What music does the Mission District in San Francisco love?

The Mission District is one of San Francisco's oldest neighborhoods and was named after a Spanish mission built in 1776. The neighborhood is one of the most notable centers of Chicano culture—perhaps exemplified by a new art installation called “Bop Spotter.”

The Bop Spotter is simply a “crappy Android phone that's always set to Shazam, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.” It's solar powered and the microphone is pointed at the street below. Riley Walz says he was inspired to do what he calls “cultural surveillance” by police use of ShotSpotter, which can detect gunshots with startling accuracy.

Instead of gunfire, Bop Spotter listens carefully to the music happening around the installation and forwards the songs playing to Walz's website. “It's not about catching criminals. It's about capturing vibrations. “A constant feed of what’s happening in real time,” says Walz.

The Bop Spotter has only collected two days of songs played so far, but according to statistics on the site, a total of 604 Shazams have been collected. That's an average of 138.1 songs per day. Given the neighborhood's roots, it's perhaps unsurprising that many of the songs are Spanish-language bops. There's a veritable mix of music flowing at this intersection, highlighted by an old Android device with some clever tinkering to keep it running.

Today at 1:01 p.m. someone was rolling around listening to “All By Myself” by Céline Dion, while at 3:58 a.m. someone was really enjoying the works of Natti Natasha and playing “Tu Loca,” “Quiereme Menos,” and “Quien Sabe.” “ sounded ” one after the other at 15 minute intervals. There was a brief period today where the phone appeared to be down, but it is back to being able to catalog the music it can receive.

The idea is interesting, and is essentially in line with what music technology company Audoo is doing for local spaces where music is played, so that the artists and creatives behind that music can be paid for these public performances. Vibe catchers scattered throughout cities could supposedly provide incredible insight into what the general public is listening to on their car stereos, phones, and yes, even Bluetooth speakers. Want to check out the latest Mission District bops? Visit Bop Spotter to see it.