Category Archives: Blog Post #5

Blog Post #5

1. As I see it, the difference between hearing and listening is that hearing is the sounds we come across in our surroundings, this could be people talking from a distance, or the music we overhear from a car as the driver drives away. Listening, on the other hand, is what we want to hear, it could be music or the sounds of nature. We can make choices about what we listen to nowadays through technology like our mobile devices. In Damon Krukowski’s second episode of “Ways of Hearing”, he said we can control what we listen to in our environment anytime. There are structural elements that can affect our ways of listening, such as the way we grew up and the type of friends we have.

2. In the passage, “The Soundscape”, Schafer talks about sound and how it affects the space surrounding it. He discussed that keynote, when given a place, influences the personality of people living there and thus gives that place meaning to them. It possesses such great significance, that without it, it loses value to the people that once admired the place. The second episode of “Ways of Hearing”, portrays a good example of this. In that episode, Damon Krukowski and Jeremiah Moss went into a boutique, which used to be a rock club that they used to hang out. Krukowski remembered how the place was and asserted that the music playing in the boutique felt nothing with what the room represented. So one can see that Krukowski’s keynote was the rock club which brought meaning to him and his band. Now that it turned into a boutique, that place Krukowski loved has lost its meaning. This shows the relationship between sound and space made by Schafer and Krukowski.

Blog Post #5

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. 

 

Blog post #5

1. There are differences between “hearing” and “listening”.  I would say that “hearing” is a process that comes naturally. It was a passive process that people usually don’t make an effort. It doesn’t need concentration. On the other hand, “listening” needs our effort to do it such as paying attention. We can hear someone is talking, yet we might not listen to them. Clearly, people always make choices about what we listen to. Moreover, I would say music taste might tell us about what is social class or gender of whom that listening to that kind of music.

2. According to the podcast, ways of hearing episode 2, Schafer and Krukowski discussed that there were relationships between sound and space. They took us to “CBGB” which was the old club in East village’s manhattan. This place had its own meaning as a special space because it was a space that shared sound when musicians performed.  Moreover, they talked about sound and space in the 1920s. The reason they talked bout this year was because it was a very noisy year. Technology, including Subway, was developed ver fast. This made New York City become so loud. Many people, who shared the same space, had a hard time dealing with noisy sounds every day. So, the quiet zone was invented. It was a precious space for people who want to escape those unpleasant sounds. Gentrification was one of the factors that made the city get noisier. Schafer and Krukowski also discussed to radio city music hall. They stated that this was the first hall to emphasize the sound. It was just like CBGB, that this was the space that was built for the purpose of the sound. Clearly, there is a significant relationship between sound and space.

 

 

Blog Post #5

We as humans, tend to seclude ourselves from something we don’t want to be bothered with. This viewpoint can be plainly seen in New York City. The public transportation (MTA) in NYC is mostly crowded throughout the day. You will see people on the way to work, school, singers, dancers and the homeless. Then you will see the seclusion that people have from the rest of the city. Krukowski’s point about the use of earbuds is an excellent example. Even if the city is noisy, we remove ourselves intentionally from the outside world by looking at our phone screens or having earbuds on or both. In doing so we don’t even know what is going on in our surroundings. Krukowski says “But here with all these headphones, it’s like we are avoiding ear contact”. I agree with this because  when I put my AirPods on, I don’t feel compelled to interact anyone or to hear all the unnecessary noise encompassing the city. I can pick out what sounds I want to hear or who I want to converse with.

Prompt for Blog Post #5

  1. What do you take the differences between “hearing” and “listening” to be? Do we make choices about what we listen to? If so, how do we make these choices? What criteria do we use? Do structural features, such as race, gender, or social class, inform how we listen? How so? Are there other structural elements that affect our listening experiences?
  2. How do Schafer and Krukowski discuss the relationship between sound and space?

blog post 5

Ralph  Ellison describes how the sound of the city is annoying as he is a writer and needs his peace to work . one of the things he also describes the noises and sound he has to put up with in his apartment particularly the upstairs neighbor and how her singing affects him being able to write.Ralph Ellison  goes on to state he made a machine and had battles of decibels with her and how she was a good sport about items it didn’t hinder her creativity .He talks about his child hood and his love for music and then comes to realize can he bother this artist for he too is a artist of writing .In the end his love for music return.

in the first sentence I believe he means you live with your love for music or die  listening to the noises of NYC.

 

 

the point of comparison in sound scape is that noise is pollution like in Ralph Ellisons book and that music is becoming more modern