This is one of two interlocking pairs of terms (ordinary/practical is the other one) related to reduced listening and to the quatre écoutes in Schaefferian theory.
Natural listening is the "main and primitive tendency to use sound for information about the event" and it is expressed in the question: "What is it? Who is it? What is happening?" It corresponds, therefore, to écouter in the quatre écoutes.
Cultural listening "turns away...(without ceasing to hear it) from the sound event and the circumstances which it reveals about its source and uses it as a means to grasp a message, a meaning, values" and is analogous with the quatre écoutes mode, comprendre. (Paraphrase of Michel Chion (1983). Guide des Objets Sonores. Eds. Buchet/Chastel, Paris. 1995 translation by John Dack/Christine North.)
See also:
Écoutes Banales et Practiciennes (Ordinary and Practical Listening), Quatre Écoutes, Reduced ListeningBibliography:
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