ABSTRACT
Urban soundscapes and the spatial-temporal nature of 'noise' in cities is increasingly becoming an issue of academic, policy and popular concern. The Epic of Gilgamesh people in the city of Shurrupak were punished by the gods for making too much noise. This chapter explores critical perspectives on soundscapes by focusing on neighbours, household appliances and traffic to highlight the paradox of 'noisy' city life with regard to embodied, emotional and affective urbanism. In China, there has been a growing number of media reports of increasing levels of violence between neighbours arguing about 'noise'. From the point of view of these intellectuals in China and Europe, neighbourhood 'noise' was clearly closely related to class 'distinction' and 'a continuing struggle between refinement and vulgarity' in the emerging modern city. At the end of the nineteenth century, traffic noise was described as 'the most cruel despot of our times'.
