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Byrne relates to the ideas that Rath expresses in “No Corner for the Devil to Hide” because they both recognize the role played by the space that the sound is produced in. They know that the same sound can have a completely different sound if produced in another room or building. However, Byrne uses the building as a source of sound whereas Rath simply uses the building for its acoustic effects on the sound produced by another source, such as his clap or the voice of a priest in a European Church. The relationship between architecture, acoustics, and sound is an idea that one does not think of often, but after reading both of these sources I began to realize that sounds are heard differently in my daily life based on the room, such as music in the shower/bathroom versus the same song played on the same device outside. Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter support Byrne’s ideas of acoustics in their piece “Ancient Acoustics Spaces”, and even trace these ideas as far back as 1500 BC, when the Mayans perfected the acoustics of The Great Ball Court. Upon further examination, it is evident that these principles are common in several other ancient civilizations. The idea of a space transforming how one hears a sound is hard to grasp at first, but these societies knew this to be true long before technology could prove it. Sound waves bounce off of structures, walls, and objects in a space before reaching the ears of a listener, which makes each sound unique when played/produced in a unique space.

When I first read Stoever’s “The Sonic Color-Line”, I assumed it was going to be a piece all about racial oppression of African Americans in the same context that I have heard about for years now. Since cases such as Trayvon Martin and Michael brown, this has been a constant in social media and on the news. However, I quickly realized that Stoever was addressing this problem from an angle that I had never even considered before by analyzing sound and its role in racial divide. He says “I meet sound where, when, and in what form I find it, not as an object of study, but as a method enabling an understanding of race as an aural experience with far- reaching historical and material resonance.” This was very interesting to me as it means that he uses sound as something he can listen to in context to gather more information on racial elements of the past. I was also interested in his mentioning of “linguistic profiling” and how it goes beyond just black and white, but spans across all races and ethnic groups in our country. One question I would be interested in looking into more is how one can listen to music and voice without analyzing racial aspects of sound, but with no racial implications. He describes his form of listening as being able to further understand racial divide, but is there a way to listen that is “colorblind” without bringing any aspect of race into analysis?

The Fray- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBTdJHkAr5A

Kanye West- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co0tTeuUVhU

 

The concept of a cover-song first seems as a very blatant form of plagiarism. It is singing a song written by another artist and performing it as your own. Singers take a song and put their own spin on it, which allows the song to be listened to in a way that is different than the original. The Fray did this when they performed a cover-song of “Heartless” by Kanye West. Kanye West’s version is fast, loud, and full of beats and rhythm.  It is obvious that most of the sounds heard in this song are computer generated and Kanye West’s voice is very auto-tuned. This relates to ideas discussed by Alexander Weheliye in “Desiring Machines in Black Popular Music”. Weheliye mentions the large role that technology and electronics play in modern music, especially music such as Kanye West’s original version of “Heartless”. When listening to this version, a listener may not even realize how sad and heartbreaking the lyrics of the song actually are. The Fray performs the song in a completely different way. Their version is slower and is more acoustic than electronic. By slowing down the beat and words, listeners can hear and understand the message of the lyrics. It is completely subjective to say that one version is better than the other, which makes cover-songs so interesting. Cover songs and remixes show how versatile a song can be and how each person has a unique way of singing and performing the same song.

 

 

 

In her piece “Following You: Disciplines of Listening in Social Media”, Kate Crawford sheds light on the roles listening and speaking play in our use of social media. Social media is a constant in nearly every person’s life, and Crawford uses categories of individuals, politicians, and corporations to examine how listening and developing a social media presence changes; as well as three types of listening: reciprocal, background, and delegated. She mentions that even if we do not have a “voice” on social media, we still affect what others say and produce through our interactions on the media platforms. I do not see myself as someone with an active voice on social media and am more of a listener or “lurker” as Crawford might say. I simply observe other people’s posts as a form of entertainment and source of information. The thought of listening does not seem like it would be prevalent in social media, but this piece made me realize that everything I see on social media is something I am “listening” to. I am still taking in others’ thoughts and ideas, just through a different mode. Social media also allows me, and the rest of the world, to listen to more people than one ever could without it. Although this discussion was written in 2009, I feel that the ideas Kate Crawford touches on are even more prevalent today. Social media is only growing and will most likely continue to grow for the foreseeable future. This means that content makers will have a greater voice than ever, and it is our job as social media users to listen. I never thought of listening as having a role in my social media use, but I will now be much more aware of it in the future.

Text-to-voice technology and vocal cloning is a phenomenon that is something that I have never seen before and never knew it was so easily accessible by basically anyone who has access to the internet. Lyrebird has led these innovations and is now one of, if not the, most progressive companies in this field. I feel this technology has both benefits and drawbacks. Text-to-voice and vocal cloning can be used to aid society in a variety of ways, such as those with difficulty speaking (such as Lyrebird’s partnership with people diagnosed with ALS), audiobooks, brand voices, and video games. However, there are also risks that come along with this technology. The first and most obvious would be the ability for others to create audio clips of another person’s voice to say things that they have never and would never say in an attempt to slander them. A very easy example of this would be political elections. Lyrebird also states that the audio clips any person submits to them are completely safe and never shared with anyone. I believe this is a feature that is necessary in all companies that may pursue vocal cloning in the future to ensure the safety of its users. Lyrebird also says that their technology is still in its early stages, which makes me eager to see just how advanced this field will become in the near future as the vocal cloning they have already produced is truly amazing.

• All my life I have been passionate about the game of baseball, specifically pitching. I often get asked what makes me love this oftentimes monotonous activity, and one of the few explanations I have is the sound of the ball hitting the catcher’s mitt. Baseball is a game where sound is always present and transforms the game into a full experience; the roar of the crowd, the ping of the bat, the coaches’ screams. As a pitcher however, nothing compares to the ball hitting the mitt. This sound affirms that the pitch was a success. It had passed the batter and safely gotten to the catcher for a strike.
• I understand Lucier’s “I Am Sitting in A Room” as his way of coping with and accepting his stutter. At the beginning of the voice recording, one is able to clearly hear and comprehend each word Lucier says. However, as time goes on and Lucier’s words are repeated, the words become less and less comprehendible until it is unrecognizable that the sounds one hears are even a human voice at all. I believe that Lucier does this to represent how he wants others to no longer be able to hear his stutter, as, similar to many others with speech impediments, he is self-conscious about his imperfect speech. The sounds towards the end of the video have qualities similar to music. Music, in all forms, is one of the most beautiful forms of sound. Lucier’s voice goes from something imperfect and broken due to his stutter, to a sort of melody that is beautiful.