Sounds fall on ears but they don’t remain there. They move upwards in mind in search of meaning. It is a sense making process. Sounds and their connections with thoughts/concepts are forged in early childhood. Through the process of socialization sounds are linked with concepts. The sound ‘ma’ is linked with ‘mommy’ and ‘no’ is memorized as ‘rejection’ and ‘ta-ta’ is related to bye. The process goes on in our repertoire of sounds and their corresponding thought makes up language. Sounds are rarely neutral. They never fall silently and fade away without ripples in our consciousness. Sounds drop in ears but stir ripples in brain for translation and meaning.
Sounds operate through vibrations of air. Imagine a soundless world. A major sense that alerts to dangers is gone as will be attraction toward something pleasant. Sounds act as source of information for receiver and sender. People find it difficult to feel fullness of Diwali without crackers. The same goes for celebrations which are felt sterile without sounds like decibel music and booms of crackers during marriages. It seems everything has a sound that is built into its identity which act as an identifier as well as signifier of psycho-socio-cultural meaning.
Sounds are implicated in meanings. Consider a sound like roar of a lion, it draws it meaning from jungle and hence signifies top station and power and hence carries psychological gravity that positions others as meek and is implicated in the cultural narrative of kingdoms, battles and victories. Take the sound of an electric guitar and sitar and discover the knowledge centers in your brain that start firing. These two sounds create bipolar perceptions including orthodox- contemporary, young-old, entertainment-prayer and culture-counterculture. Imagine how a joke would lose its punch minus the accompanying sound of laughter; horror in a sequence of Omen or Exorcist without background score would lose its punch. The sound creates a multiplier effect.
Consider the following brands/ products for integration of sounds in their identity (audio identity):
- Crackle- those crackling sounds
- Kitkat- wafer finger breaking
- Potato chips/ recall Bingo ad
- Harley Davidson
- Enfield’ ‘phat-phat-phat’
- Intel- ‘bong’
- Britannia-‘Ting Ting Tiding’
- Ferrari- revving engine sound
The connection of sound with emotions/ nostalgia/thinking is established. What is likely happen to if sound is removed from a product that essentialized its identity? For some it may create a sense of deprivation even when functionally it is enhanced. There are things that are known by their audio signature, especially in gadgets and automobiles. The noise production is byproduct of working parts but often it assumes equal or greater significance in its psycho-social interpretation. Noiselessness of cars or machines indicates engineering excellence but it can in equal measure may rob these of punch, thrill, energy, power or all that is considered masculine.
Two trends are perceptible. There are people who throng to modification workshops to change their mufflers to become amplifiers. This is especially true for mobike riders. It is likely that they seek thundering/ roaring sound as a compensatory device to establish mental extension by sound amplification. Socially it is aimed at getting the others to submit into compliance. Psychologically, the embedded energy gives boost to the self of man on the wheel creating a sense of power thrill of kill in a jungle. Sound also acts a ‘call out’ in the noisy and crowded world of anomie and identitylessness. It serves as a bullet to shatter through the glass of indifference and ignorance to grab attention. Further, shock wave and boom or bang or blast of firing a gun is as much a pleasure to hear as to see the kill. The replication of these sounds by modified silencers are nothing less than a preventive warning ‘don’t mess around’.
Now what do you do with vehicles where engines don’t rev, pistons don’t move, exhausts don’t smoke, grills don’t heat, crankshafts don’t rotate and there’s no combustion (literally). Where’s all that fury gone? The motors have silenced the vehicle. The EV is a miracle, probably God’s grace to protect planet from toxic and glacier melting gases. The diffusion of a new product (Rogers) depends upon five factors: relative advantage, complexity, trialability, observability and compatibility. The EVs run in difficulty with compatibility issues, especially on the psychological plane. With rev and thunder gone the perception of thrill, excitement and power may take the kick out of drive which may not be adequately compensated by the value of eco-consistency. The trade off is real and question is which segment sides with what. The pull of efficiency (relative advantage) can draw the value seekers but the conceptual inconsistency for the experiencers may take the punch out of driving of an EV. Just like green crackers are not the same as conventional firecrackers with all of their toxic emissions, EVs for some may not be authentic cars.
So, some of the EV manufacturers are seeking to compensate the natural silence with artificially engineered sounds. But the question is would the artificial sounds adequately compensate for the vanishing effect of your presence and extended self- view?
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