According to Du Bois, the significance of what he calls the “sorrow songs” to African culture and history is that they represent the pain, suffering, struggle, hope, and urge to be freed. The sorrow songs each tell a story based on the American slaves from all those years ago. To them, it holds a symbolic meaning because they would sing along to them while in slavery for the world to hear in hopes of being freed one day. They did not sing it because they were happy, but more so in order to give them hope and faith that one day they will be freed and be at peace. The songs represent the American people mourning those they have lost during these dark times as well. Itis the root of the American past and it reminds us of all the suffering and pain they had to endure during slavery. These songs have been passed down generation from to generation in order to remind us of all the things they had to go through.

Out of all the sorrow songs, the most significant one would be “Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen” by Louis Armstrong because even though he does not say much in the song, you can feel the pain and things that he has gone through with his voice. The lyrics represent all the harsh things he had to endure and see during this time. All the suffering and pain the African people went through and the melody adds on to that effect.

In episode #5 – POWER of “Ways of Hearing”, Damon Krukowski states at the beginning of the episode, “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed- is whatever the powerful have decided if of no use at the moment”. He goes on to ask “But might it might not be a key to alternate approaches to art, to society-to power itself?” What I believe Damon Krukowski is trying to say is that the powerful companies that we have today like Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, etc have all the power to what you listen to based off algorithms. Those mainstream platforms have the power to what’s relevant and irrelevant based on the weekly listeners on that genre or song, which closes the opportunity to many options that you do not know of because they aren’t high in numbers according to the company. These companies decide what music genre or songs are old, no longer viable, and are not to be recommended to you which gives them control over what you listen to and closes opportunities to new genres of music that you may enjoy or songs you may enjoy listening to. It may recommend music to which society finds fit at the time. Nowadays you go to the top songs in the United States and it is just music that society is mainstreaming at the time, most of that music is just rap which is what the younger audience is listening to, there isn’t much variety and you don’t have control over this because it’s based on the companies interests and society’s interests. Damon Krukowski mentions that it is not like before when you could walk into a record store and you would enter a whole new world. He mentions that you would have to explore and would decide on which record you would like to listen to. You would be able to communicate with others in the store and hear their recommendations on what to listen to. This made people more social and would open many new genres and music possibilities for you to listen to. The generation we live in now is not the same as it was years ago when we had record stores. In my opinion either or is suitable based on the person and their interests. Now we can listen to all kinds of music with just a click of a button on our phones. Even though many of these companies have control over what is relevant and irrelevant I believe that having the option to listen to music on our phones with just the click of a button is not a bad thing. Technology will advance every year, and it can either be a good thing or a bad thing, but as technology advances things are easier to access just like music has. Music indicates between the powerful and the marginalized by the companies that are powerful deciding what is the right song for you based on an algorithm instead of going to a record store and choosing which song you may like based on recommendations of the people around you and your decisions.

In “Ways of Hearing Episode 3 – LOVE”, Damon Krukowski states “that digital sound impedes our perception of those sonic qualities that help us experience intimacy”. He explains how intimacy is not the same through digital phones because it does not capture every sound. He explains how the advancement of technology has lost its intimacy feeling because of how engineers have amplified the sound because they have smaller data packages so they can travel around the world. Krukoski states “The sound of our voices in our voices have gotten worse since we switch to digital…” I disagree  with this because technology has advanced to the point where is much better than it was before. We can now make long distance calls across the world and you actually hear the persons voice no problem. Digital phones have the ability to connect to headphones and you can hear that persons voice to clearly, you can now put your phone on speaker and do other things while on the phone with that person. You can multitask and use your phone to talk and play games. Technology has advanced in many good ways, there still is intimacy in digital calls because we have things like facetime where you can see the person one and one and just laugh and joke around. In my opinion our voices have not gotten worse, but have gotten louder and more clear for the person on the other side to hear you no matter how far they are.

One interesting thing that I found in “How A.S.M.R became a sensation” is that it is a braingasm. ASMR can affect how a person feels and can change their mood based on sounds. Sounds are such a powerful thing and this is prove of that because sound has the ability to make a person feel relaxed, cause less stress just based of ASMR. I myself actually like ASMR videos or sounds because it helps me relax and relieve stress. It calms me down and help me not stress to much about all my real life problems. It is like a whole different world where its just peace.

According to “Ways of hearing #2 – SPACE”, Krukowski describes how sound is all around us. He explains how earbuds affect us as if we are in our own world or bubble. He explains house noises are a part of our everyday life’s no matter where we are. In the podcast Krukowski states “If you are busy talking on the phone or looking at a screen, are you really in this crowd, are you here with me on this side walk moving together like we are all in the same wave or are you in some space all together” In my personal experience I see this happen everywhere around NYC, people seem to be talking on the phone or staring at a screen not aware of their surroundings. They do not pay attention to what is in front of them and sometimes can lead to accidents because they are to busy staring at a screen while walking. Krukowski also mentions that “the streets of NYC move much slower” which is relatable because people who are staring at their phone or talking on the phone move slower, bump into people. They are not aware of what is going on around them at all. Most people use earbuds to cancel out all the noise that are around them. They can’t hear the cars, trains, people talking, dogs barking etc… which is like they are not really even there to begin with because they are in a whole different noise environment. If I do not have headphones on and one of my friends with me does, we will not hear the  same things and its like we are in two different places even though we are right next to each other. Personally I do not use earbuds much, but when I do it’s not for long because I like to be aware of my surroundings. Technology has advanced plenty through out the years causing people to be less social with one another. People do not talk as much and avoid eye contact because they are to busy looking at their phones.

1 – According to Berger in “Ways of seeing, Part 4”, publicity (advertising) influences consumers to change ourselves or their lives by buying something more. Doing so “publicity” persuades us to feel richer, even though we will be poorer due to the fact that we spent our money. Publicity promotes the illusion if we buy this product, our life and oneself will change drastically. This causes people to feel like they need that product in order to feel like they will be a “better” version of themselves and better their life. Publicity plays on fear of not being wanted, desirable, of being unenviable. Not too mention Publicity presents people who have used said product and how their life changed after using it. This causes you to envy those people which then leads to glamour, an attractive quality that may make people seem appealing. This is significant because publicity is promoting these products, making people believe that it will have such a significant impact on their life when in reality it won’t. People fall for it and end up pooper/asking for loans in order to obtains these products which are being false advertised. Not only that, but publicity uses peoples insecurities in order to make people feel like they need that product in order to be “beautiful”. Publicity affects our anxiety’s about money as well, making us feel like we need so much money to be able to buy all these products with exaggerative promises.

2 – The differences between oil paintings and publicity are important because it gives us a better understanding of reality. Glamour did not exist during the oil paintings because the oil paintings shows  what the person already he. It was not being promoted into making you think you need it in order for your life to be better as a whole. It showed what people already had without promoting it.  Publicity on the other hand makes people believe they need a certain product in order to be worthy and envied.

3 – Berger tells us about the “skin dream”, this shows how publicity promotes their skin product and promise you that you will have the best looking skin. Imagery is being used here to manipulate customers about the beauty and skin that they desire in order to be enviable. They use models in their advertisements who claim to have used said product and how it improved their skin which then leads to making the customers believe that they need that product so they can look just like the model with the amazing skin.

In the video “Ways of seeing, Episode 2 “, John Berger explains how women were objectified during the seventeenth century. He explains that they were seen as objects to be displayed by painting them nude for men to look at. He further explains that the women on display are turned into a disguise for men to look at. In today’s society, much has not changed. Women are displayed in music videos in order too grab the spectator’s attention. They are being displayed for men to look at, not too mention that most of these women are not fully clothed, but are displayed with just bras and underwear on. Women are being displayed everywhere, no matter where you go, there’s a women being displayed, whether its an advertisement, clothing brand, video game, music video, movie trailers…

Some may argue that women have control over their images on the media because there are now more social media platforms for women to post what they and when they want. Others may disagree with this because when they do post a picture they have to look a certain way, pose a certain way in order to appeal their audiences. In my opinion, women do not have complete control over their images in the media because they have to satisfy their audience. Most female influencers audiences are men, and they are affected by the male gaze because like mentioned before they have to look a certain way, pose a certain way in order to please their audience. Another example is women don’t have any control over how they are shown off in advertisements of clothing brands, products, etc.

John Berger explains that women were sexually displayed in paintings by being nude. In the video John Berger explains that women’s sexually was used to get men’s attention. In today’s society it is still the same. Women are being sexually displayed in music videos, movies, etc. Most of these brands/companies know that they will attract a bigger audience if they are sexually displayed which is why it’s still happening to this day.