Blog Post #6

1. Ralph Ellison stated that as a child, he sang awfully and frequently, but now his neighbor sings awfully out loud just like him and it makes him hesitant to call the police. Both her and the jazzmen reminds him of the desire to express an affirmative way of life through musical tradition. But when his neighbor does sign well he says he will become upset that he wouldn’t be able to type so well again after they stop. He had also created a music system that would attempt to override the signing noise from his neighbor, but it could also be used to record quality sound as well. Then as time passed, he started to use music less as a defense and more as a way to control his mood and memory.
2. What I believe live with music or die with noise means is that you can choose to listen to music which can uplift your mood or spirit, “Art thou troubled? Music will not only calm, it will ennoble thee” or you can drown in the endless stream of city noise-pollution.
3. During Ellison’s time in New York, and the 1970s New York that Krukowski talked about had some similarities. Music from different cultures poured into atmosphere and no would merge together, people were more willing to interpenetrate through each other’s world, and it wasn’t easy to simply put on headphones and listen to your own sound waves in order to block the incoming noise.