Discussion Questions #7

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?

Krukowski asserts “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.” he means that the changes come from the audience. The audience has the power to replace bookstores and physical places that sell the music and books online such as Amazon, and eBay. Our lives are being busy and running fast so people prefer to shop their books or music online to go store to explore and what the book stores or record stores have. Record stores became in a margin because of technology and digital apps that offered thousands of songs on their phones.   

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

Digital Companies such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora have music recommendations done by computers using algorithms through the recommendations that the audiences give. , acoustic similarity, and cultural recommendations. The difference is that forced exposure can have a human give you a personalized recommendation because they listened to the music themselves. Paul Lamere said the goals of that is they know automatically what you want to listen through your music playlist. Those company like Spotify, Echo nest has designs the recommendation program to figure out what do you want to listen.   

  1. 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 Krukowski indicates the differences between surprised and discovering in music surprise are not the same as discovering. Discover that when you use the app to discover what do you want exactly to hear. I am using Spotify app as an example,  You discover what do you want to hear because the application has millions of the song around the world. Later you got a surprise when you find a song that related to what are you listen to. In fact that it should not surprise us because this app uses a recommendation program that gives us the music related to our favorite music to keep us listening to music the app.      

Episode 6

  • According to Krukowski, what is noise? What is the signal? Why are these distinctions important?

According to Krukowski indicate the differences between noise and signal, he states that noise the voice that you want to her but the signal is sound that you want to her and interested to or you pay your attention to. 

  • What central idea about noise does this episode convey? Why is it significant?

The central idea about the noise and signal in this episode is depending on the person responded for example, when kids in the park scream, their scream is signal for their parents but it is noise for the elderly who are sitting in the park.   

  • How does this episode relate to other episodes? 

This episode is special because the impact of digital sound can create serious disease hearing loss according to the world health organization reported that 1.1 billion young people are now at risk of hearing loss from the personal audio. In episode 2 space, Krukowski said digital audio makes people create their private space and also they listen to music instead of talking to each other, It a result of that they prefer the noise and face the risk of losing their hearing. In episode 3 love digital sound has a negative impact on the music quality, the song now became noisier than before because of the digital tools. 

Discussion Questions 7

  1. At the beginning of this episode, when Krukowski asserts that “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.”, he meant that when people lost their attention on something or when they found it unfamiliar, it will be considered as the marginal. But if we always listen to the familiar one and never be open to the new experiments, we won’t be able to go forward from here. That’s why the marginal-the rejected-the repressed] might be a key to alternate approaches to art, to society, to power itself.
  2.  The music listening experiences enabled by Forced Exposure is closer to what we are looking for and what we would like. Because, before they present those experiences to us, they are listening to that music in person and evaluate it the way one of us would do. But in platforms like Spotify, algorithms are the ones that chose and recommend the music to us. So, those recommendations may not be as successful as the ones Forced Exposure’s, since the music is for souls not for machines.
  3. The distinction Krukowski draws between being “surprised” by music and “discovering” is how much you feel familiar with what you listen to. Even though it’s the first time you listen to a song, it may feel like you listened to it before. But this is not the case when it comes to being surprised. Being surprised is listening to something that is not likely to anything you listened to before. Many people don’t like being surprised. So, when making recommendations, algorithms chose songs that familiar with what we listen to.
  4. Noises are sounds that we are not there to hear, like the surface noise in a record. And, to Dr. Quinnell, signal is whatever sound we are trying to pay attention to. 
  5. The central idea of the episode’s message about the distinctions between signal and noise. Anything you pay attention to is a signal, and anything you don’t want to hear is a noise. The distinction between them is up to the person who hears them. For example, in the subway, the sound of a baby who is crying is a noise to the other passengers, whereas it is a signal to the baby’s parents.
  6. In this episode, we saw a new thing that the digital world brought to us. From the beginning to the end, every episode we talked about this. Sometimes we miss the analog world but we can’t unsee the improvements that came with the digital.

  1.  Krukowski wanted to point out that we are naturally affected by music. Big companies like Amazon, Google, Spotify, or other online music servers, serve us all sources of information irresponsibly .he finds that some specific albums/records are preserved for a long time. Also, these records are expired/out-of-date. Nowadays, people prefer downloading music from the internet or uploading music apps such as Spotify, Sound cloud or YouTube rather than going to the music store wasting time picking up CD’s. But music records stores are a type of art and there are some people who use it. Krukowski mentioned that by visiting the record store, he discovered a lot of information there. He gave an example such as workers over there can provide you with information about years ago that you didn’t know.

 

 

  • Forced Exposure means listening to the opinion of those who listened to all of the available records and wrote about them.Jimmy from Forced Exposure Collects songs of various genres and when he likes something he records it and he knows what he will hear later.  People picked what they wanted to listen to based on this information. In contrast, Spotify is choosing for us a source of music based on our listening history by using the algorithms.Paul Lamre’s experience in sites like Spotify, he makes an automatic way to choose songs based on the person’s taste, and he selects similar songs.

 

 

 

  • Krukowski states the point that surprise is not the same as discovery to a huge digital corporation eager to change every one of us and as much of our time as possible with their product.He gives the examples of Google , Facebook and Spotify. He compares the way how these three companies provide our information we would like to know. According to Krukowski is that people are experiencing a new type of music without the need of searching for a specific kind of music. The main purpose of Spotify is to let the listener hear the music that they are most likely to enjoy.  you can be surprised by a song you discover, for example it could be better or worse than what you expected.Forced Exposure surprises with its variety in which you need to dig a little to find something new and completely different from the usual.

 

 

Episode 6

 

 

  • According to Krukowski, noise is something, we are not paying attention to when we are listening. Signal is the voice we are paying attention to and that we want to listen to. These distinctions are important because until we decide the distinction between signal and noise, we won’t know what we are listening to.Signals are fluid because our attention can shift based on what we want to hear at any given time. Noise is everything we can hear besides the signal we are looking for. 

 

 

 

  • Noise is very important, that is something lost. Remove the noise and only keep the signal. He explains there is a richness to noise that allows our brain to choose its signals.The signal in music is something that the producers want listeners to hear. if we cut out noise completely and try to layer signal with other signals, it just becomes competing signals. When there is noise in the background the audio engineer gets to choose what to highlight as a signal and what to leave in back. It allows the engineer to weave sound textures together to create a more complex sound. 

 

 

 

  • This episode gives us one of the most important points in music, in real time and space. In the machine time, we come to approach to reduce the noise and focus on the signal. In digital time, we can use headphones to enjoy the signal of our song and reduce the noise we are hearing around. We can avoid the noise.

 

 

Discussion questions #7

  1. At the beginning of this episode, when Krukowski asserts that “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.”, he meant that when people lost their attention on something or when they found it unfamiliar, it will be considered as the marginal. But if we always listen to the familiar one and never be open to the new experiments, we won’t be able to go forward from here. That’s why the marginal-the rejected-the repressed] might be a key to alternate approaches to art, to society, to power itself.
  2.  The music listening experiences enabled by Forced Exposure is closer to what we are looking for and what we would like. Because, before they present those experiences to us, they are listening to that music in person and evaluate it the way one of us would do. But in platforms like Spotify, algorithms are the ones that chose and recommend the music to us. So, those recommendations may not be as successful as the ones Forced Exposure’s, since the music is for souls not for machines.
  3. The distinction Krukowski draws between being “surprised” by music and “discovering” is how much you feel familiar with what you listen to. Even though it’s the first time you listen to a song, it may feel like you listened to it before. But this is not the case when it comes to being surprised. Being surprised is listening to something that is not likely to anything you listened to before. Many people don’t like being surprised. So, when making recommendations, algorithms chose songs that familiar with what we listen to.
  4. Noises are sounds that we are not there to hear, like the surface noise in a record. And, to Dr. Quinnell, signal is whatever sound we are trying to pay attention to. 
  5. The central idea of the episode’s message about the distinctions between signal and noise. Anything you pay attention to is a signal, and anything you don’t want to hear is a noise. The distinction between them is up to the person who hears them. For example, in the subway, the sound of a baby who is crying is a noise to the other passengers, whereas it is a signal to the baby’s parents.
  6. In this episode, we saw a new thing that the digital world brought to us. From the beginning to the end, every episode we talked about this. Sometimes we miss the analog world but we can’t unsee the improvements that came with the digital.

Sonic Example #2

While I was watching episode 6, I was thinking what is really considered noise?, who defines noise? Sometimes there is things that could be satisfying for some people, but for others it could be annoying. For example some people can’t stand people who chew noisy or people who sip their soup from the scoop. Some people get anxious with sounds like pen clicking or nail tipping.  While i was listening to Krukowski talk about noise it came to my mind the ASMR  (autonomous sensory meridian response) it’s a feeling of tingling and relaxation experienced by some people when they watch certain videos or hear certain sounds. There is a lot of videos of ASMR all over youtube, you can find ASMR of people eating, or people whispering with a soothing voice, people doing calming tasks like brushing their hair, typing, etc.

In my personal experience I really enjoy ASMR, I feel that tingling sensation sometimes and it;s so relaxing, I used to hear it when I was doing homework and it helped me to focus. however I haven’t watched any ASMR videos in a long time.

[ASMR] Dark & Relaxing Tapping & Scratching [Close Whispers]

Hey everybody (: I darkened this video footage a bit as a little test to make this tapping video a bit more sleep-inducing! Let me know if it’s something you…

Blog Post #4

Coca Cola Christmas ’96/’97 – ✰ BEST QUALITY on YouTube ✰ ( FULL HD )

by Vyrida

The Coca Cola Christmas commercial with red trucks caravan and their holiday famous song makes me feel nostalgic and brings me back to my childhood, I was amazed all the time when I was watching that commercial on tv. It gives people the sensation of living in a story full of magic, where people are happy and joyful, all together outside waiting to share a bottle of coca cola and enjoy the holiday, snow, and atmosphere warmth. The beautiful song, accompanied by the sound of sleigh bells, makes children to dream about their Christmas gift wishes, and that Santa Claus is coming. The commercial song gives us the feeling that Christmas lights make sounds as well, and the fascinating choir of voices singing, bring people all races, gender, and ages together. 

Discussion questions #7

EPISODE 5 – POWER

 

  1. When Krukowski asserts, “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.” He means that society forget about anything they get tired of to replace it for something new, and that happens to the music too, the audience has power to control what is on demand nowadays. Why would people go to a record store when they can buy any album they want in Ebay or Amazon? Krukowski says he pick up some knowledge every time he goes to a record store, in a record store you can find new perspectives and approaches to art looking at what the mainstream culture has no use for.
  2. Forced Exposure employees listen to every new release and they even write about it, and produce a printed catalog, they inform us what is worth it; people choose the music they want to hear based on the reviews. Paul design recommendation programs, instead of having to search new music for yourself, you just hit one button and the algorithm plays songs based on what you like, your mood, where you are, where you are doing. Also this companies like Spotify and Pandora work with almost all the music available in the world so it’s impossible for them listen to every song.

  3. Surprise is not the same as discover, when you discover music is because you were searching for a specific type of music, but being surprised by music means that you were not expecting to hear that kind of music. Music corporations want to keep us engaged, they want us to find what we are already comfortable with, they don’t want to turn our requests upside down. They are replacing the freedom and chaos of the internet at large, with the control and predictability of their programs making harder for us to find new perspectives and question our knowledge.

    EPISODE 6 – NOISE

  4. Noise and signal are always connected in the analog world, think of a radio if you turn up the volume you turn up the noise, but digital allows the busting of signal without the busting of noise, for example when you are listening to a podcast online there is no static, no surface noise, so if you turn up the volume you get more volume. There is no noise to restrain the sound and everything is louder.
  5. Noise is the background sounds, sounds that you are not interested in, signal is the main sound, the sound you are trying to pay attention to. This episode conveys the importance of noise and signal. We are very skilled at shifting our attention from noise to signal, focusing and refocusing on different sounds in the environment, and shutting out others.
  6. In all the episodes they talk about the switch between analog and digital changed our ways of hearing, and also the impact of technology in the society. Digital devices remove the noise we don’t want to hear and make more clear the message we want to express. Our perception of sound is not as natural as we tend to believe, we hear what they want us to hear. This episode explores the differences of noise and signal, it’s related to the other episodes because it is like the start of everything else, for example in the episode 2 when they talk about the efforts to control sound or the episode 3 when they talk about how digital devices remove the musical qualities of our voice and the main message are our words.

 

BLOG#5

This is a natural sound, I always listening to this every day during quarantine due to stress being home all day, listing to this peaceful sound gives me energy and build up my mind by doing meditation while listening to this peaceful sound, Us human being we are always busy, I think during this pandemic it gives us time with family and knowing how hard is to stay home because of how our daily life with all the work/school kept our family apart. This sound represents the natural and beauty of real nature sound.

치유 명상음악 연속듣기 | 마음이 편안해지는 음악 | 스트레스 해소 음악 | 이완 효과가 있는 음악 | 잠잘때 듣는 음악 휴식을 위한 명상음악연속듣기

치유 명상음악 연속듣기 | 마음이 편안해지는 음악 | 스트레스 해소 음악 | 이완 효과가 있는 음악 | 잠잘때 듣는 음악 휴식을 위한 명상음악연속듣기 https://youtu.be/nKHBIAdBvZ4 잠잘때 듣는 음악 명상음악 수면음악 수면유도음악 잠잘오는음악 명상 마음이 편안해…

Blog Post #5

While I was watching episode 5 of Ways Of Hearing, it reminded me of the experiences I had when I was a young DJ back in 1988 when I was only 16 years old.  Specifically, I am referring to the part when he is  interviewing Jimmy Johnson of Forced Exposure, who indicated that he and his staff listen to every record that comes into the store so that may be able to provide knowledge and recommendations to their customers.  This very much correlated to why and how I purchased records for my collection to spin at the parties that I was hired to DJ for.  When I first started buying records I went to a few different stores and would buy the records that were hot, you know, the ones that were already being played on the radio and clubs.  Most of the top DJ record shops had a turntable so you could ask them to play a certain record for you, and it was mostly songs or artists that you already knew.  That was until I went to Vinylmania on Carmine Street in the West Village.  They had this young hispanic guy who worked there, well older than me, probably in his mid 20’s, and when I asked him to play a record he would, but then he would play a few more that he would recommend I buy.  Most of the time these were imports and were twice the price of the regular 12 inch singles.  And a lot of the time I didn’t even like the songs, but somehow he would convince me to buy them.  Sure enough after a week of listening to them, they grew on me immensely and a month or two later they were always the top songs in the clubs and on the radio.  This happened week after week and finally I stopped doubting his recommendations and as a result of that I was always the DJ with the best new stuff.  This experience was very relatable to that episode in that because of his knowledge and recommendations, which you didn’t get at the bigger stores like Tower Records, I was always able to have the best new music, much in the way Krukowski was able to hear that band from Japan because of the recommendations of the people at Forced Exposure.  In addition, had it been an algorithm that was deciding what new music I was gonna buy, I probably wouldn’t have found all those great up and coming hits. And that’s because they weren’t always that similar to the songs I had known up until that point.  Yes it was the same genre, but these recommended songs always were unique and maybe they wouldn’t have come up when I was searching for new music.  And even if they did, I probably wouldn’t have purchased them, because if you remember this gentleman always had to convince me to buy them.  Funny thing is this gentleman, Pal Joey, eventually became a pretty big house music record producer as well as producing some records for legendary Hip Hop artists such as BDP and MC Lyte.  So after googling his name it turns out many people had the same experience that I had, as is illustrated in the following article.

Pal Joey: A Fairy Tale Of New York

Pal Joey may be the most underrated house producer on the scene, but a newly released retrospective compilation could finally bring his music to a wider audience after 25 years in the game. We live in a time when success in electronic music can come as easily as a cracked download, a good idea and catching the hype at the right time.

Discussion #7

Episode 5 

1.Krukowski by his statement “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment,” he means that online corporations control the music trends and its recommendations. Musicians and singers, who are influencers on social media, they are in top charts, and internet influence people through diversity of ads. Having said that, some of yesterday hits are forgotten, because powerful dictates that. 

 2.The Forced Exposure is a big distribution warehouse. People can buy a record, and feel it in their hands, and listen to those songs and read about their description in the catalog. Before the internet, distribution companies, introduced many international singers and records to American listeners. On the other hand, is Spotify, a virtual music player, which has the purpose to work with the entire available music, it is based on algorithms, and is guessing listener’s preference and is giving him large recommendations. There is no effort to access any song on Spotify. 

 3.According to Krukowski, being “surprised” by music is when music recommendation services, like Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Prime Music, and others, is recommending us music which they think that we may like. On the other hand, “discovering” music is when people are making an effort to find a new artist, new album, by listening, and searching through the records. This is important because the online corporations are taking our freedom and our time giving us the information, they think we need, and we like. 

Episode 6 

1.According to Krukowski, signal is the sound which we are trying to pay attention to, and noise is the unwanted and unpleasant sound. When we are in a public space, and there are sounds from everywhere like people talking, cars sound, music, etc., those sounds will form the noise, and when will listen to a sound interested in, that is signal. This distinction is important, because when feel annoyed or disturbed, it is because of the noise, not signal. 

2.The central idea about noise is that all signals are noise when people do not pay attention to them, and when the volume is too high, people sometimes cannot distinguish the signal from the noise. In a recording studio tracing the unwanted noise is particularly important for the clarity of signal. 

 3.This episode relates to other episodes as aspects of sound, which I personally, did not pay attention to them, and I discovered something interesting about ways of hearing, and what represent sounds, signals, and noise in analog world versus digital world.