Wednesday, September 2, 2015
R.R. 9/2
Katz's first chapter discusses seven aspects of recording technology (four of which we read about for today). However, this chapter not only defines these characteristics of recording technology but also discusses how they have changed how music is composed, performed, and experienced. Choose one of the characteristics and briefly explain how it influences how you personally relate to music. Try to be as specific as possible.
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The portability of music allows me to take my favorite music literally anywhere, allowing me to always be connected with my favorite songs and artists. Increased portability also allows me to discover new music; for instance, British bands such as the 1975 spread their music not only through Europe, but also to the United States, and ultimately to me. It broadens the availability of all types of music genres to me, and makes it easier to educate myself, and like I mentioned above, to find new music.
ReplyDeleteIn the first chapter Katz discussed how the portability of recordings affects the feelings and meaning people associate with the music because they can listen to it in different environments rather than just at a concert. I definitely understand what he is trying to say because I agree, I think the feelings you associate with a song really can be affected by the environment in which you hear it. For example, a lot of songs that I like in movies I like because of what is happening in the movie during that song, and the song tends to amplify the emotions the movie is making me feel. However, if I had heard the song outside of the movie, just on the radio on a normal day doing nothing in particular, I probably wouldn't like the song as much because I wouldn't associate such strong emotions with it. It's just like how cheesy couples obsess over the song they heard on their first date or something like that because it brings back such strong emotions they probably wouldn't have been aware of if they just heard it at a concert with some friends.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most influential aspects of recorded sound to me is portability. I play guitar, and although it is portable I can't just bring it anywhere I want. However, with recorded sound on my phone or iPod, I can bring the music with me anywhere I want. I can listen to music to tone something out; I can listen to music to calm me down when I'm somewhere new. I can listen to music to pump me up for an audition, or am able to share songs or albums with my friends at the touch of a button. The portability of recorded sound is what has allowed me to do all of these things. Were there no such thing as recorded sound, I would have no way to easily bring music with me. Miniature pocket-sized bands, after all, don't exist. But recorded music does. Because of it's portability, I have a much closer relationship to music, because I can have it to listen to whenever the want arises.
ReplyDeleteOut of the characteristics that Katz discusses, portability has the greatest effect on how I personally relate to music. I can't imagine only being able to listen to music when I'm hearing it live or stuck next to a phonograph that I can't take with me. Katz talks about how the portability of music allowed it to travel to other areas and thus affected and created other styles of music. In that sense, I don't think that portability affects me because I don't plan on creating a new genre of music. However, the portability of music does affect me in the sense that I take it with me everywhere I go. If I'm listening to music in my room and I decide to go study in the study room across the hall, I just pick up my computer and keep playing the same music in the study room. When I go on a run I put in headphones and play some music that adds a little motivation. In short, the portability of music has allowed me to have a sort of soundtrack to my life; I can have the background music to enhance any situation which wouldn't be possible without music being so portable.
ReplyDeleteOne of the characteristics discussed was repeatability. Nowadays, I have all of my music on my phone, and I can repeat all of my songs however and whenever I want. Personally, I find that this takes away from hearing the music live. I am so used to hearing songs being played in such a specific and perfect way, that when I hear someone live I don't always appreciate it as much as I should. For example, I recently saw Taylor Swift in concert over the summer. I already loved her 1989 album, but hearing it live and being able to physically watch her sing took my appreciation to a whole new level. Her concert really was a two hour show, and now I think of her not only as a singer, but a performer as well. And being a dancer, I know how hard it can be to perform in front of 100 people, much less 50,000 fans.
ReplyDeleteRepeatability is one of the seven characteristics that Katz describes in this chapter. I connect to this one because it reminds of people comparing live performances to recorded audio. It is impossible, or very hard, to repeat a sound exactly or to sing things the same way repeatedly. Whenever someone says an artist just doesn't sound good live or the same as they do on the radio, it kind of annoys me. I feel like they are only saying they don't sound good because they've grown accustomed to the recording. If you'd never heard the audio before listening to it live, you'd probably the live version because you wouldn't be comparing it to something that the artist can't repeat exactly.
ReplyDeleteOne of the characteristics that really sticks out to me is manipulability, the way that technology can go into music and edit and splice it up, changing the sound as a whole. The book noted The Beatles as one of the first to do sound splicing, and although they're one of my favorites of all time, its cool to see how early on they were able to incorporate other sounds and physically tie them together within one of the first songs with sound splicing featured, Strawberry fields forever. Personally I relate by hearing these sounds emitted in songs today everywhere. On the radio, editing and splicing is literally within every pop song, because none of those poppy sound effects are natural whatsoever. Plugins, electronic; all feature a sort of manipulability that allows the song to be molded like clay. The recording of the original song, vs. what actually gets put on the radio, can be conversely different things a a whole.
ReplyDeleteI thought the portability of music was an interesting topic because it had both negative and positive parts to it. For me, the portability of music has made music a much bigger part of my life than it would have without portabilty. The ability to bring music with me allows me to experience the music wherever I am and change my mood to whatever I am listening to on the go. The chapter talked about how music being portable could be a negative because some of the qualities of music that are experienced from watching and listening to it live are lost. This has not affected me as much. I most likely would not be a person to go somewhere just to listen to music all the time. I don't have the time and music doesn't have a large enough impact on my life to spend the time to do this; therefore, the portability of it has made music much better for me. It think the accessibility on the go has been good for me because I am able to concentrate more on the lyrics that the song has rather than the performing aspects. I am able to relate to the song better because I am listening for things rather than enjoying the visual aspects of a performance.
ReplyDeleteThe characteristic that I personally relate to the most out of the 4 so far is definitely repeatability. I am the type of listener that listens to songs or albums over and over. Often times, I repeat songs so much that the songs are frozen in time in my brain, and when I hear the song months or even years later, it takes me back. For example, listening to "Monday Morning" by Fleetwood Mac makes me feel as if I'm back in my car winter of my senior year, driving to school on the interstate. Listening to Drake's "Nothing Was The Same" album takes me back to volleyball season my junior year. I can practically smell the sweaty locker room. Without repeatability, this time capsule in my brain wouldn't be possible. Music needs to be repeatable in order to be associable with memories. This associabilty makes music much more enjoyable and memorable.
ReplyDeleteTangibility is a characteristic of music that I feel most influences how I relate to music. Katz mentions how the tangibility helped people feel closer to the music. They could hold it in their hands and know how it affects them emotionally. Before that people only had music for a moment, Katz even mentions that Karl Marx spoke about how music was temporary. The tangibility of music for me helps me relate more to the song and create more connections to it. Holding a cd in my hand can bring back memories of playing soundtracks in the car with my family and singing as loud as we could to them. Just being able to hold music in your hands makes the music more personal, and it makes it seem as though its yours or a part of you.
ReplyDeleteOne of the characteristics of music that has influenced me is portability. The advancements that have been made in music portability and this modern ease of listening to music has impacted how and how often I listen to music. Now that music can be played almost everywhere and on almost any device I find myself listening to music everywhere I go and no matter what I am doing. Since I have gotten an iPhone it is so easy to listen to my favorite music at any time or place that I want. Music's portability has completely changed how often I listen to music, and now that I have the ability to listen to music more often I have become an even bigger fan of music and now it is incorporated into my everyday life.
ReplyDeleteMusic's characteristic of invisibility is the most important in my life. Although the music is physically invisible, it is seen or exists in my mind. The majority of the time as I listen to music I can’t help but picture specific dancing or movement that pairs with the beats, instruments, lyrics, and theme. This habit results from my passion for dance, but it also comes from my way of trying to understand the music. Music's invisibility provides me with the freedom to paint my emotions, reactions, and experiences related to the piece in a way that establishes a personal relationship between myself and the song. In addition, its invisibility allows me to escape to another place as I settle into whatever state of mind the music lends itself to.
ReplyDeleteThe characteristic that mostly influenced me is the portability. Portability of music allows me to listen to music anywhere. Katz discusses the portability of live music, depending upon the size of the instruments and sound equipment etc. This has one of the biggest influences on me because every spring, I go to a huge rock festival in Charlotte, and it gives me the chance to be myself and express myself around people like me and gives me the sense of feeling in.
ReplyDeleteThe characteristic that most influences how I personally relate to music is its portability. The ability to take the music with me where ever I go allows it to be heard when I want and where I want. It takes the music from its original setting that it may have been designed for, but it allows me to make my own setting and design for it. The statement by Walter Benjamin saying that this "emancipates the work of art" explains perfectly how I feel that portability influences me the most. I can take a piece by Mozart, which was written and normally performed for a large group of people, to my desk and listen to it as I read or do homework. Mozart is a normal example for things like studying though, so not only do I have the ability to listen to Mozart, but I can also listen to rock, alternative, anything.
ReplyDeleteThe manipulation of music has influenced how I relate to music because I love covers. There is something about the way one artist can compose a song and then another can come along and give a whole new meaning to it. I have always enjoyed hearing the different variations of a song because not only does it sometimes sound better, it also brings out different aspects of the song than what I heard before. Also, the manipulation of music by combining songs is amazing to me. Taking two completely different songs and placing them together to form a whole new composition is spectacular. This happens a lot with Boyce Avenue and popular songs. They take many songs from one year and combine them to make a cover.
ReplyDeleteTangibility influences how I personally relate to music because even though there is so much portability in music files (mp3s, .wav, etc) I still really enjoy the feel of CD cases in my hands and the physical act of opening a new CD and taking it out to play it for the first time. I grew up with my father having an enormous CD collection and not a portable device such as an ipod or a walkman, so we'd mostly listen in the car and me and my siblings would choose a CD case of which artist we wanted and physically take out the CD. I now have a small CD collection of my own because I don't think I could ever completely go without that tangibility.
ReplyDeleteThe ability to record and replicate music is something I believe is very important. Seeing the performance of music is something very special and each experience is unique. I believe that is something that needs to be preserved. But, also can not imagine living in a world where there was no recording and replicating music. I am always confident that at any time, I can pull out my phone and play my favorite song. Whenever and wherever I want.
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ReplyDeleteAs Katz explained through his writing, the portability of music has evolved greatly over the past several decades. Although I was not alive when the phonograph was the only type of record player, I do remember the days when the only time I could listen to music was in the car or on my boombox in my room. Even as a kid, I always wanted to be listening to my favorite Avril Lavigne CD, but I remember having to find and switch CDs if I wanted to hear something new. The portability of music has made it so much easier for us to be able to bring music literally anywhere that we go. Having music on my phone is one of the most useful aspects of my life, and it has influenced me because I am now able to listen to my favorite music any time of any day. I think this has allowed me to expose myself to thousands of additional songs that I may have not heard if I could only listen to music while in my room. The advances of the portability of music is ground-breaking to the industry itself as well as all its listeners.
I think that repeatability influences how I personally relate to music. As a dancer from a young age, I have heard the same songs played over and over in practices. My the repetition of the music, I not only counted the music or just danced to it, I lived in it. Every time the song was repeated I could feel a certain energy flow through me that made me feel more alive than I was in the previous second. I also noticed something new about the song each and every time. It might have been the plucking of a string or a riff in the singers voice. Once I heard that sound I could always hear it and it made the music richer.
ReplyDeleteOf the characteristics that Katz described, tangibility stood out to me the most. The idea that music can become physical, through certain mediums is even more visible in modern times than in the past. Tangibility covers the physical presence and performance of artists, orchestras, etc in the time before audio devices, such as the phonograph, to covering the modern age of portable music devices that allow you to hold music and feel it closer to yourself. The tangibility that Katz describes, more significantly with the phonograph, reveals the simplification of music and attaining it for yourself. The concept of listening alone versus communal listening was extremely interesting as well.
ReplyDeleteTangibility influences how I relate to music because if music hadn't have been recorded on something that I could hold and carry around with me, it would be so much less accessible. I personally have not been to many concerts, so the majority of time I am listening to music on my cell phone or in the car on the radio. It becomes so much easier when I can listen to music by just tapping a button. Even though this does come with the effect of taking music out of its original setting, that being where the artist performs it, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. I'm able to experience a much wider range of music than I could if music was not a tangible medium.
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ReplyDeleteThe portability of recorded music is a significant characteristic of recording technology because it allows music listeners to physically possess a way to listen to music in any situation or location they choose. Personally, the portability of recorded music radically changes the way I experience music and how I perceive it. Because I can take the music I choose anywhere I want, I can choose when and where to hear it, as well as how often. When experiencing music in a single instance in a specific place at a certain time, I tend define that music by the situation in which I heard it. With the ability to listen anywhere, I find that the music is defined either more vaguely for me, where I associate it more with certain feelings or a group of events or a certain time period rather than a specific event because I listen to it multiple times in different places, or the "definition", so to speak, has more to do with my personal experiences, and the music becomes more personal instead of being defined by the artist or location I would experience it through had I heard it live.
DeleteOne of the characteristics discussed was portability. Before music was made portable in records, disks, or as online downloads, people had to go to music shows in order to listen to music. Being able to bring music anywhere is so convenient because it enables me to listen to my favorite artists at my desire like in my car, room, or walking to class. For example, it turns a boring study session into a jam session. Personally, being able to study with music playing in the background actually makes me study better.
ReplyDeleteThe one characteristic that I relate to on the most personal level is portability. Today music is available anywhere and everywhere which allows us to experience in a totally new way. Music is always playing and is woven into our everyday life. For example, I remember some of the songs that my dad always played while cooking dinner meaning they are a part of my childhood. That's only due to the portability of music. But on the other hand, you can listen to music alone now which allows you to experience music on a much more personal level. Yet portability still has its limitations. For example, I had listened to my favorite band's album probably a thousand times and there had always been a song on the album that I hated. But when I saw them live and the way that it was meant to be I loved it. Even with today's recording technology and portability there are still limitations on how we experience music.
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