This is a comparison about Ralph Ellison’s “Living with Music,” and Damon Krukowski’s “Ways of Hearing- Power”

In “Living with music,” Ralph Ellison describes music as a way to escape from all the noise by his neighbors and the noisy neighborhood. Instead of listening to the noise from his neighbors, he listens to music as a way to get rid of all the noise by constantly hearing it daily. He creates his peace from listening to music and how he hears it. He did mention “In those days it was either live with music or die with noise.” This means that you can choose to continuously hear noise coming from the neighbors, or you can do something about it by creating your own and choosing to listen to music. In “Ways of Hearing- Power,” Damon Krukowski describes music as having numerous ways to enjoy music and block out anything that we do not want to hear. He mentions that we have better technology for streaming music that we no longer have to walk into a record or a CD store to browse for our selected music. Nowadays, we have better means for getting the music we love at our fingertips. By using apps like Spotify and Apple music. To some, music is much more enjoyable now than it was back then because we can use our phones and technology to browse and search for the music that we want from the comforts of our homes, compared to a time when we had to physically go into a record or music store to browse the selection of music that we wanted to hear. Having ways to block out noise with music gives one many possibilities of being in their own world for that period. Listening to music can take you to a place where you dreamt of being, by imagination, thought, and hearing the sounds which you love.

Blog Post #7

When Krokowski said, “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.” He means that the way we once knew music was by listening to records and CDs or going into the record stores, and when the “powerful” decide it’s no use at the moment, it means they create different, better ways to deliver the music to us. As the world develops, they introduce more advanced ways in which we can access music. As of today, we have everything at our fingertips, where we can access music easier. He mentioned that Spotify, Amazon, and Apple, etc, will design the music based on what we already know and want without your participation to keep playing; the algorithm will know what you want.

Music indicates the differences between the powerful and the marginalized in the sense that the powerful have the power to do as they please and introduce innovative ways in which one listens to music. As the world continues to develop, more things will be advanced, and people will accept the new ways as it is easier and not having to listen to CD’s or go to the store for music because it’s an old way of life. The marginalized, compared to the powerful, are unimportant and powerless; if they decide they don’t want to accept the new way of accessing music and want to stick to the old fashion ways, they will have limited access because most places will upgrade or will go out of business, because of how the music is much more accessible.

The distinctions Krukowski draws between being “surprised” by music and “discovering” music means that is not the same as discovering, it is what we’re already like and comfortable with. Discovering music is something we haven’t heard before, but will probably like based on our music selection.

The forced exposure carries a lot of titles that are physically the office, listens to every release, and writes about it, ultimately allowing people to discover records that they were unaware of, while Spotify is digital music that is readily accessible to the type of music we already know.

He describes his experience as he was surrounded by all the sounds and unable to control it as it was by his neighbors. It influenced him in ways that made him see the passion that others have for music; and made him appreciate music and how he heard it.

He means that you can live music by hearing the sounds the neighbors produce, understanding that it’s a passion for them. In turn, you’d make the best of it and create your own. Die with the noise means that hearing all the sounds coming from the noisy neighbors and not doing anything to block it out could leave one feeling irritated and mentally drained by the constant sound of music.

The comparison between Ellison and Damon Krukowski is that they experience similar noise from the neighborhood, and had to find to deal with it. The solution to that was music and how they hear it.

Blog Post #5

The difference between hearing and listening is that people tend to hear things if it isn’t something that they’re interested in, it won’t seem of importance to want to hear more information about it. So they may brush it off or even think about something else while they hear someone talking. When it comes to listening, I would say it’s something people are interested in getting more information about; thus, when people listen to someone talk, they give it their full attention avoiding any distractions because the information may be beneficial to aspects of their lives. People make choices based on what they listen to; rather than what they hear. Most people tend to listen to a social class structure, especially if that person has power. Seeing that most people would listen to someone with that power, it would display that they’re receiving accurate information due to his or her status in society. For instance, if they have a big following and people look up to them; and deliver information, people will run with that information and believe every word; even if it’s misinformation, only because it’s a celebrity.

As Damon Krukowski mentioned, “digital devices extend interior space into the street, through audio we’re privatizing our public space.” It’s noisy in New York City (NYC), so most people use phones or listen to their headphones while they walk down the street to block out the noise around them. On public transportation, people will use their headphones, not only to avoid the noise pollution around them but also to avoid hearing peoples’ conversations in which they aren’t interested because they are strangers. When people are in public spaces, most times it’s uncomfortable, from noise to crowds of people, so they find comfort in listening to their headphones and not having to deal with the discomfort of being in public spaces. Gentrification also played a big part in the noise in NYC because of all the construction of the new buildings that were being built around the city. 

I agree with what Berger stated. Black people have suffered for a very long time. In the early days, they were powerless to stand up for themselves because they were always a target of something. In today’s society, when the people of color try to stand up for themselves, it turns into something more drastic where there are protests which most times leads to arrest. Some white people still have the mindset that blacks are inferior to them. So when they become a victim of something, it would be more likely to portray that, in contrast to them displayed in the media by standing up for what they believe in, having a voice, and succeeding at it. People of color struggle to have rights in society because racism is still alive today.

According to Berger, Publicity Images influence consumers to want what they see advertised because it is portrayed as glamourous to the consumers, whether it is houses, cars, jewelry, or clothing. The consumer sees that as something to have since they are overcome by the anxiousness of wanting what they see is publicized.

The oil painting showed what the owner was already enjoying and that it enhanced the view of oneself. The Publicity shows that life would be different because of the new possessions, but you would need money to do so. It states that seeing those publicity images makes one want to have that in their lives because it would make the consumer happier. Not having sufficient money to do so, encourages the consumer to go after the “dream” that they see in the public images.

The dream of a faraway place is using images to manipulate consumers portraying that they too  could be far away to an exotic location or Island, forgetting everything at that moment that the consumer may be experiencing. The consumer would accept what is seen from the images since they ought to wish to de-stress, but that would also be taking money from the consumer. When it is over, the consumer would come back to reality and would once again be confronted with whatever they were running from in the first place.

The way that women are represented today is similar about what Berger argues, women are always objectified by men because men are sexual beings. Women does have control over the images in the media, but I think that most of them would rather have something more sexualized out there, because they would want to feel a kind of acceptance from the male audience, which would in turn give the woman the attention that she might be seeking. If a man sees an image that’s sexualized or nude, then that’s where his mind will take him, even for a second. On the other hand, a woman might have control over the images in the media by not putting out sexualized images because she would want to be portrayed in a positive, less sexual aspect by the male. Berger mentioned in the story of Adam and Eve, that the woman was blamed for giving the apple to the man, and was later punished. Today, such as, if a woman dresses provocatively, and thus gets harassed or worse by men, many times they would blame the woman just for the way she was dressed.

Writing about anything and using “I say,” the person is giving their own theory about   something, but isn’t giving anything else to support that theory. Some readers will          understand what the writer is talking about, but might still wonder how factual it is because of the lack of supporting evidence. Opposed to when the writer is stating a theory and could give supporting examples from other people (they say) in their statement, so that the reader can agree and relate to what the writer is saying.

When looking at art, some might only see what’s physically there, and say, “oh that’s     nice” and move on to the other, not fully understanding the depths and beauty of it. On the contrary, one can look at an art piece, and it can take that person to another level of admiration with how meticulous the artist did his work. It can also make one understand and see the different types of symbolism that has been articulated in the art.