In the article “The Walkman, Forty Years off” by Matt Alt he discusses the walkman and then begins to talk about what modern technology came after the walkman. The walkman back in the 80’s and 90’s was used every single day and was just part of people’s daily lives as Alt said “the walkman instantly entrenched itself in daily life as a convenient personal music-delivery device” (Alt 3). That was the music player for people at that time. In “Headspace” by Damon Kruowski he talks about how we get lost within ourselves because of music we tend to not focus on what is going on around in the outside world. This is why he talks about people creating their own space. We get distracted from the devices and headsets we use when we are listening to music. Relating this to my own experience my very first music player was a sort of Mp3 player but it was a very old one my mother had that she had given to me as a kid and had a lot of old school songs downloaded on it but as time went on I started to get newer and more modern devices that play music, like an iPod, an iPod mini, then as I got older of course technology became even more advanced and I got my phone and bluetooth speakers. I also had discs and tapes that I would put in a radio to listen to music when I was younger. No matter what device it was I used it in my everyday life just like how the walkman was used in people’s daily lives. When using my devices that require headphones I do use them and when listening to the music I kind of get lost in the music at that moment so all I am really focusing on is what is going on inside my headphones. So I do get stuck in my own “space”

In both readings “Living with music” by Ralph Ellison’s and “A Bolt from the Blue” by Oliver Sacks both use examples in their writing on how people define themselves through music. Starting with the story “A Bolt from the blued” by Oliver Sacks one of the main characters is Cicoria. Cicoria had almost had a near death experience and suddenly had a desire to listen to more music. On page 5 Sacks says “there was this insatiable desire to listen to piano music. This was completely out of keep-ing with anything in his past (Sacks 5). He never really had any interest in music. He had dreams about music and he just had this need to wake up and start writing what he was dreaming of. That is how he wrote his songs. As he continued to focus on music he said music has made him more spiritual. Which kind of seems like he’s come to a peaceful state with himself and his environment. So music is starting to shape him and define him as a person, show who he really is. In the story “Living with Music” by Ralph Ellison he talks about all the different types of music he encounters in his life and the music he plays. All the music that he is around shapes him as a person and you can see how interesting and important music is to him. He talks about many different types of music and singers he enjoyed hearing and talks about his life personally, an example would be him talking about the instruments he plays. Even when he just talks about his neighbor and how he did not enjoy her singing. When explaining music he goes very in depth and you can see how music plays a big role in his life and always has. As an artist you can see he defines himself as a very dedicated artist or someone who puts music as his first priority.