Sounding Off: The Art, Science, and Culture of Custom Horn Sounds

From the polite, high-pitched “beep-beep” of a city commuter to the guttural, earth-shaking roar of a customized air horn, the automobile horn is one of our oldest and most universally understood forms of non-verbal communication. But while factory-installed horns are designed to blend into the background of urban noise, a growing subculture is rewriting the rules.