Episode 3

1. According to Krukowski, what are the main differences between a microphone and a cellphone and why is this difference important?

– The microphones used by cell phones are sensitive while technologically superior to those they replaced, deliberately filter out background noise, and often vocal tone. This makes conversation via cell phone more difficult to interpret than on the analog land lines .There is no proximate effect in cell phone. Whereas in microphone has those proximate effect .Microphone can give the feeling of closeness to the listener just by leaning into the microphone,
 even moving an inch or two can create a very noticeable change in volume.

Q2.What do Krukowski and Gary Tomlinson, the professor he interviews, assert about the “musical” qualities of the voice and how are these changed by digital transmission?

– Professor Gary believes that human are musical being. He asserts that even before human had language  we had musical qualities that communicate what we need to survive as spices, social organization and even love. Now  the digital transmission does encoding our language, send it over the internet to make it perceivable at the other end of the   distance, But the nonverbal quality of our voice tends to be lost in coding.

3. What is the significance of Krukowski’s comments on the voice to ideas about community and interpersonal connection?

We can listen the voices across the world through digital transmission. Even though it is possible to share our voice at great distances ,sometimes they fail as we are communicating. But there is always a place for improvement.

Episode 4

4. Krukowski begins by discussing the issue of music file sharing. What is your opinion of this issue? Should music be freely available or should one have to pay?

-Music is a form of art. Artist put everything to create their art.Their hardworking and the hardship they get while creating an art ,is priceless. Valuable things should be paid . In my opinion music should not be free. Sharing a music file is just like a stealing from the artist which will hurt the very performers we love.Music for free also devalues the work of the artist . Basically it is like saying that the great music they produce is worth nothing or of no value at all.

Q5.How does this episode represent the relationships between music, community, and culture?

-Playing or  listening music is particularly important for Human Social Development. Music is a relaxing and can relieve feeling or stress and anxiety. Improved mental health in individual increases capacity for social integration. They feel much more involved in community when the feel Positive, relaxed and confident. Music is nonverbal and does not differentiate the, religion and culture. Music is able to bring diverse group of people together in a community. Music has  its own language of rhythms and melody to enable to communicate each other nonverbally. It promotes familiarity of different community and forms a healthy relationship and sense of belonging for those different cultures.As a result  music can develop more harmonious society.

6. Does charging money for music impede the formation of communities around this music or does it help support the circulation of music?

Charging  money for the music helps support the circulation of music and help generate new creativity. Music for free is just like insulting the artists we love, and that is not good for the  music industry in future. Paying for what we are  getting is a way to express support  that every creation is valuable and worthy .

Episode 3

1. According to Krukowski, what are the main differences between a microphone and a cellphone and why is this difference important?

According to Krukowski, the main difference between a microphone and a cellphone is that the microphone makes full use of what audio engineers call the “ proximity effect”. Microphone speak closely to them exaggerate the bassier, cheshire tones in our voices. And if you back away from them, they highlight the brassiere, clearer tones . Microphone gives the feeling of close tone to the people. Similarly, cell phones make it possible to share our words across great distance. But they fail us in many ways, as we try to communicate one-to-one. Not only we are often left hanging, speaking into the air at one end and listening to nothing at the other. But even when all is working as it’s supposed to, the sound of our voice across the digital line is limited. It’s stripped to that minimum we need to recognize a voice , and decode its words. Furthermore, cellphone miniature mics in our cell phones are more sensitive and there is no proximity effect. Also, we lose on the cell phone is the part of our voices that communicates without language, the part we use for flirting.

2.What do Krukowski and Gary Tomlinson, the professor he interviews, assert about the “musical” qualities of the voice and how are these changed by digital transmission?

Gary Tomlinson believes that our ability to communicate with the non-verval parts of our voice goes so deep. It’s coded into the genetic makeup of our species itself. He states that technology encodes our language and sounds it over the internet and makes it perceivable at the other end of this great space of distance. The non-verbal qualities of our voices tend to be lost in that coding. In addition, musical qualities communicated what we need to survive as a species: toolmaking, social organization and love. 

3. What is the significance of Krukowski’s comments on the voice to ideas about community and interpersonal connection?

Krukowski states that digital communication such as cell phones are convenient and reliable to communicate  with each other and can travel to anyone with our voice. but the feeling of emotion is missing in digital communication. Cell phones are engineered to communicate our words. Literally, cell phones create the feeling of one another for a moment no matter where the person lives but it connects the person and keeps in touch with the emotion. The voice has the power to express feelings to each other. The voice connects us very firmly with expressions. Therefore, the cell phone is the part of our voice that communicates without language, the part we are for flirting.

Episode 4

4. Krukowski begins by discussing the issue of music file sharing. What is your opinion of this issue? Should music be freely available or should one have to pay?

Music file sharing is the sharing of music which should be available to anybody that wants to hear it. Sharing was seen as an existential threat. In my opinion music file sharing is bad because it is  a kind of stealing someone’s talent without concern or paying them enough. Music file sharing is bad for those small, struggling companies, and it’s ultimately bad for the people who love musical theater. On the other hand, music file sharing could affect some musician’s life from earning enough and it will be more convenient and less valuable.. In addition, the  freedom of recorded music has compromised musicians’ ability to  make a living from it. I believe it affects musicians’ work because people can get free music online without paying. Therefore,without more effort musician’s become unknown, popular and circulate more music which will gain a wider audience because it was easily reachable to the people through online.  Krukowski states, when he was on stage for music, the audience knew in advance the song that he was playing which made him cry  on stage. He mentioned, Our music had made it through all those barriers- barriers that made it impossible for record to get there. To sum up, music is an art and some passion. Someone’s ways of  life, so it should be highly appreciated and valued . It is a way of earning for livelihood so we should pay for their effort, hard work and dedication to us.   

5. How does this episode represent the relationships between music, community, and culture?

Music is an art of delivering information through the words , it is the feeling of a singer to represent community and culture.  Music is a huge part of our lives. Musicians try to deliver  messages to the community  through their music. Music  influences  us and our cultural identity. So, every community preserving their identity of music will represent them. For example, in   Nepal the newar community plays the music which has its roots in classical Hindu and Buddhist music. It involved incorporation of folk music of the Kathmandu valley and its peripheries. Which represent their culture. In fact music carries the singer’s words,feelings, emotions and attachment  to the community and its people.  Music helps to define who we are , creating our communal self-identity. For instance, with the multicultural perspective we see that there are many cultural beliefs and that there are many performance practices and standards. This diversity enriches our lives, broadens our understanding of the world we live in, and deepens our appreciation for the music of our own cultures.   

6. Does charging money for music impede the formation of communities around this music or does it help support the circulation of music?

Charging money for music supports the circulation of music because composers compose music for living. It is their job to somehow put food on the table at the end of the day. Charging money implied the importance of music towards the audience however good things always have a price on it. Music production is not easy, it takes someone effort, money and time, so charging money can maintain the circulation to keep on balance between music production and audience. In addition, copying and selling music is considered illegal without the permission of the singer because without their concern someone steals their work for their own benefit and they are not paid well. Therefore, charging money for music circulates healthy relationships to both musicians and audience because everyone needs money to survive their lives. Music is an art to form an art  musician’s work day and night. For their  hard work and dedication we should offer them their fruits of labor.  

Episodes 3 & 4

Episode 3

• According to Krukowski, what are the main differences between a microphone and a cellphone and why is this difference important?

The main differences between microphone and cellphone is a microphone make sound clear but cell phone makes sound quality worse and more aggressive. The problem with a cellphone is to transfer words without feeling and sound of music. Cellphone engineers only care about transferring the word not the feeling or where we are or the sound of breathing.    

• What do Krukowski and Gary Tomlinson, the professor he interviews, assert about the “musical” qualities of the voice and how are these changed by digital transmission?

Musical qualities of the voice are changed by digital transmission. A digital transmission transfers the music as a word but it does not translate the feeling. The main idea of music is expressing the feeling, not the only word. In addition to losing the voice music tones will change the musical qualities.    

•  What is the significance of Krukowski’s comments on the voice to ideas about community and interpersonal connection?

Krukowski’s comments that digital tools make share our idea and interpersonal to farther distance and easier to reach, but it fails to connect and communicate with each other.    

Episode 4

• Krukowski begins by discussing the issue of music file sharing. What is your opinion on this issue? Should music be freely available or should one have to pay? 

Krukowski discussing the issue of music file sharing, before the technology they gain money from travel tours and music albums. People bought music to listen to because it was not available. With digital audio and technology such as phone applications and youtube, the music become available and free online why do they buy the album and song available on the internet. I know that the songwriters, producers, singers lose money because they donot sell music album as before but I have one question if they lose money why do they make new songs and albums. I know they donot lose money they earn from other ways. Even though the song is free online but when you pay for a subscription on your phone or you watch the song on youtube,  the singer earns money. Based on that music is not free but it is available.       

• How does this episode represent the relationships between music, community, and culture?

Music has a different language, music describes people’s feelings, their culture, and their community. Every culture has its special song that discuss also their life topics, for example, bob Dylan sang for the Vietnam war and he uses music to protest of sending soldiers to Vietnam. A singer can succeed when he feels connected and closer to people’s problems and use his talent to express their feelings  The melody of the song has changed by technology and digital tools. For example in the old songs, you find people dress nicely setting in the opera to hear the musician sang slowly and clearly without stress the enjoy comparing to now our life is fall of stress and life responsibility and that made us rush as a result our song is rush as our lifestyle. In the old song, it was impossible for any song to had any unsuitable words, in comparison, music now is influence by street language.           

• Does charging money for music impede the formation of communities around this music or does it help support the circulation of music?

Money and music are connected but the singers are artists they have a message from their songs. their concern should be on their talent not on the money they will earn form the song. They should be concerned to make their music last in the long term not to sing for the short-term and make it forgettable. Many companies’ concern now about focusing on how to develop technology not to improve the music as art.

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.

Episodes 3 & 4

Episode 3

1. According to Krukowski, what are the main differences between a microphone and a cellphone and why is this difference important?

Krukowski describes the difference between microphones and digital cell phones. He explains that cell phones have lost the feeling in a person’s voice. He explains that because cell phones compress data they lose something. Old analog phones and microphones are able to pick up the distance between your mouth and the phone, they were able to pick up the non-verbal sounds that we use for communication. A microphone can pick up the bass and treble of your voice. They pick up your breath between words, the sounds in the background and convey more than language but also feelings that can’t be interpreted by digital processing.

1. What do Krukowski and Gary Tomlinson, the professor he interviews, assert about the “musical” qualities of the voice and how are these changed by digital transmission?

They explain that before we even had language many thousands of years ago, we had utterances. Humans were able to use those sounds to communicate. They also ascertain that there is a huge loss of this musical quality through digital processing. Tomlinson also remarks on the ability humans have to reconstruct those lost feelings even when they are lost to digital compression. He also believes we are musical beings. This can be easily observed in human history in religion. Religion has guided humans as long as we have written history. Religion has evolved to include music as it has become so important to human growth and communication.

1. What is the significance of Krukowski’s comments on the voice to ideas about community and interpersonal connection?

Krukowski’s commentary on voice shows a general trend away from community and interpersonal connections that digital technology has aided. Cell phones and digital technology in society have step by step removed a personal quality of communication. I think we can even take that a bit farther than Krukowski did and add how texting has also promoted this human to human disconnect. The internet, video games, and television keeps children at home rather than outside playing with their friends. While technology has enabled us to talk to people and reach people at great distances all over the world, it has also disconnected us from the real feelings we get from seeing and hearing people.

Episode 4

1. Krukowski begins by discussing the issue of music file sharing. What is your opinion of this issue? Should music be freely available or should one have to pay? 

I believe that music should be free. I think people should pay for things like a live musical performance, but music is an art. Since the 50s and 60s music has become more and more of a business, whose major purpose has been to make money. I think this continued into the 1990s when musical artists became some of the wealthiest people alive. Music has lost something since then. This continues today despite digital music cutting into the wallets of musicians and record labels. But many of the greatest musical artists of the 40s and 50’s were poor. They didn’t make music to make money. They made music to connect with people. There have been, and still are artists that still make music for the art of it, beyond the capitalist tendencies seen today. One of my favorite groups A Tribe Called Quest once sang, ”Rap is not pop if you call it that then stop.” They were saying that rap music, which started as an art form for black artists to express their struggles in America, has slowly become less of an art and more of a way of becoming rich. Common Sense tells the story of rap using the metaphor of a woman who has changed over the years for the worse in “I used to love her”. It also expresses the progression of music from an artform to a product to be packaged and sold. I think most genres of music around the turn of the century have followed this course.

1. How does this episode represent the relationships between music, community, and culture?

Music has been a part of human existence since the beginnings of communication. It has been a part of all cultures around the world and has inspired connections between us and our deities. Digital music has allowed us to share that music all over the world. It has allowed us to connect  people across vast distances. There are some artists who may eschew these connections in the quest to acquire wealth and status, but the true musical artists of the world can obtain their wealth from the connections they make to other humans. They take pride in their art and are happy that it can be shared. There is still plenty of money to be made in the music industry, but more importantly there are still many human connections that can be made, and people whose lives can be inspired by the art created by musicians.