Jan Müller explains why he is happy to see young and old people with boomboxes on Berlin’s streets.
In 1979, Sony invented the Walkman. I don’t remember exactly when I first owned the device, but I still remember the flash I experienced when I walked through the streets of Hamburg with headphones and music for the first time. It felt like a movie: I could set the mood of this film by choosing the music that was on the tapes I inserted. And so from then on I usually walked around with the Dead Kennedys, X Ray Spex, the Specials or the Fehlfarben on my ears.
At that time, posters were posted in the city’s subways: “The Walkman makes a loud noise – the neighbor’s eardrums itch.” I think I got on a lot of people’s nerves back then with my music (the volume was always turned up to 10). But: It wasn’t just my fault. Back then, headphone technology was not as sophisticated as it is today. The sound radiated outwards with full force.
There is too much ugliness, too much noise and too much pollution from unwanted music
This problem has been put into perspective these days. And when I look around, for example in the subway, I’m happy when someone just listens to music and doesn’t also stare into their cell phone. The desire for shielding is understandable anyway. There is too much ugliness, too much noise and too much pollution from unwanted music.
For example, we all know the loud noise in the supermarket. In my entire life I have only had one pleasant encounter with a supermarket radio. That was in the noughties. In the Edeka, “Shoplifers Of The World Unite” by the Smiths suddenly played at a discreet volume. Which brilliant dissident had fed this into the station? In 2024 an algorithm would be able to prevent this. That’s why I now arm myself with noise canceling before I enter a supermarket.
Boomboxes were masterpieces of product design
With all the headphones, Walkmen, MP3 players, iPods and smartphones and the isolation from the environment associated with them, we sometimes forget that there has always been a counter-trend: Before the Walkman was invented, there had already been… the boomboxes for years. At the time they were often dubiously referred to as “ghetto blasters”. They were important to hip hop culture. “My radio, believe me, I like it loud / I’m the man with the box that can rock the crowd / Walkin’ down the street, to the hardcore beat / While my JVC vibrates the concrete,” LL Cool J rapped.
The boomboxes were masterpieces of product design. Glittering silver, some with two tape decks, four speakers and full equalizer. And they were so heavy that they were best carried on the shoulder. The battery consumption of historical boomboxes was enormous. This is no longer a problem today in the age of batteries, but aesthetically speaking, today’s Bluetooth devices are far inferior to their analogue ancestors. Nevertheless, I prick up my ears when young people walk with her through the park or the streets and am happy: it is their constraints that they trample on.
During the pandemic, there was a strange phenomenon, at least here in Berlin. A few older men moved through the city with a boombox turned up loud in their backpacks. I don’t remember exactly what kind of music they were listening to. Maybe it was Goa or EDM or what I know. They either rode slowly through the streets on a bicycle with wide tires or they walked quickly. I would have liked to have spoken to them and asked them about the idea behind their performance, but before I could make the decision, they were gone again.
Please do not have any commercial intentions
When I was a child, a family of four lived on the floor below us. Mother, father, daughter, child. I remember the boy (a few years older than me) was a loner. After school, he turned up the stereo. He only listened to Elvis (Presley, not Costello). And on his bike he had small boxes mounted on the handlebars. As he drove through town he heard Elvis. He always and exclusively listened to Elvis. At the time, I joked about it a little with my friends. Looking back, I’m ashamed. This boy was a poet, a romantic.
Taking stock, I think it’s somehow okay to force your music on other people in public spaces. But please without any commercial motivation. And please, please, please! never in nature. On a hike recently, four people in functional clothing and with boomboxes were sitting on my neck. There was some annoying crap going on, but here in the green even Caruso’s singing would probably have been annoying. Of course, they also chatted loudly to the music. Shame on you, sang the birds from the trees!
This column first appeared in Musikexpress issue 3/2024.