Music

In the states you can get in trouble with your neighbors over excessive noise. In fact, you can even call the police and they might even make you pay a fine for your excessively loud music, the kind that makes the walls of your house shake with the base. Well in Benin, this is not so.
I woke up today at 7am to very loud music originating from until today an empty apartment. There were people living there it's just they had been on holiday. They have never pulled this kind of crap before. My neighbors who are typically the noisy ones were in Natitingou for a baptism. But at least they don't turn their music on until after 11. No this was thump-thump booty shakin' club music. I went over there to see what was going on, expecting them to dancing, partying from the night before or at least doing something. Nope. Nothing. They were all watching TV. I asked them what was going on and they said 'oh we're watching TV' as if this was normal to be listening to loud music while watching television in the same small space. What they had done was they had put on a Beninese soap opera (which are much worse then American soap operas, believe it or not) and put that on mute and then turned on their club music and turned it up as far as it would go, I checked the volume couldn't actually go any higher. They were all placidly watching a mute soap opera, I guess the plot they could figure out without words.
They invited me to join them in their chosen activity but I was about at my wits end and politely said no but thanks. I then attempted to go back to sleep with my head phones on to maybe drown out the sound of their music. Loud music is something that people don't get worked up about here. Yes, I could have asked my neighbors to turn it down but honestly the locals don't do it and it gives me a chance to practice patience and understanding. Good integration, or something. I'm not sure why the Beninese don't feel that it's a problem for people to listen to music at whatever volume they see fit, this is normally the highest the volume will go. I was reading The Sex Lives of Cannibals which is about this guy who goes to live on an atoll in the middle of the pacific, and it describes the love of a certain song which in the states makes ours ears bleed it's so obnoxious 'la macerana'. I hate the dance too, for the record. They also enjoyed playing this song at full volume and nobody seemed to think it was a problem. The authors argument was that maybe the reason why people enjoyed listening to music so loud is that they haven't had stereo systems in their homes as long as the American population and so there is no unwritten law in their society that dictates this behavior to be completely assenine.
Maybe his theory works in conjunction with my own. My own theory is that before there was electricity (this is 5 years ago in Bassila) music was of course heard at the same time it was being made. To hear your favorite tune or something similar was a great treat. Live music was the only music, it was a party and people could play this as loud as they wanted. The volume range wasn't as great as on a CD player. I'd be also willing to bet that music was something to be shared as it didn't happen all the time. Unlike in the states taste in music is very person, nobodies Ipod is the same. But now that there is electricity there is an opportunity for CD players and the like with volume controls. Now they could play their favorite CD over and over again, or just one song! Imagine what you were all like when you got your first CD/record player and your first CD/record how many times did you play that, I know I played my first CD a lot. It was Ace of Base if anyone is curious to know. Back to the subject... with the volume control now they could share their love of their most favorite song with their neighbors all around who aren't playing music. I can see people here thinking 'If it goes that loud it should be played that loud'. This holds true for other places in Benin, on the bus people will have little chips in their phone and play them at high volume for all to hear. One time while listening to my Ipod someone next to me asked why I wasn't singing so that the rest of the bus could listen to American music too. I've ridden zems who were singing while driving, not too me just to themselves. So there you have it, my theory on the overplayed loud music I hear in Benin all the time. Even though at 7am I may not have wanted to listen to thump-thump music I was given it, thanks for sharing neighbors.