The soundscape in the city of Madrid

Approach to the study variables of the soundwalk concept

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62161/sauc.v12.6175

Keywords:

Soundscape, Sound, Listening, Madrid, Noise, Noise Pollution, Urban Planning

Abstract

The spaces dedicated to listening to music in cities have gradually transformed at the same pace as consumer habits. The context of urban planning, architectural design, different regulations, combined with cultural aspects, cause new challenges and redefine a term: noise. As an object of study, the city of Madrid is considered, where noise, from its subjective dimension, has always been a cause of controversy and conflict, which requires control from the administrations. Using a literature review methodology, this exploratory study is based on the concept of soundscape, exploring the relationships within the urban sound landscape and how it modifies the city's natural habitat. Within this sound universe, music listening is restricted to commercial places with restricted access, driven by the concept of noise, in its negative connotation, limiting the urban soundscape.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Global Statistics ℹ️

Cumulative totals since publication
0
Views
0
Downloads
0
Total
Downloads by format:
PDF (Español (España)) 0 PDF 0

References

ABC. (2025, julio 9). Salas de conciertos reconocidas como Patrimonio Cultural de Madrid. https://www.abc.es/espana/madrid/salas-conciertos-reconocidas-patrimonio-cultural-madrid-20250710144731-nt.html

Adorno, T.W. (1984). Teoría Estética. Orbis.

Akeroyd, M. A. (2006). The psychoacoustics of binaural hearing. International journal of audiology, 45 Suppl 1(s1), S25-S33. https://doi.org/10.1080/14992020600782626

Alonso Guisande, M. Á. (2017). La generación de audio procedural como forma de expresión sonora en el videojuego No Man´s Sky. Universidad Europea.

Asociación de Promotores Musicales (2024) Anuario de la música en vivo 2024. https://apmusicales.com/anuario-de-la-musica-en-vivo/

Attali, J (1995). Ruidos: Ensayo sobre la economía política de la música. Siglo XXI

Augoyard, J.F., & Torgue, H. (Eds.) (2006) Sonic Experience: A guide to everyday sounds. McGuill-Queen’s University Press

Batteau, D. W. (1967). The role of the pinna in human localization. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 168(1011), 158-180. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4383726

Blauert, J. (1997). Spatial Hearing: The Psychophysics of Human Sound Localization. MIT Press. https://books.google.es/books?id=wBiEKPhw7r0C

Cárdenas-Soler, R. N., & Martínez-Chaparro, D. (2015). EL Paisaje sonoro, una aproximación teórica desde la semiótica. Rev.investig.desarro.innov, 5(2), 129-140

Cruz Valenciano, J. (2018). El papel de la música en la configuración de la esfera pública española durante el siglo XIX. Ideas y pautas de investigación. Cuadernos de Música Iberoamericana, 30, 57-85

Ley Orgánica 37/2003. (2003, noviembre 17). BOE-A-2003-20976 Ley 37/2003, de 17 de noviembre, del Ruido. https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2003-20976

Braasch, J. (2005). Modelling of Binaural Hearing. En J. Blauert (Ed.), Communication Acoustics. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-27437-5_4

Gibson, C., & Kong, L. (2005). Cultural economy: a critical review. Progress in Human Geography, 29(5), 541-561. https://doi.org/10.1191/0309132505ph567oa

ISO (2014) 1293-1 Acoustics – Soundscape – Part 1: Definition and conceptual framework. International Organization for Standarization

Kapralos, B., Jenkin, M. R., & Milios, E. (2008). Virtual Audio Systems. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 17(6), 527-549. https://doi.org/10.1162/pres.17.6.527

McLuhan, M., Fiore, Q., & Agel, J. (1988). El medio es el mensaje. Paidós.

Mitchell, A., Aletta, F., Oberman, T., Kang, J. (2024). How we define soundscape? En Proceedings of the 10th Convention of the European Acoustics Association Forum Acusticum 2023 pp. 695-699 https://doi.org/10.61782/fa.2023.0359

Moore, B. C. J. (2012). An Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing. Emerald. https://books.google.es/books?id=LM9U8e28pLMC

O'Connor, J. (2024). Culture is not an industry: Reclaiming Art and Culture for the Common Good. Manchester University Press.

Palmese, C., Carles, J.L. (2024) Madrid Soundscape Map: Listening and identity_MADLIST. En Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability, 17(2), 337-355. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549175.2024.2327592

Palmese, C., Carles, J.L., Rodríguez Antolín, A. (2024). The Soundscape and Listening as an Approach to Sensuous Urbanism: The Case of Puerta del Sol (Madrid). Urban Planning, 29. https://doi.org/10.17645/up.7206

Pedro, J. (2017). Cartografías musicales de Madrid: Ciudad, música popular y nuevas tecnologías digitales. CIC. Cuadernos de Información y Comunicación, 22, 169-185. https://doi.org/10.5209/CIYC.55973

Pickles, J. O. (2008). An Introduction to the Physiology of Hearing. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:174142#.WIejhsNEAYY.mendeley

Pulkki, V. (2001). Spatial sound generation and perception by amplitude panning techniques. Report, 62, 1456-6303. https://doi.org/ISBN 951- 22-5531-6 ISSN 1456-6303

Radicchi, A. (2018). The notion of soundscape in the Realm of Sensuous Urbanism: A historical perspective. En A. Wilson (Ed.), Listen! Sounds worlds from body to cities. Cambridge Scholars Publ.

Radichi, A., Henckel, D., & Memmel, M. (2018). Citizens as smart, active sensors for a quiet and just city. The case oft he “open source soundscapes“ approach to identify, assess and plan everiday quiet areas in cities. Noise Mapping, 5(1), 1-20 https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/noise-2018-0001/html

Real Decreto 1367/2007. (2007, octubre 23). Real Decreto 1367/2007. https://gestiona.comunidad.madrid/rlma_web/FichaNormativa.icm?ID=1494#

Schaeffer, P. (1988). Tratado de los objetos musicales. Alianza

Schafer, R.M. (1994). Our sonic environment and the Soundscape. The tunning of the world. Destiny Books

Silva e Souza, F.H. (2017). Música callejera en Madrid: Entre el arte y el ruido (Tesis doctoral). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. https://repositorio.uam.es/handle/10486/688785

Southworth, M. (2005). Designing the walkable city. Journal of Urban Planning and Development 131, 4, 246-257 https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9488(2005)131:4(246)

Stäbler, S., & Mierisch, K.K. (2021).The street music business: consumer responses to buskers performing on the street and on online video platforms. Mark Lett , 33, 325–350. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-021-09566-8

Strutt, J. W. (1907). On our perception of sound direction. Philosophical Magazine Series 6, 13(74), 214-232. https://doi.org/10.1080/14786440709463595

Truax, B. (1984). Acoustic communication. En Communication and information science. Ablex Publishing Corporation.

UNESCO (2017). Cultura Futuro Urbano. Informe mundial sobre la cultura para el desarrollo urbano sostenible. ALA. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000248920

Vargas, P. R. & Sefchovich, J. R. S. (2023). Soundscape composition, hearing the real and surreal. Revista Música, 23(2), 277-289. https://doi.org/10.11606/rm.v23i2.217203

Vida Manzano, J. (2023). Poniendo en valor el sonido urbano: introducción a la norma ISO 12913. Revista de acústica, 54(1-2), 53-88.

Wenzel, E. M., Arruda, M., Kistler, D. J., & Wightman, F. L. (1993). Localization using nonindividualized head-related transfer functions. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 94(1), 111-123. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8354753

Downloads

Published

2026-04-24

How to Cite

Sánchez-Sanz, J., & Alonso Guisande, M. Ángel. (2026). The soundscape in the city of Madrid: Approach to the study variables of the soundwalk concept. Street Art & Urban Creativity, 12(2). https://doi.org/10.62161/sauc.v12.6175

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 2 (2026): Antoni Gaudí – The Gaudí Year 2026

Section

Research articles

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Authors retain copyright and transfer to the journal the right of first publication and publishing rights

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Those authors who publish in this journal accept the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright.

  2. Authors transfer to the journal the right of first publication. The journal also owns the publishing rights.

  3. All published contents are governed by an Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
    Access the informative version and legal text of the license. By virtue of this, third parties are allowed to use what is published as long as they mention the authorship of the work and the first publication in this journal. If you transform the material, you may not distribute the modified work.

  4. Authors may make other independent and additional contractual arrangements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the article published in this journal (e.g., inclusion in an institutional repository or publication in a book) as long as they clearly indicate that the work was first published in this journal.

  5. Authors are allowed and recommended to publish their work on the Internet (for example on institutional and personal websites), following the publication of, and referencing the journal, as this could lead to constructive exchanges and a more extensive and quick circulation of published works (see The Effect of Open Access).