Mobile media has become entrenched in its reputation of being a “strong commodity” in today’s ever-shifting market. Indeed, mobile media providers and the music industry have seen a somewhat evergreen property in the concept of mobile media, considering that even though the specific types and content might change there’s still a good deal of strength in the demand for it as mobile phones keep becoming more and more enhanced and flexible [and thus capable of supporting more types of content]. Realizing this, the rest of the entertainment industry has gotten in on the act as well, using mobiles to promote films, television shows and the like.
Indeed, the affinity of people toward familiar sounds and music – and the familiar sound OF music – has been a strong motivator in purchases of ringtones of beloved songs, sound clips of favorite actors and films and television shows. On a deeper level than mere enjoyment, people do indeed use sound as identifiers of personality and identity. We associate places and cultures with sounds that seem to have become iconic and intuitive when they are mentioned – Greenland and Alaska are associated with the barks of huskies, as well as the rustling of their sleds, for instance, while aboriginal instruments and people’s accents may clue us in on an Australian reference.
This is the sort of thing that the BBC Save Our Sounds project is trying to keep alive for people of the next century. Much as we as a people have worked hard to archive the sights and sounds handed down to us from yesteryear courtesy of multimedia encyclopedia entries with photos and audio/video recordings, the BBC Save Our Sounds project endeavors to preserve – and even awaken – a sense of wonder at and appreciation for the world around us. This plays on the concept that while the eye is taken in by the shifting visual markers around us, the new and flashy elements that shift all the time, the ear is drawn in by the familiar – and what is familiar-sounding now is quickly becoming outmoded.
Various initiative on the website showcase the efforts of Save Our Sounds to share and inspire the concern for the “acoustic ecology.” The Outlook program features various “endangered” sounds from five separate parts of the world, such as “chai wallahs pouring tea” in Delhi and the songs of the fish wives of Angola. The Save Our Sounds Documentary features a set of experts discussing their concerns and going on “soundwalks” through London and Hong Kong, providing an interesting acoustic approach to anthropology – discussing matters such as noise pollution and sound management in cities. Finally, Save Our Sounds encourages ordinary people worldwide to capture sounds using any device, such as a mobile phone recorder, and send them to BBC via email addresses on the website or even the AudioBoo app on Apple’s iPhone. Snail-mailing audiotape- and CD-based recordings is also encouraged.
These sound clips are archived on the site, and are also available for downloading as ringtones. Various sounds from around the world, from the unique to the seemingly-commonplace and from the quirky but outmoded to the new and fresh, are sent in by interested and concerned supporters. Among the sounds available for download are sounds reminiscent of the snake-charmers of Marrakesh, the typing of a 1920s typewriter, the buzz and squeal of a 56k dial-up modem, the San Francisco cable car bell, East Lancashire church bells, “laughing” hippos from Tanzania, and the avian sounds of the kookaburra and wolf-whistle bird, among various others which can be followed using the Save Our Sounds Map.
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