Soundscape Analysis: Sainsbury's

Sound Ecology, or soundscape studies, is the study of relationships between humans and their environment through the sounds produced. According to Schafer, sounds can be catalogued “according to their referential aspects” (Schafer, 1994 p. 137). Above is the categorisation of sounds I heard during a 3-minute recording of Sainsbury’s, each marked with a letter corresponding to Schafer’s classification (see Appendix). Schafer also categorises quietness and silence; quietness is only relative to how much volume there previously was; silence is absolute. Sainsbury’s was never silent, only quiet with shop ambience.

The soundscape alternated between Lo-Fi and Hi-Fi. Lo-Fi is where each signal sound is “obscured in an over dense population of sounds” (p.43) whereas, in a Hi-Fi soundscape, sounds are easier to perceive since the ambient noise floor is lower. Depending on location in the store, the volume varied. Some aisles were more active than others; the route was through the centre, then alternating between the bakery, tinned food and detergent sections. The soundscape is mainly Lo-Fi as specific conversations, and sounds are not clear – they merge as “noise”. The constant ‘hum’ from the freezers adds to this, filling out space and pumping a permanent low-level noise into the already busy noise floor. Upon reaching the bread/baking aisle, a Hi-Fi soundscape emerged. Due to the lack of customers, overall volume decreased and moved from the loud to the near-silent. This moment granted certain sounds the chance to be more explicit, e.g. speech.

In A Sound Education, Schafer suggests doing a ‘listening walk’. One of the questions he asks is “what was the loudest sound heard on the walk?” and to describe “the highest pitch sound you heard” (Schafer, 1992 p.31). The supermarket was very far away from traffic, yet the sound of a siren (00’08”) was still prominent. The loud wail and harsh pitch allowed the sound to travel across long distances and penetrate through the building walls – showing how much power the sound contained.

Sirens can be seen as a source of political power as they symbolise authority and control within modern day society. When drivers hear the excruciating blare of a siren, followed by blue flashing lights, it represents a level of urgency and causes a split in the traffic. Sirens also symbolise cultural power as well as real power; the sheer volume of a siren could affect some people emotionally due to previous interactions with emergency forces, whether good or bad or a fear of having prejudice views against them.

With more traffic, people and mechanisation, the noise floor of everyday ambience has increased, causing sirens on emergency vehicles to become louder and more intense. According to the Noise Abatement Society: “There is presently no standard for the maximum decibel level” (Noise Abatement Society, n.d, para. 1) meaning emergency service workers can control the volume as they see fit. For perspective on how loud they are, the modern siren is around 100-110db; “110db is the threshold of pain and is 16 times louder than a vacuum cleaner” (Cottingham, n.d, para. 3).

Sirens force inescapable deafening noise into pedestrians’ consciousness. Loud sounds can cause physical harm to eardrums, leading to long-lasting damage and can induce high levels of stress. People who have Phonophobia, a fear of loud sounds, or a small child, would undoubtedly be affected by it. With noise abatement laws in place, sound phobias would provide us with a “good impression of whether a given bi-law [sic] fairly reflected public opinion concerning undesirable sounds” (Schafer, 1994 p.146). If people who suffer are still affected on a day-to-day basis, then it is clear that not enough has been done to lower noise levels.

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The twenty-first century coincided with greater modernisation. The self-service till, although convenient, caused supermarket workforce to drop considerably across the country and led to the reduction of a critical sound – the voice of a human cashier. However, this change has created a new distinctive sound – the checkout ‘beep’. As it is cheaper for companies to use self-service, this sound will eventually become more frequent.

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Rice explained there could be links “concerning intrusive sounds” (Rice, 2003 p.4) and emotional wellbeing. The ‘beep’ of a self-service till could also affect an off-duty supermarket employee emotionally; they are a constant reminder of the workplace. Similar to the siren, the sound is “oppressive” and “a constant grating symphony” (p.4) – there’s no escape due to its high pitch.

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When recording a soundscape, in this case, Sainsbury’s, ambient sounds are always present causing the noise floor to be high. A negative aspect of audio recordings is that it could be very subjective. For example, the rustling of a packet could sound like something different to someone else. This research method could be improved if we added a video to it. By having two aspects; video and audio, it would give a greater understanding of the recorded event and the “benefit of using recorded audio, and video is increased authenticity” (Markle, West and Rich, 2011, para. 2.2). A short audio recording also has a significant disadvantage as it is only a recording of that specific moment in time. Audio recordings, as opposed to video recordings or interviews, are less obtrusive and are representative of specific environments, especially within this scenario. However, slightly different results could have occurred by walking around with a camera instead; people may have acted differently. By using a hidden audio device, it allowed for discretion and natural results. In regards to the emotional impact of sounds, it would be impossible to create a correlation between the sound and emotional wellbeing unless further research was done, including a full ethnographic study.