Sodcasting – you’ve got to love the signifier even if you don’t love what it signifies. I only heard the phrase recently. This is an article from almost a year and a half ago, so it’s clearly been knocking around (according to this the term was invented in 2007 – as usual at TtSD we’re well behind the curve).
Sodcasting is the act of playing music on public transport. Its young people do it. I have never encountered a bone fide adult doing it. Of course it’s infuriating and, of course, sodcasters almost certainly aren’t aware of how annoying it is and many probably think they’re brightening up people’s bus journey. It is another illustration of music used as ambience, sound as space.
Teenagers would make room for themselves in the family home by building a wall of sound in their room with a radio, cassette player or such. As far as it’s a conscious act I think it’s done firstly by young people living in such close quarters that privacy at home is impossible. I used to live in a block of flats where half a dozen lads used to regularly hang about outside. They’d smoke weed and listen to music in a car. They looked like every Mail-reader’s nightmare but were never any trouble. In fact they were being very considerate (whether they intended to be or not) as they certainly couldn’t do that indoors.
The second factor is our society has become much more hostile to young people. We have a government that actively encourages this. Conscious sodcasting is a way of asserting power and control over a space. We can berate young people for doing it, but then life, especially urban life, has been turned into an aggressive war of all against all, fighting for space, rushing from A to B. No one is innocent.
A more considerate society starts with considering people’s needs. In this case a place for young people of all backgrounds to meet and play music.