Abstract

Gentrification and its displacements have been the focal point of much recent academic and
activist praxis. The transformations induced by these economic, social and aesthetic
processes have often been understood in relation to the visual. Cafes, delis and restaurants are
seen to open. Abandoned warehouses are seen to become galleries, studios and workshops.
Waterfront recreational developments become visible; while the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures
of blogposts and news articles illustrate the transformation of an area. This paper examines
the accompanying auditory politics of gentrification with reference to three examples: the
noisy ambivalence of music venues in the ‘creative’ city; the use of music as an audioaffective
deterrent in privately owned public space; and the sonic disruptions of antigentrification
protests. I suggest that the resistive and displacing noise of processes of
gentrification both raises crucial questions around sound, power and urban space; and
presents important challenges to acoustic ecology’s ‘aesthetic moralism’.