I was a little surprised to see what kind of class this was, at least in how it was structured.

Professor O’Malley made a decent introduction on the rules and expectations for this class, guiding us through the syllabus and letting us know what he wanted from us in terms of blogging and class participation. He also explained that we should be prepared for the final assignment by getting accustomed to musical production software like GarageBand, a task that I need to get started on now because of my inexperience with the software.

Professor O’Malley then began to discuss a topic that would be continued in the next class, the difference of taste in music between generations and the compression of sound that is prevalent in modern music. We listened to musical pieces such as “Firework” by Katie Perry, “I say a little prayer” by Aretha Franklin, and “Havana” by Camila Cabello. We were told to listen to the compression in the songs, but I remember only hearing something like that in “Havana”, though I was unsure if I was correct.

Perhaps it would have been better for us to go through was compression stood for more thoroughly, but it was a discussion we would go through with more depth in the next class. This first class ended around thirty minutes in, a surprise for me, but I walked away from the class more curious about the material, and was looking forward to the reading requirements for the next class when I returned to my dorm.