Discussion questions #6

EPISODE 3 – LOVE

  1. According to Krukowsi the difference between a microphone and a cellphone is that the sound of our voices in the phone has become worse with the switch to digital phones, but is not because the microphones in it. Cellphones don’t transmit the whole range of sound picked up by their mics instead they digitally process that sounds compressing it to remove unnecessary data and transmit just the essential information, our words. Another difference is the proximity in a cellphone you hear someone as far or as near as they are, with a microphone you could perfect techniques of recording controlling your respiration and diction, without disruption of any sounds, or getting closer and far to the mic at certain times so the people listening could feel like the singer is right at their ear, you can transmit feelings through a microphone.
  2. Before we had language hundreds of years ago we had utterances with musical qualities that communicated what we needed to survive, making social organizations. Gary Tomlinson says “There are musical absences at the heart of a language, we are musical beings as much as linguistics ones” he argues that teachers nowadays tend to focus on syntax and grammar and they leave out the musical aspects of language, Krukowski adds that in digital devices nonverbal qualities of our voices also tend to be lost, the sound of our voice across digital lines is limited, just to recognize a voice and understand the words, but that is not enough.
  3. Digital tools had allowed us to share our voice across the world, but they fail us in many aspects. To make our voice understandable across digital lines, the codes remove certain aspects “non essential”, but if you leave out the musical aspects of speech. The significance of these comments is that even though digital tools make our life easier, face to face encounters are essential to transmit our feelings through the music of our voice.

     

    EPISODE 4 – MONEY

  4. Krukowsi said “most musicians I know are paid way too little or much too much maybe it’s because no one is sure what music is really worth”. We have a lot of resources to listen to music free like Youtube, Pandora, etc. but in some platforms like Spotify and Apple music, you have to pay an amount monthly to stream music. Musicians invest time and effort into their music, mostly when they are starting in the business, everybody knows the musical business is competitive and just few people succeed, I think digitals tools are a great advantage to support new musicians and discover hidden talents. It’s also true that many people can’t keep their career as a musician because they have to found a job that makes money, being this said we should really support local artists that we like, paying for their music so they can keep producing it. I support music file sharing because even though it has its disadvantages for artists I think music should be available for everyone and not just for people who have money to pay for it.

  5. Music connects people, it helps you define your personality since a short age and even our social group even though you could listen to every genre of music it’s most probably that you like more one or two and your friends may like many artists that you do. Before people were classified in social groups according to the music they liked, but nowadays is not that common.

  6. I think charging for music helps support the circulation of music, because producing a song with good quality costs money and time, charging for music could keep musicians creating new music. I don’t think this impede the formation of communities around this music, if an artist is liked by the audience they would pay for its music and share it to more people.