Ways of Hearing

Discussion questions for episodes 5 & 6

Episode 5

1. At the beginning of this episode, Krukowski asserts, “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.” What does he mean by this statement? He goes on to ask, “But might it [the marginal-the rejected-the repressed] not be a key to alternate approaches to art, to society-to power itself?” (“Marginalized” is an adjective that describes a person, group, or concept that is treated as insignificant or peripheral.)
   

What is he trying to get at with this question? How does music indicate the differences between the powerful and the marginalized?

-The music like Krukowski stated he goes to record store just to window shop even if he doesn’t find anything, he tends to consume knowledge every time he goes to the record store. He stated he goes to antic stores to find some rare old records and bands that they don’t have any use for.

2-How are the music listening experiences enabled by Forced Exposure different from those that Paul Lamere is working on with platforms like Spotify?

-Enabled by Forced Exposure different from what pull Lamere is working on, They’re offering exposure for many records, knowing that Spotify is a platform to increase their records sales such as a digital copy of the record. Using Spotify as a marketing platform.

3-What distinctions does Krukowski draw between being “surprised” by music and “discovering” music? What are the differences between these experiences and according to Krukowski, why are they important? 

-According to the episode, Krukowski stated discovering new music can be surprising to many listeners, but people tend to get bored by listening to similar music. In this day and age, we tend to have the same music from the different artists by just different styles of their own.

Episode 6

1. According to Krukowski, what is noise? What is a signal? Why are these distinctions important?
   -According to Krukowski noise is a signal to our ears that interests us, everything else besides the interest is basically noise that we hear daily. This distinction is important because it gives us interest and knowledge of what we want to hear.
2. What central idea about noise does this episode convey? Why is it significant?
   – This episode conveys that every noise leads to an interest to a listener such as music or any noise that interesting to an individual.
3. How does this episode relate to other episodes? 

-These episodes related to other episodes because the main topic is noise and digital technology that every human being is using, knowing that listening is really important as human beings.