Musica And Sensorial Capital

Eduardo Lopez

Professor Goddard

Sugar and Rum

Music and sensory capital

Four minutes into a peaceful, melancholic yet hopeful journey, the band Foals escalates an increasingly colorful song. The drums rise, the synthesizers melt what is left of your resistance and then the guitar solo breaks it: Euphoria! Spanish Sahara –Foal’s song— truly accomplishes what the lyrics suggest. The listener forgot the horror and transcended into six minutes of memorable elation. For many readers, the lines written above would be a source of laughter towards an overly exaggerated music fanatic. The ability to feel the power of music however is as true as any type of human capital. I would like to call this trait, Sensory Capital. Music preferences are influenced by various factors yet what truly separates music mass consumption from selective music appreciation originates from the absence, or presence of sensory capital.

Sensory capital affects people’s taste of music, their behavior towards it and their interaction among peers. The sense of hearing is completely passive and although all stimuli are objective, each person perceives them differently. Generally, people lacking sensory capital are conditioned to listen the top selling songs. These songs follow generic patterns that adjust to what is popular at the moment and usually repeat catchy sounds or lyrics without intrinsic value, yet highly effective at driving attention and retention. The hits of the moment frequently creep into the listener who automatically values the song highly since his or her peers have awarded such high prestige. This person finds status reaffirmation by liking mass-consumed music such as Lady Gaga or any other temporary diva. By nature ephemeral, top hits are constantly replaced by “new” superficial and generic songs. Among these groups of listeners, it is considered admirable to be up to date with the latest hits. In contrast, members who listen to outdated songs receive lower valuations. At the other end of the spectrum lies a completely different group of listeners. People with high sensorial capital appreciate the song for what it makes them feel. They experiment with genuine flavors offered by a broad gamma of genres and artists all over the planet. The sensitive person repudiates music without essence and has been conditioned to perceive mainstream artists as sellouts and unworthy of their success. Now, this category of listeners is not united by a specific genre, but an overall sensation of music appreciation. People with high sensorial capital value the creation of “good music” even though a specific genre may not be among their favorites. Even though the might not enjoy the same music as many of their peers, they mutually respect the intrinsic value music holds fro each of them. Additionally, peers

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