Competitive Edge Program Research Topics

sound of horses in cars, for example horse power and the mustang, elements of elegance in design being compared to racehorses
who designed vs 'we designed'
what are the names lost to history, specific labor and people in the design process. Do the people who design electric car sounds have names?
inceptions points vs points of incursion. There are lots of incursive elements of car design between the car owners and the car designers. think more about political and economic perspectives
How do these things relate to race and class?

How does car sound relate to larger topics of urban sound like the sounds of planes, maintenance (lawn mowers air blowers), and construction? what about sounds of war?

Explain more about the idea of a cocoon and how independence relate to sound
object travelling across space, like a spaceship

Fahrvergnügen– pleasure of driving, as popularized from Volkswagen ads from the 1960s ¹⁾
how do car commercials play into all of this? watch some of them?
Add more quoted text into the literature review
Be more specific of the time period, is it 1920- today?
A more clean chronology will help
Use “this” less across all texts
What questions are you asking of your data?
Look for parallel phenomena, urban Ethnomusicology

Cars are a musical instrument. We see this displayed in many ways, from the use of their sound in media, their importance in construction of private space and identity, as a sonic experience the defined modernity, the ways in which they are commodified, 'tuned', and designed to pair with an image of their users much like how the calls of songbirds match the species.

An evaluation of what the various elements of car sound culture are. Define car sound culture is the appreciation, knowledge, and obsession with the ways that cars engines, horns, and acoustic landscape sound. It is also the identification as a car enthusiast and the various way this culture builds self identity. This culture manifests itself with the ways that people identify with cars, appreciate engines and their sounds, consume media with the presence of cars, are marketed cars, and how these people find community in these activities.

Is this a survey of the elements of sound culture or is there a central argument?

A definition of car sound culture
Defining the scope (when, where, and who) of the car culture im talking about
Define the scope of time period
Contextualize car culture in wider American culture

Car sounds play an integral part of a contemporary car culture
Car culture frames identity in respects to cars
Car culture is an important and prominent part of American culture.
This culture is both one of convergence and active consumer design
This culture is well represented in media, and there is an element of sound to all of it

Literal, stylistic, and symbolic car sound is an important part of car culture
Media uses the sound of cars to mean things outside the meaning of a car itself
Car sounds since at least the 2000s are actively designed
Car sounds relate to target demographics

Why are loud engines so well liked amongst car enthusiasts?
what aesthetic values are taken into consideration in the sound of car engines?
what degree of knowledge do people have in this culture about engines?
How accurately can they tell information about the engines simply from hearing them?
what do the various elements of engine sound communicate/connotate in the culture? In which ways are these engine sounds associated with status?
What is the history of this culture? Has it changed over time and where is it heading?
Is this culture different across the United States?
is this element of car culture present in other parts of the world?
Which of these vehicle sounds is within the scope of this work?
Cars, Trains, Buses, Fire Engines, Police Cars, Airplanes?, Boats?
In which ways do these sounds represent a kind of nostalgia?

Why is this a male dominated space
Are there any ethnic/racial groups/divides that participate in this culture?
Car engine sounds are associated with the fossil fuel industry, therefor create a sound based politic
In which ways does the proliferation of electric vehicles effect this culture? Do they mimic it?
Is there an alternative culture that will develop from technology?

Car sounds represent modernity
how ubiquitous these sounds are with the urban landscape
In which ways these sound spaces are embraced or rejected in media
media that celebrates these sound spaces
media that rejects them
in which ways these sounds are abstracted in media

Songs are frequently designed for radio, is this also designing music to be listened to in the car?
Is this an important element of why cars, sound, and music are so interrelated?

Literal Vs Symbolic- The sounds are cars in the literal sense vs symbolic/metaphorical representations of them (especially in media)
Nostalgia Studies- The ways in which nostalgia plays a role in understanding why car sounds are appealing to people
Human Constructed Sonic Space- Engines have had an immense effect on the sonic spaces we live in, their sounds dominate our lives and have had an ever shifting effect for the last 100 years
Car sounds represent the sound of modernity, they coincide with the rapid change in lifestyles that has been carried on until today
These sounds represent a human generated ontology of sound, all of them are not at all naturalistic and represent an 'abstracted' opposite of that
American Studies perspective, the ways in which Americans uniquely fine identity in these sounds

Additional Questions-
Which of these vehicle sounds is within the scope of this work?
Cars, Trains, Buses, Fire Engines, Police Cars, Airplanes?, Boats?
In which ways do these sounds represent a kind of nostalgia?

What Role Do Engine Sounds Play in Car Culture?

• What are the various elements of car sound culture?
• This is the appreciation, knowledge, and obsession with the ways that cars 'engines' sound.
• Largely this manifests itself with the ways that people create loud engines and the ways they show the off to one another.
• Why are loud engines so well liked amongst car enthusiasts?
• what aesthetic values are taken into consideration?
• what degree of knowledge do people have in this culture about engines?
• How accurately can they tell information about the engines simply from hearing them?
• what do the various elements of engine sound communicate/connotate in the culture?
• In which ways are these engine sounds associated with status?
• What is the history of this culture? Has it changed over time and where is it heading?
• Is this culture different across the United States?
• Is this element of car culture present in other parts of the world?

This approach if successful should also be done to look into the sounds of cop cars (another similar and interesting type of car sound). I went today (July 28th 2024) to the San Dimas car show and noted the interest people took with the various sounds cars make and the near obsession and admiration certain cars received as they drove by because the the specific achievement their engine noises made. I am curious to better understand and document these unusual cultural elements. As a sonic culture this seems really interesting and likely is under documented. Is