tabraithwaite

When thinking about the context of public and private sounds, we must first think about where and when in our soundscape we hear and observe these sounds. The private sounds we hear within our soundscapes can be associated with what we tend to hear individually within our headphones or within specific areas of our soundscapes. Public sounds are what sounds that the environment, the city, or the town you live in produce naturally. When seeing how these sounds sensitize us within the soundscape, we can focus on which parts of our soundscapes we are exposed to more often. Those who are primarily focused on private sounds will not be able to hear and experience every aspect of the sounds that arise in and around their environments caused by the “point of view of the self” at specific times of the day (Hosokowa 108). What we hear individually can be associated with how that individual has been sensitized to their soundscape. Both public and private sounds can cause us to hear specific sounds that may not be heard at different times of day. Personally when I listen to my own soundscape it is very surprising to me how it tends to change within the matter of hours. The private sounds I hear when I’m alone and nobody else is out are much different from the public sounds that I hear from the same location at specific times of day. The use of personalized listening here has shown me how big a role being alone plays in what I hear versus the effects of what I can hear when many others surround me. These two concepts can cause much of what you heard alone to be lost or drowned out by human interactions heard in public sounds.

Within my initial readings of Frederick Douglas’s narrative, I was quickly moved to a place of discomfort after reading about the horrific incidents he describes with immense details from his childhood. I kept reading through the book with the lingering question of WHY? Why am I reading this for a Voice, Noise, Sound Sense class? When I later read the article of Iggy Azalea, the comparison of how race affected these individuals was something that caught my attention. Although the inhumane actions of slavery can never compare to the racially motivated critiques that Iggy faced in her rise to fame within the rap game, the two connected in the fact that they both faced hardships due to racial predispositions. On the first page of Chapter I, in Douglas’s narrative he says, “The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege.” This lack of privilege was a racially driven practice that was forced into society’s mindset due to the subjectivity of black people during the mid to early 1800’s. Iggy cannot say that she too faced the same troubles, but can argue that the comments of her wanting “to be black” hindered her career quite a bit (Azalea 30). Again the presence of racially driven thoughts that have been imposed on society’s mindset to manipulate the way we see race and what we should expect from that specific race have continued to cause conflict in many people’s lives. Slavery was driven by the thoughts invoked into the minds of many from an early age and in turn continued to develop in society. The belief that being black must be expressed in actions, speech, and appearance continue to hinder the growth of society as a whole and have originated from slavery.

When listening to the two pieces, the audience quickly draws their attention to the changes in rhythm and style. The instrumentation changes and almost goes away from the beat of the original song in the cover song. Nelly uses multiple singers which is heard in both pieces but in different ways. In the initial piece the audience can hear the main singers voice(Nelly) which is backed up by different voices in the background. The cover opens with three voices being heard singing the same words in almost harmonic tone. This distinction causes the change in sound we hear towards the beginning of the cover piece. Although much mechanical voice alterations weren’t done to the voices of the singers, their voices still seemed to resonate and “reticulate the human voice” by allowing the rhythm to be paired with the lyrics of the song (Weheliye 516). Weheliyye describes how the machines used to effect the vocal presentation of a song can help emphasize the meaning of the song by adding non human effects to specific words and phrases. The song “Ride With Me”, by Nelly, uses little to no machines to edit the voice, but the use of the beat and unique sounds that resonate with the ear help create that dramatic emphasis on the different repetitive phrases such as “oh why do I live this way?” that parallels with the beat of the music. We use this example to highlight how the author, Nelly, uses his beats and instrumentation in the original to add flow to the words while the cover is seen to sometimes go off beat with its words which creates the conflict of focus on whether the audience should be focused on the lyrics or the background music.

Crawford uses the ideas of sound, listening, and speaking in her discussion of social media as a way for us to have a voice online. What we read, hear, and post all contribute to what we believe and how we feel. We as users, post and “contribute” to the discussions online that we feel most drawn towards or repelled from. The use of social media has grown and expanded the ways that many people can now voice their opinions. The way we speak on the internet may not be how we speak in real life, but Crawford shows us that speech online is what comes from a place within. Social media has grown into a place where many feel free in their ability to express themselves or their ability to observe and interpret what is being said and discussed online. Although the piece was published in 2009 the author clearly had a vision for the growth of social media. Even in 2018, social media plays a crucial role in voice, speech, and listening as it gives people a platform to either step out onto and express themselves or stay reserved and be a “lurker” (Crawford 81). The use of social media today is extremely significant and has caused extreme rise to global issues or trending topics in many aspects of life. Social media gives it’s users the ability to find and develop thoughts that may not have been developed or expressed without the advocation or expressions of someone else.

https://beta.myvoice.lyrebird.ai/g/znt8-r6xc7

When listening to Lucier’s piece several times, initially the setting of the piece is quite bland and ominous. Reviewing the works of several other prominent figures possessing influential opinions on the depths of language has introduced my mind to the different levels of interpretations. Barthes’s work speaks to the idea that words found within the bounds of musical content no longer can be truly expressed due to the subjectivity of the audience. Throughout Lucier’s piece he allows for many interpretations of language in it’s purest form. Lucier signifies the importance of language, and defines how the depths of the sounds are attached to words arising from the soul. Aristotle and Plato both possess similar beliefs when speaking in the context of how the use of the voice is a tactic related to the deeper thoughts and emotions within the soul. Sounds are meant to show emotion not only through their volumes, and tonal shifts but through their articulate and linguistic styles of presentation. Lucier’s piece expresses the inner thoughts of sounds and its interconnectedness to our inner being.

1) In high school I went to numerous bonfires with friends. At these bonfires, my friends and I would often times chat, laugh, eat smores, and listen to the one guy who knew how to play guitar. The night would be silent and the fire was always nice during the cold evenings of late fall. My friend started playing the song, “Cherry Wine” by Hozier. I listened so hard that I stoped hearing everything around me. My ears tuned into the guitar to where the only thing I heard was the sweet picking of the strings. This event taught me where music could take me if I tuned into it. I was able to feel what each individual pluck of the string really meant. This was the first time that I got emotional while listening to music that I never expected to hear or be so soothing to the lingering thoughts in my mind.

2) The recording by Lucier began to almost put me in a drowse. I began trying to listen to his words and each time the faint recognition of a few words may hav appeared to been clear. This piece makes me wonder if his overall purpose was to show that the world can sometimes lose focus of the important parts of life. I believe that Lucier wanted us to see that although we always know what he is going to say we only seem to pay close attention to each word when we can’t seem to hear them anymore. Towards the end of the piece my mind began to go into a place of meditation instead of focusing on the words I could no longer hear at all. It reminded me of a relaxation tape recording of sounds!