Listening to chosen music enables these iPod users to focus in on themselves. In
these situations the music enables users to clear a space for thought, imagination
and mood maintenance. (p. 349)
No Dead Air! The iPod and the Culture of Mobile Listening is a good article by Michael Bull that gets at the how the iPod gives users control over mobile times and places (gives them a musical bubble when filling in time.) This article recognizes that an imporant chronotope is the “in-between” space of commuting, walking, taking the tube, or jogging. These spaces are typically public, but the iPod gives one a way of personalizing it, creating a private auditory space out of the public space.
Thanks to Sean for this.
Another feature of the iPod is the whole Playlist and iTunes mixes business which lets consumers develop their “taste” in music and share it. The control of playlists and online mixes allows for a supplemental form of production where consumers can also produce new collections for others to consume. It furthers a sense control over media for those who can’t make it.
There are, however, some side effects. One is hearing loss from cranking the volume up to drown out public sound. See iPods and Hearing Loss. The other is safety. Like cell phones, iPods (and other personal listening devices) can distract you.
iPods tend to be non-interactive in the sense that users construct fantasies and maintain feelings of security precisely by not interacting with others or the environment. Aesthetic colonisation plays an important role in the daily use of iPod users. iPods are used both as a mundane accompaniment to the everyday and as a way of aestheticising and controlling that very experience. In doing so the iPod reorganises the userÔø?s relation to space and place. Sound colonises the listener but is also used to actively recreate and reconfigure the spaces of experience. (p. 350)
What if we had devices that could generate a a flim-score like track to turn walking home into an event? Could a device interact with sensors to generate new music based on mood decisions and passing features? Could such devices interact with each other as we pass each other? Would we choose such a feature?
Bibliographic Reference: Bull, M. (2005). “No Dead Air! The iPod and the Culture of Mobile Listening.” Leisure Studies 24(4): 343-355.