Category Archives: Blog posts

Blog post #7

Krukowski says, “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.” means that larger companies have a power to decide whether a sound is socially accepted thus having a higher or lower value. This creates a social construct between these companies and the music producer on how their music should sound. Krukowski then asks, “But might it not be a key to alternate approaches-to art, to society-to power itself? This shows that the social construct can prevent a music from being produced, thus hindering an artist from creating different forms of art / expressing themselves, because it did not meet the criteria. 

In order for digital corporations to keep the user engaged, they allow the user to discover similar music and sound that seems familiar to them. This attracts the user and allows them to explore the product and use it more often. When a corporation surprises a user, the user might not like the product, thus lessening the use of the product since they don’t get the experience they were looking for. The product might not also spark an interest to the user when surprise compared to when they are given products they are familiar and comfortable with.

The music listening experience enabled by forced exposure is different from those that Paul Lamere is working on with platforms like Spotify because in force exposure it allows different artists/music to be discovered. Force exposure distributes music from all over the world while platforms like Spotify have classified music that catered recommendations to the user. In this way, users only discover similar artists and music based on their algorithm.

 

Blog post #6

In “living with music” Ralph Ellison describes how unpleasant music surrounds him, thus disrupting his peace. To the left who’s blasting lullaby music, to the right with a jukebox playing from a restaurant. Windows which caught city sounds and to the back of the wall with preaching drunks and the neighbor who’s singing seeps through the ceiling. He describes his experience as if he was in a box, trapped, with each side of the wall filling the room with incohesive sounds, further tormenting him. In order to combat the sounds, Ralph bought an audio system that he used as a weapon which he used against his neighbor. His experience has led him to enjoy the music and longed for his previous apartment.

“In those days it was either live with music or die with noise…”

Ralph was trying to convey that music is a part of our lives and in order to enjoy them one must appreciate the sounds to be one with them. 

One similarity between Ellison’s essay and ways of hearing was that both of them took place in a city. It talks about how a sound create a space different from others and how it can terrorized/occupy a space creating s special meaning that only that place has

 

Blog Post #7

There are songs that we have only heard once or twice some we haven’t even heard at all. The reason being that they are “The marginal-the rejected-the repressed is whatever the powerful have decided is no use at the moment”. The marginalized would be the songs that the popular society has casted aside and deemed inappropriate for the era. Eventually all music gets retired but the marginalized art get put away before its time. Music shows who the powerful and the marginalized are. The powerful would be the popular demand the ones society feels have more of an influence.

Forced Exposure is an independent music distributor. At Forced Exposure Jimmy Johnson and his employees encounter over fifty thousand titles each week one hundred new titles arrives. They take the time to listen to each new song, he feels that distribution has a responsibility to give attention to each artist and not just scan over the piece of work. Forced Exposure is like a “deceased magazine” giving 75,000 words a week describing each record listened to and full detail printed catalogue offering recommendations of the new songs they have heard that month.  Forced exposure in comparison to Spotify involves more of a human interaction.

With Spotify you are not left scrolling through music there’s an algorithm to recommend music based on what your mood is or what your believed interest are no one at the company is actually listening to the music being recommended to you. Most of the songs are overlooked the recommendations will more likely be the songs that are currently more popular so songs that you would like you would never hear, all because of the songs played during one mood you were in while looking for music to listen to or what may have been your interest that you are no longer interested in. The algorithm being used also present music with acoustics similarities so your left listening to music that almost sounds the same but just have different artist. This way of recommending ensures that you are not surprised by music.

Surprise is not very helpful to many corporations. The idea is to find you something that you are comfortable with not to surprise you with something you’ve never heard and you become disinterested. You want to hear something that you may like even just enough to keep it playing to the end. Discovering music with Spotify, Apple Music, Google Music, or similar applications the goal is find you new music that you have not heard, but are more likely to like because it sounds like the other songs that are in your collection.  The music is familiar so it’s not surprising. Since today era is so technical it makes it so much easier for ad trackers to tally what catches our attention.

Blog post #8

In paper 2, I choose “Living with music” by Ralph Ellison and “Missing Sounds of New York: An Auditory Love Letter to New Yorkers” to show how they represent the significance of sound, also we can’t live without sound. Although some sounds are not appreciated, when people transform these sounds into music listening that gives us more than just an auditory but immersive experience. “Missing Sounds of New York: An Auditory Love Letter to New Yorkers”gives some common but often overlooked voice in our lives, and connects New Yorkers around the sounds of urban life. Ralph EllisonI realized the charm of music in his New York living experience in an apartment.

Blog post #6

In “Living with Music,” Ralph Ellison lives in his New York City apartment and is surrounded by many noises which are provided by his neighbors, associated drunks, and a singer. His apartment is so badly soundproofed that he can’t concentrate on his creation because of the noise around him. Ralph Ellison recalled that his music practice as a child had also caused great pain to his neighbors, and he resonated deeply in a war of decibels against the singer upstairs. Although Ralph Ellison moved out of the apartment away from the noise, he still misses living there because that experience made him realize the importance of music.

At the beginning of the essay, Ralph Ellison wrote “In those days it was either live with music or die with noise”. That sentence shows the influence and importance of music on people. The meaning of this sentence is how we distinguish between sounds. If we think of sound as music, we can enjoy and adapt to it instead of seeing them as noise and live in constant noise.

Ralph Ellison and Krukowski show some methods of reducing noises, and they both believe that noises are everywhere around us. In Ralph Ellison’s experience in a New York apartment, he fights noise with noise. Krukowski shows some New Yorkers use headphones to keep some noisy sounds outside their ear.

Blog Post #7

  1. There’s something powerful in re-cooperating what power rejects because it feels like something sacred. There is the uncertainty in finding value & meaning; “finding treasure in another man’s trash.” Meaning that may have never been found.
  2. Specific preferences and social agendas vs. what other, less powerful people find meaning is how music indicates differences between the powerful and the marginalized.
  3. Surprised is coming to find something you might have never given the chance to feel actually turning out to be something you may come to enjoy. Discovering is more feeding an existing preference or “sounds like something [you’ve] heard before.”
  4. Forced Exposure allows you to find novel cross-breeds of stimuli that one may come to appreciate. Spotify is more algorithmic in supplying a certain pattern of music a user tends to already come to like on a concurring basis. We can not get out of our sensational comfort zones if it’s never left or explored.

ASMR/LOVE-Blog post #8-by Wendy Figuereo Mota

What I’ll show about “this situation” is the differences and similarities between “How A.S.M.R. Became a Sensation” and “Ways of Hearing” (Episode 3: Love). Since we were babies, the soft tones of a person’s voice are the first thing we notice when they talk to us. Many people might say no, because the basic knowledge does not focus on that. The tone of voice, on the other hand, is akin to ASMR since mild sounds can be as calming as a loved one’s or acquaintance’s voice. The best method to express how we feel about these low levels that can affect our mood is through ASMR.

Living with music Blog post#6

As New Yorkers, we have fully become accustomed to the loud sounds of the street and the annoying neighbors. We are also used to hearing different songs playing extremely loud at every turn some we don’t mind and some we wish we could tell the person to turn off. Ralph Ellison stated in Living with Music “In those days it was either live with music or die with noise…” Music is our personal way of blocking out unwanted noise that we have no control over. As referred to in soundscape by Murray Schafer is creates our own personal bubble blocking out the sounds we do not want to hear. 

Living in New York City Ralph Ellison upstairs neighbor was a singer. The sounds of her song rang throughout his apartment as she sang. As Damon Krukowski believed the music reflected how he felt singing the words he wouldn’t say to her. He fought music with music the louder she sang the louder he played. The music his neighbor and he shared would go on to create a bond between them the music had “magic with mood and memory”.  Ellison thought he would never be able to get past his writers block but as much as the music tortured  him in the beginning, it reminded him of his love for his music as a child. Music has a way of “reminding us of what we were and of that toward which we aspire” the music Ellison heard in his building stayed with him even after he moved away from his New York City apartment and helped him with his writing.

When Kruwoski says, “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.” Hes trying to tell us that as the days pass by things change in the world an there are advancements made in alot if things such as music and technology. Like back in the day in order to get music you would have to go get cds at stores and music wasnt available like it is today online. Today music is available on apple music, spotify, and youtube because back then this luxury wasnt available.

 

The big difference that Krukowski affirms between being surprised by the music is like listening to songs that we have not heard before. When we listen to a song for the first time we often are surprised at what we are hearing. Since we have never heard it before we feel out of place cause we arent acustomed to listening to that. And then when we are discovering music we know what we are getting ourselves into so we arent that shocked or surprised by what we hear.

Forced Exposures is different from other platforms because it helps you explore different music and artists. It provides you with different songs to choose from. However on a app like spotify there is an algorithm put into place that gives you and recommends you songs that you like or are similar to songs you have listened to.

Blog Post #6

  1. Ralph Ellison describes how music affects his living experience in his New York City apartment building by telling us how all the sounds disturb him. Ralph’s neighbor is very noisy and disturbing when he tries to get his work done. Not only does his neighbor disturb him but many other noises disturb him as he does live in a New York City apartment. However, Ralph compares his neighbor playing music and singing loudly to him being a child and doing the same, and over time he became inspired to go back and start playing again. Eventually, when he moved out, he actually began to miss his neighbor’s music.
  2. When Ellison says, “In those days it was either live with music or die with noise…” he is implying that either way there will be sound and it is up to you to either value the music or be annoyed every day with noises that are inevitable.
  3. Points of comparison between Ellison’s essay and Schafer’s “The Soundscape” is they both agree that sounds are all around us and are unavoidable.