My music, my world: using the MP3 player to shape experience in London

This article examines the ways in which individuals use MP3 players to shape their experiences of the London commute. To investigate MP3 listening practices, I conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with eight DJs and ‘listeners’ living in London. I argue that MP3 players enable individuals to use music to precisely shape their experiences of space, place, others and themselves while moving through the city. In doing so, individuals experience great control as they transform urban journeys into private and pleasurable spaces. While experienced effects of MP3 player listening were similar among respondents, pre-existing relationships to music appear to relate to motivations for use. This article draws on a variety of social theorists ranging from Simmel and Adorno to Lefebvre to interrogate the experience of control MP3 users describe, and to understand the implications for the autonomy of urban inhabitants.

[1]  J. M. Bernstein,et al.  The culture industry : selected essays on mass culture , 1991 .

[2]  Danny Miller,et al.  The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach , 2000 .

[3]  Ben Highmore,et al.  Everyday Life and Cultural Theory: An Introduction , 2002 .

[4]  M. Miles,et al.  The City Cultures Reader , 2000 .

[5]  Theodor W. Adorno,et al.  Introduction to the Sociology of Music , 1977 .

[6]  T. Adorno.  Culture Industry Reconsidered , 2020, The Culture Industry.

[7]  Stanley Aronowitz.  The Ignored Philosopher and Social Theorist: On the Work of Henri Lefebvre , 2007 .

[8]  Stuart Hall,et al.  Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman , 1997 .

[9]  Henri Lefebvre,et al.  Critique of everyday life , 1991 .

[10]  Tia DeNora,et al.  ‘When You're Trying Something on You Picture Yourself in a Place Where They are Playing This Kind of Music’ — Musically Sponsored Agency in the British Clothing Retail Sector , 2000 .

[11]  Michael Bull,et al.  No Dead Air! The iPod and the Culture of Mobile Listening , 2005 .

[12]  Sherry Turkle,et al.  Always-on/Always-on-you: The Thetered Self , 2008 .

[13]  James E. Katz,et al.  Handbook of Mobile Communication Studies , 2008 .

[14]  T. Adorno.  Introduction to the Sociology of Music , 1977 .

[15]  M. Bull.  Sounding Out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life , 2000 .

[16]  Shuhei Hosokawa,et al.  The walkman effect , 1984, Popular Music.

[17]  Michael E. Gardiner.  Critiques of everyday life , 2000 .

[18]  Iain Michael Chambers.  A miniature history of the Walkman , 1994 .

[19]  Michael Bull,et al.  The World According to Sound , 2001, New Media Soc..

[20]  Fran Tonkiss.  Aural Postcards: Sound, Memory and the City , 2020, The Auditory Culture Reader.