Blog/Participation – (20%)

On the first day of class each student will create an account with Motime and sign up for the class blog. I’ll give a quick tutorial and we’ll make initial posts. Your first entry will identify the genre you will investigate over the semester, why you are interested in it (what is good about it), and why you want to examine it (what you want to get out of the examination). A second blog entry will provide a list of resources you already have on the genre (these could be academic, journalistic, or popular—articles, books, web sites, blogs, myspace pages, DVDs, etc.). Students will then be expected to post regularly in response to readings (roughly 250-350 words). Prior to each class that involves readings, you should post a response to the blog (specifically think about the theoretical approach used in the article and how that could apply to analyzing your particular genre). Other blogs on more specific topics such as applying critical perspectives to short interpretations of songs, for example, may be assigned as the semester progresses. Participation will also include attendance, short class presentations, and peer reviews of the final paper. Comments on the class blog will count as extra credit. Basic Criteria: All individual blog/participation grades will be P/F—you do it or you don’t. All participation points will be added and averaged for your final grade.

Research – (20%)

Mid-term – (20%)

By mid-semester students will have to choose one of four possible approaches for a small project: 1) write a detailed musical analysis of a song (or compare two songs) that exposes your genre’s “musical worlds”; 2) write a short paper/review of a music documentary film or historical book on your chosen genre that details its scene/world; 3) do a media project (video, Flash, Powerpoint) that “creates a world” that your genre expresses; 4) write a reader response piece on your experience of a genre or artist and its scene/history but write it in a creative way that links the musical world to your world. In each case, you’d want to choose something that furthers your examination of your genre/scene/artist and builds toward the final paper.


For the musical analysis, you'll want to follow some of the examples we've had in class. Use a traditional musical score and terminology to break down and/or visualize the song or use an alternative approach more in line with pop music (from the readings or even one of your own). (Stephenson; Hawkins; Griffiths; Covach).

For the review, you’ll need to outline or narrate a history of the genre/scene—its originary moments/events, its key artists/innovators, its core ideas (beliefs, lyrical topics, images), and its distinctive musical styles or components (Dance of Days; American Hardcore; Made in Sheffield).

For the media project, you might outline a history, create a montage biography of an artist, or use remix principles discussed and exhibited in the music or videos. In each case you’d use music from the artist or key artists. In addition, write a brief artist statement that explains what you were trying to do in the piece and the thinking that went behind it (Covach; Lethem; Andersen; Smith [tropes]).

For the response, follow Hornby’s approach by writing brief readings of various songs (maybe a top ten list) or follow Klosterman’s model by writing brief vignettes that date your experiences of the scene, music, or live shows. This project could be paper-based or could use media—hypertext: for example, write a top ten list and include a mix CD (Hornby; Klosterman).

What I want you to focus on is that texts and creativity don’t happen in a vacuum; they happen in a scene—at least the more successful, long-lasting, and innovative movements have this bottom-up structure. The scene/world is the context for talking about music, songs, lyrics, and their rhetorical effects.

Basic Criteria:


• Analysis: 4-5 pages, plus minimal works cited that includes articles you are deriving your approach from (also include CD and any other sources—could be web sources, etc.).
• Review: 4-5 pages, plus minimal works cited (DVD or book and any other sources—could be web sources or readings from class).
• Video/Flash: approximately 5 minutes long (could use a single song to “ground” the video); should use combo of moving video clips, still images, and cut in text (intro frame, end credits, etc.) Artist statement should be one-page, single-spaced.
• PPT: 10-12 slides, 8-10 images, obviously include some text, maybe music; “Artist statement” could have a brief blurb/paragraph to go along with each slide (length will obviously vary but keep it close to one-page, single-spaced).
• Response: 4-5 pages, plus minimal works cited (key text you are emulating and any other sources—could be web sources or readings from class.). A “top ten” approach could include a CD with the songs; a “key dates/events” approach could include a montage flyer for one of the events (real or one you fabricated)—could be in paper or digital form.

Final – (40%)

At the end of the semester, students will write a traditional, academic research paper on the genre they have been writing and thinking about over the semester. You should gather research throughout the semester that includes traditional academic journal articles on the topic/genre, fan-based resources tracked online or obtained through personal interviews, and personal experience (seeing the artists live, participating in the scene, etc). You’ll want to then decide what kind of theoretical approaches you need to take on your genre of choice: musicological, worlding, historical, affective, sub-cultural, race-gender, economic, mediation, technological or some combination that fits your topic. Finally, gather some more research on this particular approach, especially if it is related directly to your genre or artist. The final paper will not just be a cataloging of the research you find, or a simple description of the band, or a linear history of the genre; instead, it should be a reading or interpretation that makes an argument about the music or scene, examining the world around it that influences and produces it and that it effects and affects. For the paper we will follow a basic process in class: you will write a proposal for your idea, do some extra research, do drafts with peer reviews, and submit a final paper.

Basic criteria:


• The paper should be 10-12 pages.
• It should exhibit a clear argument (with claim and support) about your chosen genre, scene, band, album, or song.
• It should have 12-15 quality sources (academic books/articles or clearly relevant and intelligent alternative sources) with proper MLA citation formats.