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Home , Headphones, Phonograph

PERSONAL COCKPITS AND CAPSULES THE ADVENTOF ’CULTURE

Herlander Elias

Índice 348). We look around and we see in cities, and also outside the cities, in the suburbs, in people INTRODUCTION ...... 1 walking to their jobs, jogging, shopping, always 1 HISTORY, AND FICTION ...1 wearing their headphones. However, the headpho- 2 THEORY ...... 2 nes are not something entirely new. Thompson, for CONCLUSION ...... 4 instance, argues that “In the 1950s, John C. Koss REFERENCES ...... 4 invented a set of stereo headphones ’designed ex- plicitly for personal consumption’” (2012, para.6). This we shall say, it is the official kicks- tart of the headphones’ model as we know it to- INTRODUCTION day, the two speakers with an arm, cushions and HE headphones’ culture is an interesting phe- plugged on a portable media device, which these T nomenon. It has its own specific background. days became the with up to 1 terabyte One cannot deny its scope and range because it is and a half on storage space. According to Thomp- enough for us to walk in the streets and see how son, Koss is the founder of the model that now is many people use in-ear earphones, on-ear earpho- everywhere, with people using these devices on nes and over the ear headphones. These devices the street, from hip-hoppers to millennials. The and headsets have a history of their own. Today headphones are a fashion symbol and also a state- they make sense for us since we got used to the ment of being fond of a certain of audio gear. concept of “portable music” and we enjoy staying They are a status symbol and display a lifestyle. sharp in our own “audio environments”. Much In another stage of the history of the headpho- can be said about the personal cockpits of our jobs nes we have the Navy, since that for and the sound capsules we are fond of using while purposes they came up with a mo- on commuting and on-the-go. In this text we will del of a that had both headphones and a sketch its theoretical framework, its history and its . This too is part of the history of the appearance in some key works of fiction. headphones culture. There is also a military back- ground up to it. We are told by Thompson that 1 HISTORY,BRANDS AND FICTION “Baldwin’s for the Navy has become a social accessory with an explicit message: I am When it comes to headphones there are several ty- here, but I am separate. In a wreck of people and pes of headphones, as mentioned previously, but activity, two pieces connected by a we will address them as commonly as possible, so create an aura of privacy” (2012, para.10). And we chose the term “headphones”. It is undenia- this is the tipping point for the headphones’ culture ble that headphones as a culture are an advent of because it has triggered the personal cockpits its what Bull points out as “street aesthetics” (2005, users are fond of and also the notion that the audio ção da totalidade ou de parte desta obra carece de expressa auto- c 2019, Herlander Elias. rização do editor e do(s) seu(s) autor(es). O artigo, bem como a c 2019, Universidade da Beira Interior. autorização de publicação das imagens, são da exclusiva respon- O conteúdo deste artigo está protegido por Lei. Qualquer forma sabilidade do(s) autor(es). de reprodução, distribuição, comunicação pública ou transforma- Herlander Elias environment could at once be personal, free of ex- nes. The moved totally into the terior noise, sharpening focus to whatever tasks we streaming territory, so people are streaming more have at hand. We want to be in the real world, but music than they are purchasing CDs. It all began with our own soundtrack. That is what the prehis- with the establishment of Spotify, the music strea- tory of the headphones kicks off, the beginning of ming service back in 2008. Then came Tidal, Pan- the sound capsule, us being able to be cocooned dora and Apple Music in 2016. Beats by Dr.Dre, with our portable sound . In his enlighte- a headphone manufacturer marketed at pop cul- ning way, Marsden provides us a bit more context ture and street culture youth was sold to Apple for regarding the advent of the headphones’ culture: $3bn in May 2014. Also, brands such as Sennhei- “The history of headphones, however, has had ser, Bang & Olufsen, JBL, Bose, not to mention little to do with style; it’s more a story of pro- , AKG and Samsung, all addressed the wire- blem solving. created a primitive less speakers, the smart speakers and the version in order to listen to his new creation, the headphones market. Though, in fiction these devi- in the . The 1881 Internatio- ces already had appeared. Cyberpunk science fic- nal Exposition of Electricity in Paris showcased a tion envisioned societies plugged in with devices new service called the Théâtrophone, which piped for the ears and the eyes as well. operatic performances into wealthy people’s ho- In François Truffaut’s 60s version of Fahre- mes over lines. It eventually launched nheit 451, Bradbury and Truffaut envisioned a in Lisbon in 1885 (at the behest of King Luis), and world in which small earbuds were used for talking subscribers to the service were provided with one and listening to music. This was a precursor image of the very first sets of headphones” (2015, para.1). of Apple Airpods, the iconic White - Surprisingly, the headphones became much enabled earphones. In Johnny Mnemonic (Robert more than a Théâtrophone, because then it relied Longo, 1995) the protagonist uses EyePhones for on physical connection. Today most headpho- Virtual Reality, so he calls them phones for the nes are Bluetooth-enabled, meaning they are to- eyes. William Gibson in Idoru also portrays a si- tally wireless, allowing freedom of movements, milar scenario when a girl is connecting to VR. It and also these new headphones can last for days was called “Thomson Eyeware”. Especially in cy- on a change thanks to an improved battery life. berpunk fiction we see characters either watching “How did we got here?” is an interesting ques- videoclips or in the streets, with their earbuds, clo- tion. First there was the birth of the World Wide sed into their own private sound capsules, an 80s Web in the 1990s and so the MP3 music file for- dream that came to be real. So we should best mat was the format of choice to share and down- comprehend the theory behind these sound capsu- load music. People began to listen to MP3. When les and personal cockpits that fascinates users of in 2001 Jonathan Ive at Apple designs the iPod it audio gear and trendsetters. became a monster hit. The iPod was basically a hard drive and a pair of white-branded headpho- 2 THEORY nes plugged in. The music player reproduced MP3 and it meant a bigger change. People were transla- Sherry Turkle speaks about “cockpit behaviour” ting their Compact Discs to the iPod by resorting (2011) in her books, addressing the way teenagers to a computer with iTunes installed as a mediator. use social media and their digital media to “zone People were also allowed to purchase records on out”. And this is exactly what the crowd from the the iTunes store in a Mac computer. But before headphones is doing too, they are zoning out. They the iPod there was a major agent that introduced do not want to be where they are, so music via he- the hardware format. In 1979 Sony releases the adphones takes where they are into the most. , a portable music player with a pair of In 1971, George Steiner in the Book In Blue- headphones. Today we have more futuristic gear beard’s Castle. Some Notes Towards The Redefi- like the Google for Augmented Reality, nition of Culture, the author is one of the first to but for example Apple Airpods seem very futu- speak of the “sound capsule” concept. Again he ristic for the pair of Bluetooth-enabled earphones was referring to the youth using headphones. Back that they are. Since 2017 the Airpods have become in the 60s, McLuhan spoke of “acoustic space” trendy and now they are a fashion statement con- (1994), which for him were spaces that, unlike cerning digital gear. the visual space, could penetrate each other, over- In the meantime, a lot has happened that enfor- lay and provide what Elias (1999) calls “- ces the usage of the new age of wireless headpho- capes”, the landscapes of sound. Erik Davis too www.bocc.ubi.pt 2 /6 Personal Cockpits And Sound Capsules. The Advent of Headphones’ Culture addresses the issue of the acoustic space and ex- fect for disconnecting from the outside space of plores its polyrhythmic potential. noise. While wearing headphones and listening to In 2010 Gibson allures to the fact of how the our soundtracks we feel like heroes in our own nar- Walkman changed our cities. In Petrusich view, rative. there is a lot to say about the advent of headpho- The author Edward T. Hall in the book The nes’ culture: “Is the ubiquity of headphones just Hidden Dimension [1986] explores the concept of another emblem of catastrophic social decline, ed- “personal space” and “proxemics”. Hall tells us ging us even deeper into narcissism and unsociabi- that people have a “personal space” and they tend lity?” (2016, para.1). If we may answer, then it is to communicate more in tables, while seated face “yes”, we are less social while the headphones are to face, or in diagonal, but communication decays on, but we are also more focused, free of noise. In as we usually communicate less with people stan- her view, the outside world was a place we shared. ding on our side. Sitting at a table with friends Everybody was in the same auditory environment. is more positive than sitting in the movie theatre And now there is a fragmentation. Each person or in the bus, because here we are all side by side. is zoned-out in his own music world, what Petru- What this means is that perhaps headphones makes sich calls “our own bubbles of self-programmed us more introspective, and also they make feel like sound” (2016, para.1). Things get more serious as, we are side by side, but if this was not bad enough, according to a we are standing there, but our “audio mind” is not. “A 2014 survey by the “music lifestyle brand” Now, headphones change the game in some Sol Republic found that fifty-three per cent of says. They change the way music producers de- millennials–defined, for the survey’s purposes, sign music for people who wear headphones. Mu- as adults between eighteen and thirty-four years sic via headphones sounds better and the new he- old–owned three or more pairs, and wore headpho- adsets with Active Noise Cancellation improve our nes for nearly four hours every day” (Petrusich, connection to the audio environment while they 2016, para.2). disconnect us from the outside world. They per- What is at stake here is that we are wea- form as if they are sonic virtual reality sets. He- ring our headphones to avoid interaction, the same adphones also increment the culture of enjoying thing we do with our social media on smartpho- soundscapes. They created a new type of audi- nes. Then there is the issue that headphones now ence, a more selfish, focused and detailed-sound are a fashion accessory. One cannot forget that the based state which we embrace. advent of headphones’ culture means that the le- Cliff Richard in the videoclip “Wired for gacy of the headphones is that they are a symbol Sound” (Marsden, 2015, para.1) speaks about the of the self-focused individual. Headphones mark people in the Walkman world. “Walking about the era of the inwardly focused subject. Each user with a head full of music,” he sang, “Cassette in stands in his own audio environment (Petrusich, my pocket and I’m gonna use it... Stereo! Out 2016, para.3). We know for sure that the headpho- on the street you know! Whoah-oh-oh...” (Idem, nes help us demarcate private space, our own per- Ibidem). This vibe that the videoclip promotes is sonal cockpit and sound capsule. While one we- the vibe of the connected world. This is what we ars headphones one is saying “I am safe and well do while we are online, except now we even use alone”. music to improve de zone-out effect. “Portable There is an apex, for we have reached a tip- music had arrived, and headphones were the me- ping point in which headphones are no more than dium by which we accessed it.” (Idem, Ibidem). fashion icons that make us more lonely. The pro- But there is more to say about it. For instance, blem that Petrusich raises is that “If headphones there is this whole “aspirational culture” (Idem, allow for more introspection, do headphone users Ibidem). People want to wear the iconic headpho- favour introspective sounds? If there’s been a the- nes from the top-notch brands. But the same peo- matic through line in the past several years of pop ple are helping a new category of digital gear to be music, it’s been messages of self-reliance and libe- fully-embraced: the wearables. As for now, wire- ration, songs that place us at the center of our own less headphones stand on the same level as smart heroic arcs” (2016, para.5). It seems that the pre- watches, tablets and . The audio envi- sence of music pushes via headphones into more ronment is even what connects us better with the closed, introspective worlds. All of this began with brand designers view of the future. This is why the Walkman in 1979. Portable audio plus MP3 Beats was acquired by Apple. Music now is at plus streaming plus Bluetooth created a world per- the core of the brands, it connects us best with www.bocc.ubi.pt 3 /6 Herlander Elias their narratives. “For years, we’ve been told by the Finally we could say that the advent of he- industry that wearable is the next big adphones’ culture means that we live in a services thing, and we’ve largely remained resistant. But economy and demand zen modes for more profici- our attitude towards headphones isn’t in the least ent ways of working, and also that we need someti- suspicious” (Idem, Ibidem). mes to privatize our public space and to customize And what are exactly users of headphones our audio environment as these are an extension of doing with them? They listen to music, answer our minds. We zone into whenever our music takes calls, but they are also prone to privatised and me- us. Music is key in this puzzle. diated sound reproduction. These people create intimate soundscapes they can manage; “aestheti- cised spaces in which they are increasingly able, CONCLUSION and desire, to live” (Bull apud Marsden, 2015, Headphones are not a new gear. We have discus- para.1). One thing we do notice is this need for sed it. But their total acceptance and wide-spread a personal soundtrack in which we are the prota- use is new. It is becoming synonymous of living gonists. In fact, a customised soundtrack make us in a city. With our headphones on we are alone perform more efficiently (Idem, Ibidem, para.2). in our soundscape with our own thoughts. This is Hosokawa spoke of a place that was “out of space something Thompson says we can choose to share and time, a placeless place, where the user is taken (2012, para.8). "People like to control their en- to be disconnected from the world around them” vironment” (Bull apud Thompson, 2012, para.9). (apud Marsden, 2015, para.5). Disconnection se- And headphones are just the beginning, since their ems to be the goal of wearing headphones. The inception in the Théâtrophone to the US Navy tele- iPod when it came out was related to people’s ab- communication headsets, they are just paving the sent states of mind. Its main feature was to allow way for some new form of gear. Kerckhove spe- people to carry a thousand songs in the pocket. Or aks of the “Augmented Mind” (2010). As we wear an entire “collection” (Idem, Ibidem). headphones our mind is augmented, we are dis- Zoning-out, sound bubbles, soundscapes, per- traction free. While we listen to our music play- sonal cockpits or sound capsules are just ways to lists we are shielding ourselves from the outside label what is happening in a modern office, an world, it is a kind of real-estate we select to share open space kind. All around us people concentrate or not. Please remember that since 2001 “The iPod on the tasks at hand by wearing headphones. “(...) user struggles to achieve a level of autonomy over and the vast majority thinks it makes us better at time and place through the creation of a privatised our jobs. In survey after survey, we report with auditory bubble” (Bull, 2005, 344). Also, it se- confidence that music makes us happier, better at ems a fact that our sole consumption of a “uniform concentrating, and more productive” (Thompson, soundtrack” (Idem, Ibidem) happens to be the core 2012, para.2). We cannot argue against this. It of everything. We just want to listen to the sounds makes sense. But we also have to say that the suc- that are more connected to us, the ones that tell cess of headphones lies in fact that “they create, us something. Some may say that the headpho- in a public space, an oasis of privacy” (Idem, Ibi- nes’ experience is a narcissistic one, other may say dem, para.3). Thompson also argues that as the that these are “Non-spaces” (Idem, Ibidem, 345), United States moved toward more services and a much as Marc Augé’s “No-places”, but ultimately creativity-based economy, people at work need a it is just a sound consuming culture. Each and means to focus at open space offices. That is where every person suffer from the “Walkman Effect”. the headphones come in. The new jobs; "demand We are held hostage in our own privatised medi- higher levels of concentration, reflection and crea- ated soundworlds. “The personalized narratives of tivity. This to a logistical answer: users’ music choices” (Idem, Ibidem, 348). We “With 70 percent of office workers in cubicles are just into our own “Auditory mnemonic” (Idem, or open work spaces, it’s more important to create Ibidem, 349). We are flâneurs with soundtracks, a one’s own cocoon of sound. That brings us to a version of the flâneur of modern times. psychological answer: There is evidence that mu- sic relaxes our muscles, improves our mood, and can even moderately reduce blood pressure, heart REFERENCES rate, and anxiety. What music steals in acute con- centration, it returns to us in the form of good vi- Elias, H. (ed.). Davis, E. (1998). Roots and : bes” (Thompson, 2012, para.4). The Black Electronic And The Polyrhythmic www.bocc.ubi.pt 4 /6 Personal Cockpits And Sound Capsules. The Advent of Headphones’ Culture

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from www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=we pbiAhVRUhoKHR_BDTEQFjABegQIBxA b&rct=j&url=https://is.muni.cz/th/426218/ff C&usg=AOvVaw27w8em4UC6YfRFnVgvP _b/%3Flang%3Den&ved=2ahUKEwjDiqS0l X9R (Access in May 2019).

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