Question 1.  The main differences between a microphone and a cellphone, according to Krukowski, is that a cell phone doesn’t have a proximity effect and it doesn’t transmit the totality of sound, including the background noise, when speaking into it.  The lack of a proximity effect transmits the volume of the voice equally no matter if you’re close or far from the phone and the lack of all the sound doesn’t allow that part of our voice that communicates without language to be transmitted.  These differences are important because it doesn’t allow the full message of what’s being said or sung to be communicated easily.  The lack of non verbal information leads to questions on what the exact intent of the speaker or singer is.

Question 2.  Mr. Tomlinson indicates that communicating is not just the words being spoken but also how they are spoken.  He thinks that we are musical beings at heart, just as much as linguistic and so a big part of communication is also the musical quality of the sounds that come out of our mouths.  The way in which we say the words and not only the words themselves have equal value when we are communication with each other.  When our voices are transmitted digitally they are stripped of all unnecessary data so that it is easier and quicker to send and receive them.  This procedure results in only enough information being sent to recognize the voice and to decode the words.  Hence, no background noise is heard, no proximity effect is felt and the musical aspects of our voices are not transmitted effectively.

Question 3.  The significance of Krukowski’s comments is that the sound of the voice and not only the words have been an integral part of communication throughout our existence.  Even before there was language people would communicate with utterances and grunts.  These sounds allowed both communities and individuals to not only communicate information, but all sorts of feelings including love, affection, pleasure, anger, dissatisfaction, and many others.  Words were not needed for people to express a whole range of thoughts, emotions and information.  Of course words make things easier and more efficient, but since much of our communication comes from the actual sounds of our voices, it is just as important as the words.

Question 4.  The issue of file sharing and whether or not one should have to pay for music or not is more complicated than it seems and brings up mixed thoughts for me.  At first when file sharing started I loved the idea of being able to download all this great music so quickly and easily, all at no cost.  Especially cause back then buying music was rather expensive, 12 – 15 dollars for a CD usually, which meant a limited amount of music you had access to.  For someone who loves music, and all kinds of music, this meant I could not have even remotely the amount of music I wanted.  So I loved Napster and was very disappointed when it was shut down.  That being said I believe that someone should always be paid for their work and file sharing was taking money away from artists and hence they were not getting appropriately paid for their creations and labor.  Now how much they should be paid and how much we should pay for music is something is something I could not answer right now with the limited information I have available.

Question 5.  This episode indicates that that music, community and culture are all interrelated, with each having an continuous affect on the other.  For example, a certain culture may influence what type of music is created, which in turn could increase the sense of community in that culture.  Or the introduction of a new type of music from somewhere else could become appreciated by a community which in turn could influence the culture. They are all intertwined constantly influencing each other.

Question 6.  I think charging money would slightly impede the formation of communities around music only because exposure to this music would take longer, and thus the time it takes for community formation would increase.  But in the end the music would be circulated irregardless of money being charged or not.