How headphones are killing local music

FEATURE | ISSUE FIVE | PUORO O AOTEAROA / LOCAL MUSIC

Written by Polly Wenlock (she/her) | @p0lly2001 on Substack | Contributing Writer

Local music surrounds us constantly, though it may not be in forms we tend to celebrate or even acknowledge.

I’m not just talking about your classic Kiwi chilled-out-summer-vibes garage-band, though they too deserve their accolades…

I’m talking seasonal mall carollers, your optimistic main-street busker, the man who plays the bugle at your local Anzac dawn parade.

What about the playlist playing tinily over the station intercom? Or the weirdly celebratory jazz soundtrack embedded in some public bathroom stalls? Even that man playing bass-boosted trap so loud he’s shaking the surrounding cars is local music.

This is the music of your environment, the sound of your neighbours, a steady reminder of the thousands of other souls coexisting, cohabiting your world every day.

And this is my gripe with headphones.

I’m a regular public transport user, and a frequent walker. Without adopting an advanced “back-in-my-day” angle on things (especially given my Gen Z age), I can’t help but bemoan the ever-advancing technology-induced isolation I see around me.

As by design, headphones are a great avenue for consuming one’s own preferred media, and I find myself relying on them when I need a break from the world, a breather. But in a way, this crutch is simultaneously an inhibitor, preventing me from engaging with the world around me and - as I see it - truly appreciating local music and its steady and gentle reminder that I am but one conscious body amongst many.

In my view, headphones represent an isolated world in which I take precedence, allowing me to ignore the noise that tells me others are around.

And not just around, but trying out, learning, and with various degrees of success (though apparently art is subjective), performing.

Indeed, all music is not celebrated equally, and I think it’s important that we recognise and highlight local music we take for granted.

One does not simply pick up the violin and become a maestro… when that screechy high-school busker hits a note, or (if all parties are lucky) a series of notes correctly, this is something worth celebrating, effort was made, learning was done, another human gave something a go, and succeeded. But emboldened by headphones to walk on by, achievements made in your local community, as demonstrated by local music, go unnoticed.

My stance is that with headphones or without headphones, we tend to underappreciate our local noisemakers, but headphones definitely make their noticing rarer.

Hence, I will be making a more concerted effort to notice and celebrate those making noise in my local community as proof-of-life individuals, and I would encourage you to do the same.

Be it your local high school’s orchestra fundraiser, the family with the speakers at the beach or the obnoxiously inside-joke born ringtone of a fellow commuter, the grievance public or local music causes you is the friction of co-existence and worth celebrating in a world increasingly lonely.

P.S. My apologies to anyone who commuted on the early service Western line in 2019, when my full volume Biggie Smalls ‘Hypnotise’ alarm would routinely wake me for my stop… you’re welcome for the proof of life?