Krukowski asserts, “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.” Then he goes on to say, “ But might it [the marginal-the rejected-the repressed] not to be a key to alternative approaches-to art, to society-to power itself?” what he means is how music companies have a sense of control over listeners. The music companies choose what type of music you like depending on what you listen to. As a listener, your options are limited your stuck not exploring other types of music. For example, when you sign up for Apple Music, they ask you what kind of artists you like, then they customize stations, playlists, and similar artists (popular artists) for you. No music company is going to suggest random music automatically unless you do that on your own. For instance, you usually listen to R&B music and magically see Rock music pop up in your suggestions, which will motivate some listeners to join another music streaming service because they are unfamiliar with that sound. 

The distinctions Krukowski draws between being  “surprised” by music and “discovering” music is when a person finds music that sounds similar to what they like vs. finding music they’re not used to hearing.

Forced exposure allowed music companies to find and listen to thousands of songs and choose what they thought was worth putting out on the radio. Before music was downloadable, people listened to the radio and changed the station until they found something they liked. It might not be the exact song they’re looking for, but it sounds similar. Paul Lamere works on platforms like Spotify to help listen to stream music they are already familiar with quickly. In addition, it gives listeners access to a wide variety of music to choose from.

Ralph Ellison in “Living with Music” shares his living experiences in his New York City apartment. He details his surroundings and what he hears—music playing from the neighbors being so loud and belligerent drunks. Ralph explains how living near a courtyard and a bar, Ralph can listen to everything. At first, he was annoyed and couldn’t focus on his writing until hearing the music he heard from his neighbors started to motivate him to play the instrument again, creating his own sound.

Ralph Ellison states, “In those days, it was either live with music or die with noise,” which means having to choose between two sounds. Listen to your surroundings and complain or block annoying sounds with the music you create or find.

The episode “Ways of Hearing” talks about the sounds of New York City and where you are at can impact your ability to hear. In “Living with Music” the sounds from Ralph’s surroundings help him understand music.

Sound is naturally produced from objects, while hearing allows us to listen and understand the vibrations. Sound is one way that will enable us to communicate once we hear what’s being generated, then we make that decision whether or not to speak. We do decide to listen to what we want to hear. We make that choice by ignoring someone not responding, putting on noise cancellation earphones, etc. Schafer and Krukowski discuss how space has an impact on the way we interpret sound. Krukowski explains how we have selective hearing depending on where we are at. Krukowski also mentions that we choose to put headphones into our ears to cancel any loud noise in public spaces. We create our own space not paying attention to what’s around us, we disconnect from the real world. Schaffer interpretation about sound and space is how a natural sound can be overheard by other sounds that are reproduced.

According to Berger’s argument media influence the way African Americans are portrayed as poor and victimized. During a march in Selma, black people were peacefully protesting about voting and school rights. In the midst of the protest, photographs were captured of how tear gas and clubs were swung at protesters who were black. Newspapers, Tv, and other forms of media at the time disregarded photos illustrating a nonviolent protest led by black people but instead depicting black people as powerless and the officers who were white as superior abusing their authority. “After all, graphic photographs of violence tend to be more attention getting and marketable than photographs of orderly lines of marchers armed only with protest placards or articles detailing the economic  and social inequalities facing blacks.” ( Berger, pg 6) white people tend to care about violence on black people but will be awareness to the cause.

According to Berger, “publicity” what we would call advertising images influences consumers to buy products or portray a lifestyle they wish to have. Businesses have strategies to promote their products by having attractive models, or you might see a car, a house, expensive jewelry as the background to persuade consumers into buying, making them feel glamorous but in reality just selling them a dream. The importance in the differences Berger expressed about oil paintings and publicity pictures are dreams vs. reality. Oil paintings display the artist’s worth and see life within the painting showing authenticity. Publicity is advertising; if we buy a particular product, the better life would be but, in reality, just wasting money and making you poor and the rich richer. The production of images for publicity reveals to us how every day we are influenced by society. If you have the money you put yourself at a higher social class and control. One of the dreams Berger offers is “The dream of later tonight” where he shows a group of well-dressed people laughing and having a good time in an upscale restaurant. The image advertising that money can buy happiness and puts you in a better position in life, but money doesn’t buy happiness in reality. 

In John Berger’s ” Ways of Seeing” he explains how art is observed. John Berger goes over different types of art in episode 1 and state how we could look at art in multiple perspectives and can mean or symbolize something different based on our understanding. Furthermore, John Berger focus on how women is depicted in Renaissance paintings in episode 2 as submissive and pleasurable to men. Representations of women today is objectified in the same way John Berger argues about how women is perceived as sex objects. Today’s society we have social media, magazines, and TV (just to name a few) have a huge influence on how women should view themselves or to attract men attention. In general no matter if the women is naked or even fully clothed they will still be portrayed sexually they don’t have full control of their image. In episode two John Berger stated that “To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet recognized for oneself”. He implies how a women’s naked body viewed in a sexual matter can be a form of nudity.

According to Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, writers should use the model of ” Entering the Conversation” in their writing. The “They say/ I say” format helps writers expand their thinking and interpret their own claim and counterclaim. Once the reader can get a general idea of what you are talking about this will allow the reader to agree or disagree based on your reasoning/evidence. Being able to state your claim and analyzing different point of views your argument will be more credible. Just like a conversation you start of with a idea and build off someone’s else responses for example someone may say abortion should be allowed under certain circumstances and goes on with the reasons and other person will respond and say I agree with you but killing a fetus after certain amount of weeks shouldn’t be allowed and this conversation will keep going causing a debate.

Learning to look at artwork help us analyze other situations from the smarthistory videos because you see your point of view and can translate your view to others even though someone else may have a different perception. Looking at the artwork can also help you with communication skills by asking questions and solving real world problems.