Spectacular Listening: Music and Disability in the Digital Age

Imagine a powerful listening experience that you want to share with others. You could describe it to someone with words, or you may choose a flashier alternative. You could, for example, costume yourself and take to the stage in a famous concert venue, delivering a rousing air guitar interpretation of a beloved rock solo for a live audience. Maybe you seek something more subtle, so you pull out your smartphone and record yourself lip-syncing to a guilty pleasure, showing your followers how seamlessly the music fits your movements. Perhaps instead you want others to hear how the music makes you feel, which leads you to record a podcast episode that translates the thrill of listening into audible exclamations.

In ways both mundane and sensational, listening can be an expressive act, enabling people to stage consumption as a public practice -- what author Byrd McDaniel calls "spectacular listening." Contemporary digital platforms not only support such activity but actively encourage people to package personal music reception into a performance that may be widely shared. With a range of compelling ethnographic case studies, McDaniel investigates a broad shift in contemporary listening norms and the stakes for listeners with disabilities. He reveals how listening-as-performance can be an opportunity for play, as well as a critical practice that exposes ableism in music institutions, technologies, and discourse.

Author: Byrd McDaniel
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 02/20/2024
Pages: 216
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 7.80h x 6.30w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780197620465

About the Author
Byrd McDaniel is a music researcher and ethnomusicologist, who examines the relationships between sound technologies and people. His published work engages with listening, disability, music, and popular culture, in ways that entwine digital media studies, disability studies, and music studies. In his current position as Assistant Director of Student Development at Brown University, McDaniel strives to make higher education more adaptable, accessible, and accountable to our changing world.