Author Archives: Kevin Herrera

Blog Post 3

Walter Hughes argues that disco music structures the dance floor in a contradictory way: it disciplines the dancers’ bodies “in the empire of the beat” while also offering a forum for free expression that, especially during the height of the genre’s popularity in the 70s, allowed people to freely express queerness.

Another dance music that can compare with what Hughes argues in his essay in electronic music or EDM. Back in 2011-2012, it was at the peak of it’s popularity, it was mainstream and everyone, including me, was listening to it. However now, it is still popular but not anything close to how popular it was before. It isn’t listened to as much or talked about as much anymore. It isn’t listened to on a daily basis and it isn’t defended like jazz, rock, reggae, and rap. Yes, there are certain groups that still listen and talk about it and there are EDM festivals that happen from time to time but it isn’t mainstream, it isn’t popular anymore, at least in my opinion. I feel like it should be talked about more since it is a part of music history.

Blog Post #2

“I saw a woman fall from her bicycle in the middle of the street. ‘What happened?’ I asked as I helped her up-the one car nearby had hardly come close. She took her headphones off and said, ‘I was totally self-absorbed. Suddenly I realized there was a car in the road. I braked and fell.’ The driver was there now, too, window down; he looked bewildered. She assured me she was OK, and continued on.” This is what was stated in Krukowski’s writing. Self-absorbed is how I feel with my Airpods on while I listen to music on my IPhone. I think a lot of people, including myself could relate to the woman that fell from her bicycle.

Ever since I was young I have felt like this. Back way back when, my father used to have this device called a cd player, this big circular device where you place a cd inside and you can skip, go back, play and pause the music on the cd. On the cd player, you had to buy and change the batteries because that how tech used to be, now you just have to charge everything. When I listened to music on it, I wasn’t just feeling everything about the music, the beat, the tune, and the words. Nothing around me was the focus of my attention except the music I was listening to. I was always happy when I was able to use the cd player. I always enjoyed the music and always had fun when I listened to the music.

After a long time, I got my first IPod touch and IPod nano. This was amazing to me. How something so small can have so many songs on it and I could listen to them wherever I want, and whenever I want, on my own time. It honestly changed my life. It gave me more freedom to listen to more music and listen to any music that I wanted. That was the biggest change that I had ever encountered when it came to music in general and how I listened to it. I can’t wait to see the many different ways we can listen to music in the future, maybe no devices at all? That is a question to think about.

Kevin Herrera

In reading Ralph Ellison’s “Living with Music” and Oliver Sacks’s “A Bolt from the Blue,” I have encountered several extreme examples of people defining themselves through music. In Ralph Ellison’s “Living with Music,” he talks about how, “In those day it was either live with music or die with noise, and we chose rather desperately to live.” This shows how people look at music in all different ways, some just look at it as something to listen to and some people look at is as something more, more than noise. Some people can’t live without music because it helps in several different way, it helps them express their feelings, express their emotions, it helps them relieve stress, and it could also help them bring up their mood, most of the time to create happiness in their thoughts and heart. So,depending on our perception of music, it shows how we listen to it and why we listen to it.

In Oliver Sacks’s “A Bolt from the Blue,” Dr. Tony Cicoria, after being struck by lightning, having a near death experience, and an out of body experience, literally seeing his own body when his consiousness came out of his body, he suddenly had a huge desire to listen to piano music and/or classical music in general. This is what amazed him and has also amazed me but what’s also interesting is that when he was young, he only had a few piano lessons but had no real interest. He says that, “He did not have a piano in his house. What music he did listen to tended to be rock music.” After this incident, he developed a love for piano/classical music, almost like an addiction to it. He states that he, “would get up at four in the morning and play till I went to work, and when I got home from work I was at the piano all evening.” He thinks that he had been saved for a special purpose, that he was allowed to survive because of the music. This could also most likely be due to something happening in the brain.

Kevin Herrera

Hello everyone. My name is Kevin Herrera and I am a Journalism major at LaGuardia Community College. What brought me to LaGuardia is that it was near and they were the most helpful out of all the school that I checked out, helpful as in helping you with your classes, which ones to take, which ones not to take, actually speaking with your and understanding any situation you might be in. It is also very near where I live, a 20-30 minute train ride.

My main hobby is playing basketball, bike riding and listening to music. My interests are shoes, clothes, and music.

The kinds of music that I listen to are rap, hip-hop, rock and latin music. I would characterize my relationship to music as a helpful and needed one. Sometimes, music helps me to wake up, express emotion, or just feel a rush. For example, I listen to rock music and it just gives me the chill and sort of a rush when a certain part comes on. That’s how music helps me but I also need music, to have something to listen to, to have something to think about, and to have something to help time pass by when I’m not doing anything or going somehwere, on the train, on the bus, or in the car.

Song Suggestion: Internet Money – His & Hers Feat. Don Toliver, Gunna & Lil Uzi Vert