For my second paper, I will be discussing how ” noise pollution” is an increasing danger to many modern cities by using Damon Krukoiski’s ” Ways of Hearing,” and R. Murray-Schafer’s ” The Soundscape.” Sound plays an important role in our lives. It helps us deliver information to others, it allows us to understand the context of spoken words, it evokes emotional responses, but the most vital part about sound, is that us humans, and animals, use our sense of hearing to alert us from when danger is near. Both authors discuss the importance of being aware of our surroundings, and how many of us, myself included tend to block out the noise from the city with our headphones playing music, or us being to into our phones while walking down the street, being in our own ‘ sonic universe’ and not being alert of whats going on around us. Now a days in New York City’s subway stations, its become extremely crucial that we keep our eyes, and our ears open while waiting for the trains. Many distracted people became victims of predators looking for someone who wasn’t aware of their environment.

• Damon Kurkowski says ” the marginal-the rejected-the repressed is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.” I think what the author meant by this statement is that the way we listen to music now a days is so advance from the way music was listened to back in the day with CD’s, tapes, A-tracks etc. He also acknowledges the fact that we tend to forget the other ways we can interact with music from the old school to the new school way.
• The difference between the powerful and the marginalized in music is when practically everyone knowing a specific song,artist,band etc, that can be identified as powerful, as to being marginalized, where its less popular and not many people know a specific artist,song,brand etc.
• According to Krukowski, the dfference between being surprised by music is like skipping a certain song in an album that we didn’t bother ourselves to listen too, and finally listening to it and being surprised at the fact that the song was better than expected. where as discovering music we never listened to before, may make us feel certain emotions we may have not felt from other the music we’re used too.
• Forced exposures listening experience differs from Spotify because you get a variety of music to listen to, where Spotify allows you to choose the genre,artist,song etc that you prefer to listen to and gives you recommendations based off of that, instead of keeping an open range of unlimited music.

• Ralph Ellisons’s ” Living w Music,” describes his experience living in NYC apartments and all the sound tracks that came within the walls of the buildings. At first he found it to be distracting to his writing, but then he noticed that sounds are apart of our daily lives, from hearing your neighbors singing terribly and laughing with them for it, to hearing the things our neighbors deal with. I can definitely relate to this, especially as a kid, I would remember my neighbor would wake me up at 11am on the weekends blasting his music. At times I would wake up so aggravated, but then I got used to it and would actually wake up jamming along with him and his radio.
• Ralph Ellison stated ” In those days it was either live with music, or die with noise, we choose desperately to live.” what I think he meant by this statement is that if you can’t beat them, join them.  Rather then being annoyed with the sound,noise,music etc that goes on around you, embrace it, appreciate the fact that you have a soundtrack to the life you live, because at the end of the day what’s life without music or sound ?
• One comparison I found between ” Living w Music” and Damon Kurkowski’s “ways of hearing” is that they both involve the importance of sound and how sounds are a huge part of our lives.

1) I believe the difference between listening and hearing something is that, when you are hearing something such as someone talking or hearing a song for the first time, the information isn’t being taken in, it’s kind of like a ‘ in one ear out the other’ type of situation, rather the listening, you’re actually paying attention to what the persons saying and being receptive to what’s being said.

2) Schafer and Krukowski believe music and the sound of it is involved in many aspects of life.

Berger claims that white issuings used photographs that would depict black people to make the readers view them as victims, instead of publishing pictures that uplifts the black community. With the unfortunate public killing of George Floyd, many people all over the world came together to protest against the inhumane actions of that officer, Instead of the media airing video clippings and pictures of the many peaceful protest through out the countries, they chose to edit the news to show the readers the violent altercations that broke out during the protests to try and implement the black community as violent trouble makers. This is why I agree with berger’s claim . It’s crazy to think, if we was to compare the photographs from  the civil war, to the photographs of the brutality of today, it’ll look like they were captured in the same era !

They say ” We should not confuse such work with the purpose of general tradition.” In the renaissance era, the women in the oil paintings were depicted as a form of art. Many of which, they were in the nude, but wasn’t viewed as naked. They were, as berger says ” open for interpretation from the eyes of the beholder.” I don’t think women have control over their images when it comes to the media. Now a days if a woman was to take a picture as the woman in the oil paintings, many won’t view it as a form of art. Everything has been sexualized especially in the media.

1. According to Berger, Publicity images influences consumers to purchase their advertised products to make them feel glamorous when in reality many people can’t afford to live the “glamorous life.”
2. The oil paintings are being created by an artist who’s actually drawing a picture through their personal perspective where publicity imagery wants the people to think by getting a certain thing, that’ll make the consumers feel as the models portray to feel in a vacation brochure for example.
3. ” Those who lack glamour becomes faceless, almost non existent ,” Berger claims.  Some people try to portray themselves to be someone they aren’t just so they can be desired by some or even envied by others. Many will try to keep up with the current trends in designer clothes, fancy electronics or other materialistic items to make people think they are wealthy enough to live the “glamour life” when in reality those consumers will spend their last bit of money on these items just to say they own these fancy products they really can’t afford to have.