Metro Melodies

I’ve developed a slight obsession with Tokyo's train station melodies. Known as Hassha Melodies (literally 'departure melodies'), these carefully composed seven-second jingles are designed to guide commuters onto departing trains on the city's vast, sprawling transit network.

Before their introduction, Japanese stations used harsh electric buzzers to signal departures. In the late 1980s, new departure jingles began to be introduced to reduce passenger stress. This evolution eventually led to the creation of unique 'signature' melodies for individual stations. These were designed to both assist visually impaired commuters with navigation and pay homage to the local history and landmarks of each neighborhood.

My obsession with these departure melodies led me to create Yamanote Line with Melodies. This interactive map animates a train marker as it travels around Tokyo’s circular loop, playing each station’s signature jingle the moment the marker arrives at each station.

sheets.works' obsession with Tokyo's departure melodies runs much deeper and more intensely than my own. Consequently, their interactive map of these station tunes is far more comprehensive - and much better - than mine. Their Station Melodies of Greater Tokyo includes 242 departure melodies in all. Click on any of the stations on this map and you can not only listen to all the different platform melodies played at that station but you can also click through to view the station's Wikipedia entry and view the station's location on Google Maps.

According to Station Melodies of Greater Tokyo, the iconic platform sounds of Tokyo's transit system are slowly being replaced by generic tones. By mapping and cataloging the individual seven-second masterpieces of each station platform, the project hopes to ensure that the unique oto fūkei (sound scenery) of Tokyo isn't completely lost to history.