Reinventing the Wheel to Run Myself Over

I could walk this fine line between elation and success, but we all know which way I’m going to strike the stake between my chest. So, “You have to prove yourself”. You’ll have to prove it to me. So now you’re waiting up for him…

Episode 6 of Ways of Hearing talked about how we choose which sounds are noise and which are signal. Kurkowski talks about the remastered version of the Beach Boys song not including the conversation that was being had in the background. This reminded me of a song off of one of my favorite albums, in which they chose to keep in what might have been considered noise. In the first verse of Reinventing the Wheel to Run Myself Over by Fall Out Boy, the lead singer says “‘You have to prove yourself,’ / You’ll have to prove it to me.” At the end of the song, you can hear the beginning of this line shouted by someone before trailing off, followed by laughter. I remember watching a video on Youtube a long time ago in which the band members said they asked their friend from The Plain White Tees to join them on the song. However, when it was time for his line, they all stopped playing as a joke, leaving him to shout alone. This clearly isn’t meant to be part of the song, and is something they likely would have cut out if it wasn’t funny. They chose to add what would have been noise to the song, and amplified it by adding it to the very end of the song.

New York-The sounds of a city in lockdown

The sounds of New York City are usually loud and honking. But with commerce and regular life virtually shut down amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the city that never sleeps is uncharacteristically quiet. Listen.

On January 13, 2020, I gave birth to my fourth child. That day, I heard the first sounds of my daughter crying and I was very happy. In those moments, I had no idea that 2020 would be the most difficult year for me, my family and for many people on our planet. Exactly two months later, we were forced to isolate due to the coronavirus pandemic and the streets of New York became empty. I would like to share with you a short video “New York-The sounds of a city in lockdown” sourced from the China Global Television Network (“CGTN”) YouTube channel. During the moments of self-isolation, I did not have the opportunity to see and hear New York such calm and unhurried as it was in the first days of quarantine. According to Krukowski’s podcast in Noise and Signal, the author explains the concepts of noise and signals. Three months ago, New York was quiet, just rare signals through the noiseless city of ambulances passing by, birdsong, a lonely street musician playing alone, the rattling of chains on the fences of city playgrounds and daily evening applause for the first responders. For New York, these were silent but mournful days. Hopefully, in the near future, we will be able again to fully hear the noisy, hasty and lovely New York. As Ella Fitzgerald sings in the song “Manhattan”, “We’ll turn Manhattan into an isle of joy.”

Manhattan

Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group Manhattan · Ella Fitzgerald Essential Ella ℗ 1956 UMG Recordings, Inc. Released on: 1994-10-01 Producer: Norman Granz Studio Personnel, Engineer: Alan Emig Associated Performer, Vocals: Ella Fitzgerald Conductor, Associated Performer, Recording Arranger: Buddy Bregman Orchestra: Buddy Bregman Orchestra Composer Lyricist: Richard Rodgers Composer Lyricist: Lorenz Hart Auto-generated by YouTube.

“Always with me ” is the ending theme song of the Spirited Away movie. This movie is mainly about a wonderful adventure of chihiro.Therefore, as the ending theme song, the beginning of Always with Me is performed by the instrument flute.It gives us a feeling that we are taking a train going back home joyfully.What’s more, our train is next to the blue sea, we are enjoying the beautiful scenery and sharing our feeling with our family on the train as well. In the later part of the song, after the piano and other  instrument join in, we could not only feel joy ,but also a little bit sad in the song.I can image the scene of two best friends are going to separate at the train stage , the one who’s going back home farewells to his friends on the train.He’s happy, but also sad.He’s happy because he can go back home, he’s sad as well because he had many wonderful memory here and he has to leave now. In a word, this song is pretty good and I love it very much.

As our day goes on we hear many noises that are not important to us. At some point, this noises will become interesting, annoying or not important at all. But when you leave in an apartment building with other neighbors living on the following floor of your apartment sometimes we find ourselves being annoyed by noises which are not even important to us. How can we pay attention to a noise if it is not a signal, on the contrary you wish not to hear that noise. For example, while I am trying to complete my class assignments right now, my neighbor on the fifth floor seems to be throwing all his/her furniture on the floor. On the other hand, I can say that I am used to noise. There is a construction right next to my window in which they make a lot of noise at 7:00 AM but somehow this noise is not bothering me. What I am trying to say, is there a signal on the noise that my neighbor is making right now but not on the noise of the construction?

“I Used to Love H.E.R.’ is a song by hip hop legend Common Sense released back in 1994. The song was produced and arranged by No I.D. The beat and accompanying musical arrangement uses a sample from the Jazz song “The Changing World” by George Benson. Benson’s song was recorded using all analog recordings before digital recording was prevalent in the music industry. The recording includes a significant amount of background noise. Common’s “I used to love H.E.R.” was recorded completely digitally, but producer No I.D. decided to leave some of that background noise in the song. 

 The song’s lyrics tell a first person story about Common’s love for a female who over time changes for the worse. The female in the song is actually an analogy of hip hop music and the changes it went through through the late 80’s and early 90’s. Hip Hop during that time period went from mostly underground music with little commercial or financial appeal to music made for the masses. It has continued in this fashion as one of the more profitable music genres in the world. 

This change is analogous of the move from analog to digital music. Hip Hop went from a period of including noise to removing all noise and only featuring the signals that are profitable by large record corporations. Krukowski’s idea of what has changed in the world as we have gone from analog to digital applies to the change in Hip Hip, even though Hip Hop has always been a digitally recorded style of music. It has gone from its pure unadulterated form, to a commercially influenced form which waters it down by removing all the noise, or authenticity.

Poets of the Fall – Late Goodbye (Official Video w/ Lyrics)

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In this world, we all love to hear music. Some people also love to write lyrics or make music. However, we all have at-least one favorite song, music artist or band. Some people have lots of like me. Yeah, I’m a music-lover and sometimes I love to make rhythms or write lyrics. I want to clarify that we have some kind of memories with the song we love to hear most. It can be a one song or an album/record. I have a story about finding one of my favorite band by an unexpected incident. I want to add that I love to play video games especially on the PC/Desktop. I’m a gamer and it’s my second favorite thing like music. So, when I was in class 6 or 7, I was playing a game called “Max Payne 2”. It’s a game by ‘’Rockstar Games’’ who created epic games such as the Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption or Bully. I loved the story/theme of the game. Generally, I like this type of games a lot. It took one or two weeks to finish the game. When I finished the game, I heard the soundtrack of the game called ‘’Late Goodbye” by “Poets of the Fall”. After finishing a fantastic game, this song just blew up my mind. Therefore, I discover a great rock band from Helsinki. Poets of the Fall’s vocalist called Marko Saaresto has a great vocal range and can sing a song very uniquely. The song called Late Goodbye has a beautiful lyric such as “And we keep driving into the night, It’s a late goodbye, such a late goodbye”. After that, I keep listening to this beautiful band and still listen this amazing band. Furthermore, when I listen the song called ‘’Late Goodbye”, it brings back me the old beautiful memories. Also, I’m absolutely grateful that I’m fortunate enough to play a good game with discovering a great artist. It feels so astonishing when you find an awesome game with beautiful soundtracks by your favorite musical artist.  In conclusion, there are many stories similar like this, but this my most favorite one.

Working Out at Home Without Annoying Your Neighbors (Published 2020)

Noise complaints are up as residents jump, kickbox and lift weights in their own apartments during the coronavirus lockdown.

The colorful world is full of strange sounds: the melodious bird cry, the eerie wolf roar; the majestic tsunami, the thunderbolt; the roaring machinery of the factory day and night, the sound of the piano in the concert hall… they make up the “environment” “Symphony” movement. Sometimes the movement is harmonious and tranquil, sometimes passionate and unrestrained, and sometimes chaotic. Sometimes it prevents people from resting and thinking. Noise is called the “invisible killer”. It can affect people’s hearing, shorten people’s life span, and seriously cause death. The development of science and technology has changed our lives. We are building houses, roads, and concert halls with sound insulation materials. At the same time, more people can be protected from noise. Therefore, the key to preventing noise is to control and eliminate noise sources.