Tag Archives: visual learning

Degrading the Youthful Birthright of Music

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Has Music Become a Second-Tier Backup?

The popular music YouTuber Rick Beato recently posted a short piece asserting that kids—including his own—have devalued music in their lives by tying its delivery to their smartphones. In his 60s and completely sound-centric, Beato remembers his own youth when collecting and listening to music was a prized means of expressing their own identity. As I noted in the last post, recordings, record stores and radio airplay meant a lot. But his point that 4G and 5G technology as applied to smartphones has changed a lot. I would add that the phone screen partly changed the ratio of our dominant senses by giving communication in general a more visual and less auditory focus.

Sight now dominates over sound in almost all media forms: games, chats, texting, and social media content. To be sure, music is surely still within this mix. Headphones have become standard personal gear for many, in spite of the unfortunate “I’m not in this space” vibe that wearing them passes on to others nearby. But Beato is probably right to assert that contemporary pop music has receded in importance, used as an aural background for other activities. It is less surprising that even the younger among us might not recognize many of the performers on Billboard’s “Hot 100.”

There is also a strange but revealing anomaly that used to be common. These days, no one now sits around and watches a record play. I mean that literally. The mid-century habit was once common among the young where attention was paid on what was being heard. We weren’t exactly in a trance but our visual sense was put on hold in order to focus on the music spinning out of the grooves. As was also true in the heyday of radio, complete listening could put the need to see something on pause.  We have all had the experience of hearing something so intently that our eyes drift into an inactive state.

In terms of my own previous work in The Sonic Imperative (available to download on this site), we are now much less “sound-centric.” And I’ve heard it scores of times: a student struggling with an academic subject complaining that he or she is a “visual thinker.” Learning or entertaining oneself by hearing might seem to have had its day. But it has not.  For reasons explained in the book, the processing of sound still remains our first sense. 

Social Media Dominates 

teens and cell phones

17-year-olds average almost 6 hours a day on social media. While some of that time is allocated to “listening” to music, researchers note that this is background for other activities such as homework, gameplaying or work. In this framework, the music video born in the 1980s was an adaptation and a form of self-defense. The hooks to these videos were often the images added to remain competitive as music television expanded. Even so, it was hard to fault musicians who resisted turning their audio art into a clutter of visual memes.

Add up what is now the default youthful focus on watching short-form videos, and we would get a pretty low index of our sensory experiences. All of the accumulated visual editing yields very little that matters; not the experience of those lucky enough to still be caught by the raptures of music.

 

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The Face of Trumpism Comes into Focus

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 In a single 24-hour period the term “Trumpism” went from being a description to a pejorative.

                                                                          USA Today

Americans increasingly learn what they know from what they see. Many still can’t seem to grasp the Covid-19 threat, partly because it is not visible and must be confirmed in a lab. The threat seems abstract, hence not quite real. A hoax, perhaps. This principle of using a simple-minded visual guide for all that matters operates in many spheres of life, and even for all of us in the vivid images of delight in the chaos that motivated the mob at the Capitol.

All were white, and clearly delighted with the mayhem created in spaces most of us think of as sacred.

He started his administration on the Capitol steps four years ago ominously invoking the theme of “American carnage.” Almost to the day it will end, his proxies gave us a representation of what that can look like. In a single 24-hour period the term “Trumpism” went from being a description to a pejorative. As its supporters violated the our grandest government building, we saw its face in ways we will never forget: some costumed as warriors, most seemingly aggrieved by a complex world they don’t understand. Others expressed the feeling that they have been pushed to the margins.  All were white, and clearly delighted with the mayhem created in spaces most of us think of as sacred.

Trump has stood for very little beyond a virulent nationalism, focusing mostly on an unflagging sense of self-regard. He built his Presidency on the sand of his carefully combed visage, as well as a constant rhetoric of grievances. And it paid off, at least for a while. As Senator Cory Booker noted in one of the best of the delayed January 6 speeches in the Senate, Trump supporters seem to be part of a cult, carrying flags emboldened with a person’s name rather than a more inclusive symbol of hopeful values.

Watching the demonstrators milling around the Capitol, I was struck by the fact they seemed to have little to say; no argument to make, no ideal to uphold. “USA! USA!” and “Take back the steal” was heard most often. I’ve noticed the same pattern in other rallies. Holding a banner or flag is the thing. There appeared to be no war to protest, no law to challenge, no congressional action to dispute. They were there mostly to simply witness for Donald J. Trump:  a real-estate speculator turned into a cult figure.