Going to Seattle doesn’t seem scary, I only moved from there 6 months ago, and before I lived in the city I was born and raised in a suburb just outside of it. Because of this I have a lot of ideas of what the city will be like, what sounds I will hear, what the people will be like, and what the neighborhoods will be like that I stay in. I want to try and throw these understandings out when I go back to Seattle, I want to go to the city not with new eyes but with new ears, after this quarter I can’t stop thinking about all the sound I must have never heard when I lived there and how many musical experiences I must have just walked right by. I think about how I had the perfect roof to sit on top of and just listen to the noises the city makes. This trip is an opportunity for me to go back to all the places I regret not listening to more and try again. I also want to go back and try to find any similarities I can in the sound of the city. When reading about the Manchester sound it reminded me about the Seattle sound – if there is one – and the kind of sound the city makes people want to create. I am not convinced that this kind of phenomenon exists, I think it is more accurate that when people start making music with each other they feed off/are influenced by each other, either way I would like to look for a some relation between all the sounds I hear.

The “Seattle Sound” was grunge of course, but there was talk of a Seattle sound again when indie folk artists started appearing (like Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Head and The Heart). If this second Seattle sound does exist I want to see how much, I would like to see just how popular folk really is in the city compared to other places in the United States.

I currently have four weekends planned to go to Seattle to do this study, because of how close the city is this saves me money rather than having to stay up there for extended periods and miss work. I’ll be going from friday to sunday. Along with a handful of other days I will be able to drive down and also study. I have planned out my 4 weekend trips below, leaving the other days free so I can make quick plans to go see music.

When I go around the Seattle I plan to always have an ability to take notes at any time. this is how I plan on being able to capture and analyse the sounds of the city, because they can happen all the time. I will be keeping a small field notebook in my back pocket along with a small pen, but ill also have my phone on me, which can be an audio recorder that I could later upload to this site.

 

Weekend 1
I will reside in a place I am most familiar with in Seattle. the north end. I will be living near the U-District, but will be visiting the fremont, phinney ridge, and greenwood neighborhoods. I am going to try to go to musical events in these areas, and try to see what they are like to later compare them to other parts of the city. This first weekend will be an important starting idea to see if I can develop some sense of a Seattle sound
Weekend 2
I will be staying atop Queen Anne hill and be exploring that part of the city along with Belltown. This will be a much more eye opening experience for me as I do not usually hang out in Belltown and I am not sure what musical offerings will be waiting for me, and what relations they have to what I already know
Weekend 3
I plan to live my life like I used to before I moved to Olympia, but I would like to open my ears in a new way to find sounds that I probably took for granted. This week will include going farther south in the city toward SoDo. This week I also hope to look at my past research and see if I can hear the Seattle sound in my everyday life. If there is one.
Weekend 4
This is the week that I am going to try to go to some museums. I specifically would like to try to go to the MOHAI, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Burke Museum. I am hoping these places will give me a better understanding of the ways the landscape of Seattle has affected its residents. I am looking forward to going to the MOHAI to understand Seattle’s city structure better, and how that affected the people. I would like to go to the SAM to view all the Seattle native art they own and look for recurring themes. Also I would like to see the PERSONAL HISTORIES exhibit. The Burke museum is a natural history and culture museum that I hope will help me, like the MOHAI, to gain insight into the Seattle people.