Hearing music for the first time

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Before this summer, Austin Chapman had never listened to a piece of music all the way through. Friends had tried to turn him on to their favorite songs, but he wasn’t interested. When people talked about how much they liked a certain type of music—or danced to it—Austin could not relate. 

And there was no big mystery as to why. He was born profoundly deaf. And even with the help of the hearing aids he wore during college, where I first met him, he only had access to half the average hearing spectrum. 

“I never liked it. I never enjoyed the music, because it sounded like crap,” said Austin. “I wasn’t able to appreciate music. And I thought all hearing people must be stupid, if they liked it so much.”

That’s pretty much how Austin felt about it for 23 years of life, and he never expected he’d feel any different—until he tried on a new pair of digital hearing aids in July. Sitting in his doctor’s office, he heard his feet scraping against the carpet, something he’d never heard before.

“It was so clear and I was like, ‘What was that sound? What was that sound?’ he said. “And then I had to tell everyone to be quiet, because everything was so loud.”

Things were about to get louder for Austin. That night, when he told some his friends he hadn’t listened to music yet, they asked him what he wanted to hear. Maybe Beethoven or Mozart. He’d read about those guys in school. 

Sitting in a car with four friends, Austin heard his first song—Mozart’s “Lacrimosa.” It sounded good. And when the highest on the high tones came in—at around the 30-second mark, it sounded better than good. Austin heard what he describes as “angels singing.”

“I realized I’ve never heard this sound before,” Austin said. “It was really emotional too because I knew that my life had just changed forever. I couldn’t help myself. I was crying. And when I looked around, all my friends were crying too.”

I first heard about Austin’s aural adventures a few days later, when he posted a photo of his bright orange hearing aids on Facebook. He wrote that he’d listened to over 100 songs and was excited to explore more. But what would he listen to next? He was a near sonic virgin, alone on the vast musical landscape. 

After a few weeks of persuasion from a friend, Austin decided to post about his experience on the social news website Reddit. His post was deeply personal and beautifully written. It was simply titled, “I can hear music for the first time ever, what should I listen to?” The response was overwhelming.

“I was very surprised,” Austin said. “I thought maybe I’d have a couple. But 14,000? No,no.”

Within hours, his post was upvoted to the front page of Reddit. Within days, Austin had over 14,000 responses. From Stevie Wonder to Sufjan Stevens, Redditors poured out their playlists for Austin. 

“But I learned a long time ago that I’m not going to be able to listen to even half,” Austin said. 

Even on his now-steady diet of about two hours of music per day, listening to all of the recommendations would take a lifetime. One suggestion that came from Reddit was to listen to music chronologically. Austin liked that idea. He’s a blank slate—in a unique position to trace the evolution of music and share his fresh insights with others.

When I asked Austin how he listened to music—with headphones, in the car, whatever—he pulled out a black device that had been hiding under his shirt, hung around his neck like a whistle.

It’s called the Phonak ComPilot, an accessory made by the same people who made his hearing aids. Using Bluetooth pairing, he has nothing but Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” blasting into his ears. Literally, nothing else. When this is turned on, his hearing aid microphones are turned off. Austin jokes that his new hearing aids are the most noise-cancelling headphones of all time.

He’s got quite a list of favorite tunes already. When it comes to classical, Mozart will always be his first, but it turns out Brahms is his favorite.

“Brahms, he makes such emotional pieces--such heavy, powerful pieces," Austin said. "I love how it feels like a storm in a way, with the highs and lows. I’ve listened to probably 8 hours in one day.”

Other favorites include Bob Marley’s “Exodus,” “Staralfur” by Icelandic indie band Sigur Ros, and anything by Explosions in the Sky.

Austin is a filmmaker, and he sees music as a whole new form of storytelling. He can’t understand the lyrics yet. He’s communicated his whole life by reading lips, a skill he picked up by watching hours and hours of movies and TV as a kid. Now he’s listening to hours of music, and watching more movies—now with the sound turned on. All in all, he says it’s a lot to process.

“I’m still really having a hard time waking up in the morning and realizing I can actually hear,” Austin said. “I’ve noticed I’ve had to go to bed earlier than normal. I'm getting tired way faster. And I realize, it's because my brain is processing all of this new information. I'm building a new language in my head.”

As he builds this new language in his head, Austin says silence is still his favorite sound. Too many of the sounds he hears now are just noise—distractions. But music is different. He says it can take him somewhere. It can give him a sense of peace.

The only music Austin refuses to listen to at the moment is the Beatles. They were far and away the top recommendation on Reddit. So, he’s saving them for his birthday.

And since I don’t want spoil the Beatles, I decide to show him another influential band from the 60s: the Velvet Underground. 

I play “Sunday Morning” for him and ask him what he thinks.

His reaction? "I thought that was awesome. The person that's singing has such a beautiful, strong voice.”

For a guy that heard his first song just a few months ago, he’s got pretty good taste.