This essay discusses how YouTube users describe their experience when listening to long durations of recorded geophony, in this case the sounds of winter winds. The analysis shows how individual differences and ambivalence are expressed in commentaries online and how the listening experiences involve affects, memories, associations, and imagination as well as, according to some user comments, having a more physical impact. The discussion draws on both recent and traditional theories, concepts, and terminology in order to study the phenomenon at hand. We argue that a listener-centered approach can be used to generate new knowledge on everyday listening to recorded geophony and find it relevant to search for similarities and contrasts between listening to these geophonic sounds and the somewhat parallel phenomenon of listening to music as background sound.
Comments are only available for registered users.