In “Living with Music,” Ralph Ellison reflects on the significance of music in defining his life through shaping their unique cultural and social identity. His experiences with music affect his attitude towards the various social spaces he lives in. Later in life, when he again met up with music, he had different experiences from his childhood music experiences. Ellison had a neighbor living on top of his apartment who practiced music. The neighbor’s notes were always off, and he bought a speaker system to cover and contradict her music. After moving to his new apartment, he realized that he missed the music he heard in his old apartment. Therefore, based on his experiences, music is a reminder of the past and future aspirations, as well as helping one move past their problems. According to Ellison, music is a source of inspiration for the troubled.

Oliver Sacks’s “A Bolt from the Blue” highlights the association between music and psychology. An example is a lighting-struck doctor who then had a passion for music. Dr. Cicoria, who was not a music fan pre-accident, suddenly developed a passion for music in his post-accident life. Another example is Salimah, who had a brain tumor. After the brain tumor was removed, she had a changed personality. Therefore, from these examples, it can be resolved that musical identity formations are related to brain science to a significant degree. In the case of Cicoria, the lightning strike might have open his brain to his passion and hidden music talent. Therefore, musical identity is hidden in the bran, and it may take an incident to experience their positive musical identity formations.

In “In the Empire of the Beat,” Walter Hughes argues that disco music reorganizes the dance-floor in a contradictory manner. Disco music disciplines the bodies of the dancers while providing the dancers with a ground for free expression. Disco dance music is a form of popular music for dancing that is recorded with complex electronic instrumentation in which a pulsating and heavy rhythmic beat subordinates the repetitive lyrics. This form of dance music emanated from the urban nightlife scene of the United States. The participants were allowed to freely express themselves through dance and were the foundation for contemporary dance music culture. Disco music allowed individuals to express their queerness freely. Another example of dance music that will enable people to express themselves freely is house dance music.

House music, like disco music, is a genre of electronic dance music which is associated with a four-on-the-floor beat and typical musical tempo. Similar to disco music, house music does not also have a specific dance pattern. The dancers are allowed to express their queerness through dance freely. Another similarity is in the instrumentation of the music genres. House music and disco music genres apply a typical four on the floor musical instrumentation. The main difference between the two music techniques is that house feels more mechanical and inhuman and does not consider the warm and organic references considered in disco music and other EDM music genres. Free dance patterns allow us to express who we are and illustrate the restrictions we have on our minds to dance.