Disco inspired the social liberation of gay culture. Back then men weren’t permitted to dance with each other and represent their sexual identity. Disco offered that opportunity of freedom of expression. Songs like “Come rain or come shine” by Judy Garland, helped resonate with queers due to their passion and emotional gravity. 

A style that “pops” into mind when considering this specific kind of topic is Pop music.  

For me, Pop music often focuses on themes like love and romance. It helps draw people together due to the sense of familiarity for their listeners. A specific song that helps support this claim is from Lady Gaga’s, “Born This Way”. This song shows that regardless of what you look like, who you choose to bear your love to, where you come from, everyone is their very own person. To accept yourself and not change yourself to fit in. We choose what decisions we make and we shouldn’t be ashamed to express that. This displays similarity to Walters’ statements, as disco helped represent sexual identity.  They made people feel welcomed for who they are. The difference is disco was more targeted for gays while Lady Gaga revolved around any kind of sexuality, gay, bi, straight, lesbian, trans, etc.  Another style that I believe is similar that helps express one’s freedom is tango. Tango helps celebrate people’s life, glorify their success, show off their style and display their egos. It helps people build confidence in who they are and what they are. Have no fear expressing their beliefs and what they represent.

Since I am relatively young, I was only around to experience just the iPod and boombox. I remember how fascinated I was having an iPod. Imagine having your music on the go and not disrupt anybody in your current surrounding. I am very conservative and self-conscious, so having my music preference on blast wasn’t something I was very fond of. It also helped cancel any obnoxious noise and pass away time in long travels. I don’t own one, but  I am always surrounded by boom boxes near parties or parks. I despise them for how loud they can be, especially that bass sensation, which makes me feel nauseous. But never in a million years during my childhood, I would have guessed wireless headphones would be a thing. But not just any wireless headphones but ones that have extreme noise cancellation built-in. You can’t hear anything, not even your breath. I own one and it’s incredible how I feel like I’m in my own world.

 The theatrophone mentioned in Krukoski falls in comparison to the current-gen musical devices. Imagine paying a subscription for mere 5 minutes of music, sounds kind of annoying. Especially considering these were only available in public areas I believe. Music right now can be listened to for free anytime you want and whenever you want. All that is required is a phone or laptop. The walkman required you to change cassettes every time to listen to different music which sounds tedious and requires a lot of space to store. Previous music gadgets I would assume from videos, made the music sound crispy while in today’s time, they sound clear and smooth. A huge difference, especially in terms of satisfaction.

In the reading of “Living with Music”, Ralph speaks of the importance music has in someone’s life. His first experience with music recalls the deafening noises he made with the brass horn and he gave up on playing it at a young age. It was later in life where the music came into his life when an up room neighbor would continuously sing and have her notes off. To get back at her annoyance, he would have a speaker and blast music to drown out her music. It was when he moved away to another apartment where he realized that he missed the music he heard from her. He realized that music is a remembrance of one’s past and aspirations in life. He realized that music helped get him through his frustrations of not being able to write. Before he saw it as nothing more than just chaos and nosiness.

Oliver Sack’s “A Bolt from the Blue” defines music and identity in a more neurological sense, exploring a range of psychological ailments and their connection to music. He provides severe cases of accidents/diseases in which changes in the brain lead to a sudden abnormal craving for music. The reason for the musicophilia is due to the degeneration of the front part of the brain. This is also called Frontotemporal lobar degeneration which exhibits loss of grey matter in the brain. A theory that was debunked was that degeneration makes patients sometimes develop an emergence of musical talent or passions because they lose the powers of abstraction and language. Another idea was that near-death experiences have a neurological basis of their own that profoundly alters one’s consciousness itself. The consumption of their near-death might have led to a conversion that changed their orientation of life. Just like that woman with the tumor who after the surgery went from a conservative person to a more caring person, even stated by herself that she changed her outlook on life to which she cherishes every minute.

Hello I am Javier Nava and I am 19 years old. I am of Mexican descent but was born here in the United states. I am an introverted fellow and would rather stay at home relaxing than going out. My major is liberal arts Math and Science and this is my last semester here at LaGuardia. I enrolled in LaGuardia to test the waters and see what I wanted to pursue as a career. Some of my favorite classes I took were SCB 201 and SCN 240. Ever since I was a kid I was always fascinated by the idea of science and how we try to understand the working of the universe. 

Some personal things about me is that I love watching futbol, my favorite team being Fc Barcelona. I idolize Leo Messi and have been a massive supporter ever since I was in the 4th grade, I even wrote a poem about him for some project back in elementary. It’s one of my dreams to see him in action in the camp nou someday, and witness his futbol magic. I love watching/reading anime/manga. I have watched roughly 408 different anime’s and it’s my goal this year to reach 450 if I can. Sometime in the future, my friends and I hope to experience the Japanese culture with our very eyes in Japan.

  In terms of music I usually listen to any type if it’s catchy. My playlist mostly  consists of  Japanese, pop rock, or ost.  Despite being Hispanic I don’t  listen to any Spanish music, I guess from all the parties I’ve attended blasting the same music time and time again haha. I hope to gain a new perspective on the topic of music this semester and wish the best for everyone.