music with different racial aspects mixed into their work. Artists like Post Malone and Iggy Azalea have been called out due to such accusations of cultural appropriation. While artists such as these have thrived in this music industry, critics have called them out for mimicking African American elements in their work. They discuss the unjust and inappropriate qualities that belong to cultural appropriation and how it is immoral in the music industry. The modern day transition of blending of cultures in hip hop and rap music challenges the idea that voice defines who we are and where we came from, creating controversy and confusion about racial identity.

Hip hop and rap music emerged out of New York in the seventies and has a long history of culture behind the genre. Primarily beginning with the African American community, the genre has become a global hit and has evolved into what it is today. According to African American historian, Tristan Pelton, “The earliest rap recordings in the 1980s were largely positive in tone even as they explored and exposed the gritty conditions of life in the nation’s urban ghettoes” (Pelton). The culture behind the music itself is what gave the genre an extra element that is encaptivating to the audience. It allows the artist to deliver a message about their life as well as display a different type of music that was uncommon before the past fifty years. Hip hop and rap music grew in popularity due to the African American culture that was incorporated, but as the genre evolved, more and more people are trying to mimic the same style, creating issues about cultural appropriation.

In this modern era, more and more artists outside of the African American community are getting involved in the hip hop or rap music genre. Many of these singers thrive due to their unique singing abilities and other talents, which has brought much success to the music industry as a whole. The problems arise when these artists attempt to copy the same elements found in the music created by the African American community. One online writer states how when people outside the African American descent decide “to dip a toe into hip-hop’s muddy waters, they face the prospect of either backlash or straight up neglect from the culture’s originators, even when they do manage to garner success that’s generally unprecedented for their darker-skinned counterparts” (Williams). While the hip hop industry is thriving with artists from different cultures and nationalities worldwide, the industry does have issues regarding people mimicking other cultural elements in their music that is not initially part of their lives. Cultural appropriation is a controversial subject because it is unjust to use another groups’ life background to gain publicity.

One artist in particular is Post Malone who is highly well known in the hip hop and rap industry. He is a twenty three year old male living out of suburban Dallas, and enjoys to sing about his immense wealth and sexual conquests. This artist creates controversy regarding mimicking other cultures in his music. In one of his most famous songs, “White Iverson” (Post) he draws questions about racial identity as he refers to himself as the White Iverson. Using lyrics like “White Iverson, When I started ballin’ I was young,” (Post) he compares himself to a famous basketball player. He juxtaposes his life to Allen Iverson’s by referencing how they both started “ballin’” at a young age to illustrate that like Iverson’s career, both of them began working in their field when they were young. He follows this with lyrics like “Cigarettes and a headband, Commas, commas in my head, man,” (Post) to contrast himself  to Iverson, who is known for wearing a headband. At the same time Post Malone alludes to the money he makes through the repetition of the word “commas,” which also relates him to the rich, African American, basketball player. This comparison of a white rapper to a famous African American basketball player sounds almost absurd and seems inappropriate on the subject of race. In addition to this, Nitsuh Abebe writes about Post Malone in the New York Times magazine on the Billboard top 25 as he states, “He performed his first hit single, ‘White Iverson,’ in gold teeth and cornrows, raising inevitable questions of cultural appropriation” (“The Top 25 Songs That Matter Right Now”). This journalist points out the influence of African American culture on his work including his very first hit song. By placing himself on the side of an African American, he takes a step further by dressing and singing about his cornrows and golden grills. These aspects of his music are very peculiar as he places himself on the same side as the African American culture, raising many questions about racial identity in his career as a rapper.

Other artists have been questioned about cultural appropriation in their music careers such as Iggy Azalea. Iggy’s career blew up after her first hit single, “Fancy,” (Azalea) kickstarting her popularity in the hip hop and rap music industry. This song has been questioned and discussed due to the dialect she uses while she raps. In the music video, she is depicted in the backseat of a convertible with two other African Americans rapping about all her wealth and status. She sings, “Swagger on super, I can’t shop at no department, Better get my money on time, if they not money, decline” (Azalea). Similar to Post Malone, she likes to rap about her money while she is around other people of the African American descent. With this in mind, Jason Lipshutz writes in an article for Billboard about Azalea’s “‘black’-sounding flow” throughout her music as she raps songs such as “Fancy” (Azalea). Changing her voice to use the dialect of a African American becomes very noticeable especially when she is from Australia. This difference in her accent displays how the way she speaks is all for show and not genuine to her music. Adding to this, Azalea has been criticized by the way she dresses. During an interview Azalea was question about the mimicking of “Kim Kardashian West’s braids, and immediately pointed out that some might be bothered by the co-opting a black hairstyle” (Lipshutz). Aligning with Post Malone’s cornrows, Azalea’s new hairstyle also poses questions about her racial identity as she continues to mix different cultures into her work. Iggy Azalea’s career as a white, female rapper has been questioned due to the elements of cultural appropriation weaved into her work.

While Iggy Azalea’s music did gain lots of popularity she had also been called out for imitating the African American culture in the way she raps. One famous artist by the name of Q-tip offers Azalea a history lesson as a method of giving advice to become aware of the controversy she is causing she causing through her music. Q-tip sends a series of tweets directed at Azalea as he says, “…now u are fulfilling your dreams … BUT! you have to take into account the HISTORY as you move underneath the banner of hip hop” (Aran) While Q-Tip fully supports Azalea in her achievements as a white, female rapper, he wants he feels that she is unjustly mocking the African American race in her work. The message delivered towards Iggy may also be applied to Post Malone as Q-Tip just wants to spread awareness to people in the same situation as these artists. He discusses how the African American race has been through so much, beginning with slavery, and should be respected even in music. As an African American himself, Q-Tip speaks for his race to show his opinion of cultural appropriation as he states, “We get emotional and angry and melancholy” (Aran). Iggy Azalea’s and Post Malone’s careers has been very successful but still brings up questions regarding respect about other racial cultures and how they have influenced her work. Q-Tip’s comments on twitter serve a purpose in teaching a lesson for artists like Post Malone and Iggy Azalea to becoming more culturally aware in their work.

While hip hop and rap music thrive around the world, there are many controversial issues amongst artists who have been called out for elements of cultural appropriation. Artists like Post Malone and Iggy Azalea are prime examples of this and add to the discussion of racial impersonation in their music. Their work brings up questions whether their fame is justifiable with the mimicking of other cultural elements in their music as a means of gaining popularity. Critics have called them out, teaching them a lesson about the history of the genre, and making them aware of why it may be offensive. These genres of music are not limited to certain ethnicities, but should be approached carefully due to cultural appropriation when creating music. Music and issues of race continue to intertwine through cultural appropriation causing controversy as more artists blend other cultural elements into their work.

Bibliography:

Aran, Isha. “Q-Tip Schools Iggy Azalea on Hip Hop History And We’re All Better For It.” Jezebel, Jezebel, 21 Dec. 2014, jezebel.com/q-tip-schools-iggy-azalea-on-hip-hop-history-and-were-a-1673811788.

Azalea, Iggy. “Fancy” The New Classic, The Invisible Men, 2014. Spotify.

Lipshutz, Jason. “Iggy Azalea: ‘I’m Still Here, Cleaning Up The Mess Now’.” Billboard, 30 Mar. 2018,www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8273331/iggy-azalea-interview-savior-comeback.

Post, Austin. “White Iverson” Stoney, Spotify, 2015. SoundCloud.

Pelton, Michael. “Rap/Hip Hop • BlackPast.” BlackPast, 29 Jan. 2019, www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/rap-hip-hop/.

“The Top 25 Songs That Matter Right Now.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Mar. 2019, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/07/magazine/top-songs.html#.

Williams, Aaron. “It’s Time To Stop Stereotyping White Rappers As Outsiders In Hip-Hop.” UPROXX, UPROXX, 26 Sept. 2017, uproxx.com/hiphop/white-rappers-hip-hop-appropriation-appreciation-outsiders/.

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Hiwa K Response

The Hiwa K art gallery offered many different auditory displays that each had a different cultural background. I spent most of my time watching “This Lemon tastes of Apple” by Hiwa K. It depicts the author and his friend in the middle of a street protest in 2011. The two men walk up and down the streets of a foreign country playing the harmonica and guitar through a megaphone. The shouts of men in distress as well as watching the state people were living in, had a big impact on me. The cultural difference between my life and the lives of the people in the video are very different, giving me a sense of gratitude. Wounded men were being carried away after being shot, showing the chaoticness and barbarity of their living conditions. The headphones in this exhibit allowed me to feel as if I was in their place, experiencing what Hiwa K was going through. I could clearly focus on the gunshots as well as men and women screaming for help. In the middle of this horrific protest, Hiwa K still managed to play his instrument, rallying the people around him. Men began to follow him and support them in the fight through the power of music. I never realized how the noise from instrument can have such a strong effect on people in a situation like a violent protest.

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