I agree that the medium is the message. I believe that a large part of how your message is received is the medium. For instance, when people try and have serious conversations over text, it often doesn’t get perceived how the sender means. One of Prof. O’Malleys points that I did disagree with is when he said that when you speak in front of Congress, or something similar, because the medium is the message, you must separate your emotions from your speech. He said that it was unprofessional to show your emotions when speaking to government. I believe in the exact opposite. I believe “the personal is political.” If I were to stand in front of congress and give a speech about equal rights, I would yell, I would sow my passion. I would not simply use just facts, I would use emotions and facts. O’ Malley said it’s not proper/polite speech to say “Fuck you, you’re wrong.” However, I think it is, as long as you follow it with legit facts as to why they’re wrong and that the subject justifies the harsh feelings (i.e. human rights).

Class was started by asking the question “why is indentured servitude illegal?” None of knew why other than the fact that it is the law. While it was interesting that one of us knew why I thought the reason why was far more interesting. We have developed different selves. We now have a self that agreed to do the job and a separate self who does and hates the job. I agreed to work at Laser Quest, I agreed to work until 12:30 am; however, when its 11 pm, I want to go home. I have two selves. I also thought it was interesting how new movies show this. I never thought it was weird that, in movies, we saw things from so many different points of view. When movies first came out, scenes were shown from one point of view at a time because that’s the way people viewed everything. However, because of the new division of selves we have, we understand the different points of view newer movies have to offer.

The idea of having separate selves was something that I never thought of but it made complete sense to me when I heard it, as if I was already aware of it.

At the beginning of class I was not sure what exactly the point of the lecture was. I believed Prof. O’Malley was going to quickly touch on railroads and such and then begin talking about music again. However, as class continued I slowly understood why we were discussing the change in technology, the change in priorities mimics the change in music taste.

One point I found very interesting was the “Dislocation from time and space.” There are many things that “dislocated” us from time, some of which seem so simple. One of the simple things is the quick transportation of food. When fruits are in season in South America but not in in North America, it could be shipped by train to the north because of refrigeration. This seems so basic but when it was new, it was a big deal. This is very similar to music. When the technology to record music became popular, many people loved it; however, some people strongly disliked it. These people noticed how it dislocated us from time and space and this made them feel uncomfortable. This is also similar to the new technology we have to compress music; some people like it, some people hate it. 

I never really thought of the music I listen to being compressed. I feel like I always noticed it because, on the occasion that a song I was listening to was not compressed, it stood out to me that I would have to turn down the volume at certain parts. The class discussion has changed the way I listen to music. I now catch myself paying more attention to the volume of the music and if and how it changes.

I think it is very interesting that Prof. O’Malley brought up the idealism v.s realism topic. At first, I did not believe it related to music at all. However, I now see that it makes sense. If looking at music from an idealist perspective, there is such a thing as good and bad music; because, idealists are looking for what is perfect. Realists; however, believe that what is good and bad is based off of your taste in music. This was not something I was expecting to be brought up but it is interesting regardless.