Abstract
The importance of understanding gender, space and mobility as co-constructed in public space has been emphasized by feminist researchers (Massey 2005, Hanson 2010). And within feminist theory materiality, affect and emotions has been described as central for experienced subjectivity (Ahmed 2012). Music listening while moving through public space has previously been studied as a way of creating a private auditory bubble for the individual (Bull 2000, Cahir & Werner 2013) and in this article feminist theory on emotion (Ahmed 2010) and space (Massey 2005) is employed in order to understand mobile music streaming. More specifically it discusses what can happen when mobile media technology is used to listen to music in public space and investigates interconnectedness of bodies, music, technology and space. The article is based on autoethnographic material of mobile music streaming in public and concludes that a forward movement shaped by happiness is a desired result of mobile music streaming. The valuing of ‘forward’ is critically examined from the point of feminist theory and the failed music listening moments are also discussed in terms of emotion and space.
Highlights
I am running up the escalators from the train station to my university, iPhone in my hand, my work bag is bouncing on my shoulder and through my white iPhone headphones Dorian Concept is playing
Ahmed (2010: 13) argues that where we find happiness teaches us what we value rather than what is of value, the feelings we feel are what make some things good and others bad
When moving through public space and listening to music at the same time some experiences may be general, related to music listening in public space as an activity, and some may be specific for the app that is used, the subject position of the person listening, the public space in question or the music listened to
Summary
I am running up the escalators from the train station to my university, iPhone in my hand, my work bag is bouncing on my shoulder and through my white iPhone headphones Dorian Concept is playing. While Spotify’s discover function was more elaborate in its’ design it did not take into account what was popular at the time, while VK’s suggestions of new music could be less precise in terms of genre and artist This illustrates the impact the algorithms have on the user’s ability to move through large libraries of music, they could at the same time be a source of annoyance when perceived as inaccurate in terms of taste and subject position since they claimed to fitted for me. VK and Spotify appear to be neutral engines of music, when the selection, suggestion and search results depend on algorithms, friends and self-made folder/playlists as well as one’s user behavior In this respect the apps are spaces shaped by historical subject positions of the users – myself and all the others that the algorithms generate information from – providing certain possibilities for future choices (Massey 2005). As the choices of music and representation of them are embedded in gendered and racialized genre classifications the becoming shapes cultural patterns of power and difference
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