Music: And you.

Coldplay is my current fave. I'm now listening to "A Rush of Blood to the Head."
 
Music and you

Xero said:
This thread has been made out of sheer curiosity, and probably my ignorance of deaf culture or whatever you want to call it. Hopefully, none shall take offense from this thread -- as that was not its intention.

Why is it that, in the deaf culture, music is not generally appreciated?

I can see how this would not apply to people born 100% deaf, I'm mainly refering to the hard-of-hearing students, like myself, who grew up surrounded by deaf students, unlike myself.

Or this may just be a dumb question, and a useless thread, full of nothing but my unorganized rants and raves.
Click to expand...

Note - I hope no one minds that I bring audiological issues in here! I think that would help in answering Xero's question.

Xero,

I've thought about this a lot. "Hard-of-hearing" implies you hear to some degree, with or without amplification. And there are many factors that determines how meaningful the auditory experience of listening to music is for someone who is very deaf or has a significant with hearing loss.

Musical input has two characteristics: rhythm and pitch. All deaf people can understand rhythm, so those that are rhythmic will gravitate to music with a strong beat. But not all deaf people can perceive pitch. It could be that that even with hearing aids, pitch isn't very meaningful. Or it is only meaningful at very specific and narrow frequencies, not all the frequencies needed to understand, much less appreciate, the full spectrum of auditory musical genres.

In the last two years, my nonprofit has had a music exhibit at an expo/exhibit show for the deaf and hard of hearing community here. We have percussion instruments for people to try out and we've had xylophones there. And deaf people would come up and tell me they have no capability to hear music. So I'd play pairs of notes on the xylophone for them. One low note, followed by one high note. And I'd ask them if they can tell the notes apart, whether they sounded same or different. And the low and high note pairs would get closer and closer. And then they'd let me know when the two notes pair sounds the same. A lot of the times, the notes would sound the same to them even though they were still quite a distance apart.

Also, the hearing healthcare industry for many years and especially when I was growing up, has had this mindset that speech perception is essential to a person's survival while music is not. So what happens is that hearing aids are more designed for speech perception and not so much for music listening. But I think things are changing now. I am fortunate that my own hearing loss as a child was the same across all frequencies, but I also know that isn't the case for every deaf person.

Just my thoughts,
Wendy
 
My experience is that I lost my hearing as a baby, I picked up music on my own, and I asked my stepmother to help me get into the school band in the 5th grade, and I have been listening to music however I want. In high school, I didn't care for the pop music scene like Madonna, Michael Jackson, metal and rock. I was really into jazz-rock fusion stuff like Yellow jackets, Stanley Clarke, etc. In college, I picked up electronic/80's dance music like OMD, Pet Shop Boys, Information Society, Dead or Alive, etc. Afterwards, I added on Madonna, Paula Abdul, Yothu Yindi, Yaz, etc. in the very late 90's, I added on Internet bands like Satcom 101, Drastic, Johannes Roussel, Hermit Bastard, Canfil, etc. Finally, in the early part of this decade, I watched School of Rock, and I finally understood what rock is about. I was turned on it full. I like stuff like AC/DC, some Aerosmith, a lot of modern rock like Godsmack, 7 Mary 3, 3 Doors Down, The Hives, Halo Friendlies, etc. Nowadays, I'm reaching out to see who does rock and other genres in other countries, like Motherjane from India, Avial from India, a song called Vaa Ji from the movie Sivaji (India). There is Blk Jks (sp?) from Africa.

I remember being told in high school that what I was listening to was crap because it wasn't rock. I didn't care. I'm one of those people who will listen to what gets me going. I'm very picky what I listen to. I don't run with the herd. Xero, I don't know why those people only listen to one thing over and over, except one thing - they might have an emotional attachment of some sort to the song, and that particular song hits certain areas of the brain that makes them feel good. That's what it does for me.

But yeah, I do talk about things you might have never considered. What is the possibility that these people are quiet because they feel they are so far out of mainstream society that they won't be understood, if at all. Like no one else shares their experiences. I fall solidly in that category. It wasn't until a few years ago that I realized that my problem with the deaf community at large is that I don't fit in. I'm like a hearing person, but I'm so deaf I shouldn't even be talking. I don't feel the need to take on a Deaf identity. There's so much going on in the world at large I don't want to miss out on, and this is why I don't run with the herd. I mean, I did militia duty briefly, am interested in old, small SUVs, play music, work in retail, do underground financial research on the side, etc.

Stephanie
 
Music has been a part of my life since age 5. I grew up playing several instruments and spent hours upon hours listening to my favorite music. I also have an extensive music collection of over 500 CDs, 200 cassettes and 150 records.

I lost my hearing in 1995 and was devastated when I could no longer enjoy music. I spent the next 10 years appreciating the little music I could hear. (drum beats and male vocals depending on how loud they were)

I now have CIs and have rediscovered my love for music. I was recently given a new map for my CIs and now music sounds better than ever.

Needless to say, I'm *very* happy to have music back in my life. :D
 
Back
Top