Competition Hertz: The culture and practice of car audio competitions
Gavin Carfoot · Continuum · 2008
The following paper explores extreme car audio systems, and the culture and practices that surround car audio competitions. I begin by examining if and how car audio can be thought of as a 'music scene,' and in what ways the culture and practice of car audio might fit within post-subcultural discourses. Following this, I offer a description of car audio competitions, revealing some of the practices that define this aspect of car audio scenes. In particular, I concentrate on sound pressure level (SPL) competitions, and some of the interesting aspects of the SPL scene. Finally, I briefly examine how the powerful effects and affects of bass frequencies are an important part of the attraction of loud car audio systems, and how car audio systems contribute to the territorialising of urban spaces.