{"id":904,"date":"2018-12-05T20:00:50","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T20:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/?p=904"},"modified":"2018-12-05T20:00:50","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T20:00:50","slug":"purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/writing-project-4-remix-revise-reflect\/purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entering the fall, the idea of sound to me was rather abstract and flowery in a meaning sense. Listening to \u201cI am Sitting in a Room\u201d by Lucier for our first assignment further added to this preconceived bias–I heard the work as meaningless, overly intentional in its abstract nature, and blatantly insane. I wondered why the constant drone of Lucier\u2019s voice had any impact on my own listening routine, methodology, or attention. Unknowingly, however, listening to Lucier\u2019s voice, its simplicities and intricacies, made me a better listener because it forced me to actually listen. I believe that studying different types of sound around us, whether it be music, natural sounds, or other composed sound made me a more aware person as a whole. I am more keen to the world because I listen for purpose in sound. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My effort in listening heightened greatly because of the Lucier piece. Under normal circumstances, there is no way I would have sat and listened to the whole 45 minute piece consciously. Listening intently to Lucier opened my ears to the intent listening of music as a whole. While I would love to say that I walk around campus listening intently to the natural soundscape around me, analyzing each chirp of a bird and honk of a horn that I hear, this is frankly not the case. In reality, my realizations about the purpose of sound transferred to some of my favorite music, and the idea that those songs might have meaning past the goal of generating hits and money became apparent to me. This became most present for me with Kanye West and his sampling of other musicians, most noticeably with <\/span>Blood on the Leaves<\/span><\/i>. I focused my second writing project, entitled \u201c<\/span>Strange Fruit <\/span><\/i>and the Racial Context of Rap,\u201d entirely on the social significance of Kanye\u2019s sample within <\/span>Blood on the Leaves<\/span><\/i>, and how the musical and lyrical aspects of the song contributed to that message. In that project, I wrote the following. <\/span><\/p>\n