When the Walkman emerged in 1980, it started a revolution in how we consume music and other sonic media. There were, of course, appearances of negative and fearful opinions predicting that Walkman would make people psychotic and disconnected from the surrounding environment. There have always been fears and uncertainties attached to new inventions throughout history, not only from the media realm. For example, the printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440 was, by certain groups, considered a threat to public morality because the sudden access and democratisation of wider knowledge provided by books to common people allegedly could cause chaos in what we are being taught. Indeed, at the time, it caused the acceleration in questioning of certain status quo, and the invention of the print press played a significant role in enabling Christian reformation in Europe in the 16th century. Nowadays, we encounter similar discussions regarding Virtual Reality headsets with fears of people becoming utterly detached from reality. Did the Walkman become comparatively influential politically? It may have become another expression or by-product of individualism.
When we discussed in class how the invention of portable audio devices (we can extend Walkman followed by Discman, MP3 players, iPods, and smartphones these days) is influencing our interactions with the environment and our reasons for using them, people were describing similar things. The Walkman became a predominantly urban audio device, and many people use it to conceal or shield themselves from the city environment’s surrounding chaos.
Portable audio devices also change our imagination induced by music (or other sonic art forms). Before, it would be exclusively tied to a place produced live at the gig or at home, reproduced by a record or a radio station. The Walkman suddenly opened the door to the ‘scoring of the life’ on a different level. New sceneries (from urban to natural ones) supported by our choice of favourite music suddenly provided new scales of imagination and possibly even inspiration.
It also changed the way we walk in the environment. I found myself extending my journeys on streets to wherever I was heading on many occasions so I could listen to my favourite music for longer. Occasionally, it became an unconscious ritual reminding me that ‘the journey is the goal’.
All this suggests what is written in the article about the Walkman providing certain autonomy (Hosokawa, 1984: 166). Having the possibility to opt in and out from whatever is happening around you is undoubtedly an advantage, but there are also negatives coming with all of this. I certainly haven’t encountered anybody losing their mind and getting psychotic attacks based on prolonged headphone-wearing. However, hearing damage from quite a young age is real – reducing sensitivity to specific frequency ranges contributes to developing severe and long-term tinnitus (both based on my own experience).
Bibliography:
Hosokawa, S. (1984) ‘The walkman effect,’ Popular Music, 4, pp. 165–180. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261143000006218.