Devin Chandler

9/10/2014
MUET 3030-001

Assignment 1: Musicscapes
Date: 9/7 Sunday
Time

Place

Genre

Use/Function

10:30am

Bedroom

Ringtone

Alarm

11:00am

Bedroom

Country

Entertainment

12:40pm

Car

Hip hop

Entertainment

1:00pm

DG house

Country

Entertainment

3:00pm

DG house

Chanting

Recruitment Songs

4:00pm

DG house

Chanting

Recruitment Songs

5:00pm

DG house

Chanting

Recruitment Songs

6:00pm

DG house

Chanting

Recruitment Songs

11:00pm

DG house

Hip hop

Entertainment

12:00am

DG house

Rap

Entertainment

Devin Chandler
9/10/2014
MUET 3030-001

Date: 9/8 Monday

Time

Place

Genre

Use/Function

10:00am

Bedroom

Ringtone

Alarm

11:20am

Bedroom

Soundtrack

Entertainment

12:30pm

Bedroom

Country

Entertainment

1:00pm

Kitchen

Alternative

Entertainment

1:30pm

Car

Jingle

Radio/ commercial

5:00pm

DG house

Chanting

Recruitment Songs

6:00pm

DG house

Chanting

Recruitment Songs

7:00pm

DG house

Chanting

Recruitment Songs

8:00pm

DG house

Chanting

Recruitment Songs

10:30pm

Car

Pop

Entertainment

Devin Chandler
9/10/2014
MUET 3030-001

Field Journal and Ethnography

When thinking about this assignment, I already had a pretty good understanding of what
my personal musicscape consisted of. Music is already a huge presence in my life and a passion
of mine. I enjoy it because I believe all music tells a story. Its an outlet of expression.
Music can be found all around us in our everyday lives. Whether its listening to the radio
in the car, shopping at the grocery store, or hearing a jingle on a TV commercial, we are
surrounded by it. Often times though, people disregard a lot of the music they hear by tuning it
out, it then becomes part of the background of any particular activity they are doing at the
moment. Music is situated within particular soundscapes because its anything you hear in that
moment. For example, you are a student walking through campus in the middle of the day, some
of the things you would hear are birds chirping, cars and motorcycles revving their engines,
people talking and laughing, and maybe the water fountain in the library mall. All of those
noises are part of UNTs current soundscape.
When it comes to someones personal musicscape, or your own, you might start to pick
up patterns. Every day I do something different than the day before, because no two days are
alike, but generally I do the same activities like taking the bus to class, walking through the BLB,
hearing people chatter while I wait for class to start, listening to music when Im alone or
relaxing in silence. Even though not everything that happens today happened yesterday, there is
still a lot of sounds repeating themselves day to day.
However, there is a difference between the musicscapes of weekdays and weekends. Like
I said, on weekdays Im riding the bus and walking through buildings on campus hearing all the

Devin Chandler
9/10/2014
MUET 3030-001
sounds that come with those activities, whereas, on the weekends Im usually sleeping in, watch
TV or a movie. I might decide to get out of the apartment for the day or I might just stay inside
all day and. Clearly those two different days have different musicscapes, I wont hear the same
things in my apartment that I would if I was walking to my classes.
Particular musical genres relate to specific situations based on what you are doing in that
point in time. For example, on Monday, I was listening to country music in my room for
entertainment, but later on that day, I was at the Delta Gamma house practicing songs for
recruitment and we had to chant. Its unlikely that with everything you do during the day, you
are going to hear the same songs or listen to the same genre of music. Most of the time you have
no control over what you hear, like when shopping at a store or hearing elevator music, its just
there.
The functions and uses of the music was mainly for entertainment. I always listen to
music because I like that it can make me feel a certain way. Specific songs bring back memories,
make me happy or excited, then theres songs I listen too when Im in a blah kind of mood. I also
like that it fills the silence when Im alone, its comforting. The days I decided to record were the
last two days of formal recruitment, and because of that, we had to do a lot of chanting and
singing recruitment related songs over and over again. Most of the music was live, especially the
recruitment songs, and Id say it was active.
The conclusion I come to when I think about the musicscape in Denton is that music is a
big part of this town. There have been a lot of artists, now very famous, that have been
associated with UNT or Denton itself. Live music here is a big part of entertainment for

Devin Chandler
9/10/2014
MUET 3030-001

Dentonites. You can go just about anywhere around town, almost any night of the week and find
a local band jamming out. The music culture in Denton is one that is never dull, there is always a
new up and coming artist eager to debut their talents to the city. Texas has an eclectic
musicscape, but Im pretty certain that country music is the most popular across the state. Texas
has its own kind of sub-genre, Texas country. It is made up of artists from all over the state that
write and sing songs about Texas. Not nearly as popular or known as mainstream country, it is
still just as good if not better. I dont have much insight about the whole United States
musicscape because I havent had the opportunity to explore the country completely but I know
that music is a huge part of entertainment and expression here in America, and worldwide.