Public stereos
I apologise for the absence of Abstracts of late, and further apologise that this one is a little uninspired and straight forward. The truth is, my Abstract radar is not working as well now as it was previously. I intend to make real efforts to rectify that, however.
Anyway, this Abstract focuses on the phenomenon I have witnessed over the last year or so, mainly on the bus or simply walking around my manor in East London. I refer to the practice of playing music (mp3 files?) through the loud speaker of one's mobile phone.
I can see the general reasoning behind personal stereos, whereby one can listen to loud-ish music without (a) using much juice or (b) disturbing others much.
However, this new practice seems to fall down on all counts! The music quality is hopeless through the puny loudspeakers (crackles, no bass), many onlookers are driven to distraction, and presumably the battery runs flat very quick.
So the motivation for this practice seems to be called into question. Is it a fad, against which no rational reasoning can be set? Is the main reason precisely
because it drives others to distraction? Or perhaps an innate desire in us all to share our musical taste with everyone?
2 comments:
All I can think is that it must be trendy among "the kids" to have a phone that can play music out loud because it shows that you are truly on the crest of the wave of new technology, and the only way to show off this fact is to play the Crazy Frog/Beverley Hills Cop song over and over on the bus until the other passengers' eyes bleed. And because we're English we choose not to say anything about it. I'll bet Maori or Samoan bus passengers would not tolerate this behaviour for very long.
At the risk of sounding like the dad from Quadrophenia I have to say that this practice is something that disgusts me. There is no proper tune to their so-called "music". It is just a tinny racket designed more to annoy decent people than provide any so-called "enjoyment" on their part. And if you look at some of these so-called "pop singers" you will see that some of them have long hair and look like girls! What is wrong with the haunting melodies of Clannad or the honest riffs of Big Country?
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