ABSTRACT
At the time of the interviews, eight of the ten participants lived in dorm rooms that they each shared with at least one other person. One of the remaining two participants had a dorm room on campus but explained that, for the most part, she lived at her boyfriend’s apartment, which was walking distance from campus. The other participant of the remaining two lived in an apartment with a group of other students and had her own room within that apartment. The participants who lived in dormitories explained how their music listening practices were often shaped by the social dynamics of sharing a room. For example, Adam told me that he always listens to his device using headphones while in his dorm room. He explained how he is ‘very private’ about his music which, for him, means that he never plays his music so that other people can hear it. Even those who did not describe themselves as being private about their music indicated that they typically use headphones while listening to music in their dorm rooms, especially if their roommates
were also in the room. Kat, for example, explained that neither she nor her roommate ever listen to music ‘out loud’ when the other person is around.
