ALL ASSIGNMENTS SHOULD BE EMAILED TO ME AS ATTACHMENTS EITHER IN PDF OR WORD DOCUMENT FORM

For all assignments, pay close attention to style, grammar, and spelling. Your paper will be graded on style as well as the content. Be sure to proofread your paper carefully. Limit your direct quotations, and do not plagiarize. Most importantly, make an argument. After careful consideration of what others have said about the topic, what do you want to say? What was on your mind that did not get voiced in class? What do you want me, your reader, to understand? Use anecdotal references strategically. Engage with the authors in the course packet (and elsewhere) and cite them to support your argument. Or, critique the texts according to your view and interest. Make the course packet work for you. Closely analyze music and artists and use them as examples or evidence of your argument. I am mainly looking to see that you have a thorough understanding of the readings and can resource them to creatively and convincingly make an argument. Excellent papers may be given opportunities to be presented in class.

Assignment 1 – Music Culture Exercise – 500 words – Due 9/15

Use Titon and Slobin’s model of music-culture to analyze one of the three music performance documentation videos listed below. Watch the video, then:

– Describe the social setting of the music.
– Describe the ensemble set up and instrumentation.
– Describe the basic social organization of the performance including the interaction between the performers and audience; how is the audience reacting to the music?
– Construct a brief timeline of the linear form of the performance (opening theme, vocal verse 1, vocal chorus, verse 2, chorus, trumpet solo, etc.)
– Analyze the music-culture by applying Titon & Slobin’s model of music-culture.
– Based on your analysis, speculate on the “global” or “transnational” nature of your music culture.
What are the roots of this music and how did it come to the U.S.? How has it moved out from the U.S. to other corners of the globe? Consult the respective articles in your course packet for the background. Organize your paper as you wish but make sure you demonstrate all listed items above in the paper.

1) Manny Oquendo Y Conjunto Libre (Nuyorican Salsa) – “Elena Elena” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwvxvdf8OBs&list=PLE1002C840BEE578D&index=13&feature=plpp_video

2) Frank London & Lorin Sklamberg (Jewish Klezmer Music) – “Tsuker-zis @ Shalom on Szeroka Street 2011” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfiLTozqsko

3) Black Stalin (West Indian Soca) – “Black Man Feeling to Party” (from 0:00-3:00) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zOqmG1Sfck&list=PLE1002C840BEE578D&index=6&feature=plpp

Assignment 2– Black Music and Cecil Taylor – 750-1000 words – Due 10/8

How is Taylor’s music transmitted, and what qualities does it retain from the earliest generation of African-American music? Trace the historical lineage Taylor’s music and use Titon & Slobin’s model of music-culture and their definitions of memory, community, performance, and affect in order to discuss and correlate those aspects in Taylor’s music to its origin. Make sure to cite Southern, Floyd Jr., Yom, and at least one article in the Cecil Taylor folder to build your argument. Close your essay with a discussion of Taylor’s music as an example of 21st-century African diasporic music-culture.

Assignment 3– Heritage Music and Cultural Identity – 750-1000 words – Due 10/29

Define the term “heritage music” as discussed in class and in the Slobin reading. How are nationalism, diaspora, and transnationalism essential components of the heritage music complex? Examine Jewish klezmer music and traditional Irish (Celtic) music in the U.S. as examples of heritage musics. Your answer should explore the development and revival of these styles here in the U.S. as well as their importance for Irish and Jewish-Americans. Give specific examples of artists who have helped establish klezmer and Irish music as forms of U.S. heritage music.

Assignment 4– Micromusics and Cultural Identity – 750-1000 words – Due 11/19

Define the term “micromusic” as discussed in class and in the Slobin reading. How can we understand Nuyorican salsa and Nortena/Tejano conjunto music as styles of U.S. micromusics? Your answer should recount the development of salsa and Nortena/Tejano conjunto music by particular “ethnic” groups inside and outside the continental U.S. Give specific examples of artists involved with salsa and Nortena/Tejano conjunto music and the themes of their songs (one artist/song for each style). Close your essay by discussing the transnational dimensions of each style—how have these musics crossed international borders?

Assignment 5 – Global Hip Hop and Rap Music – 1000-1250 words – Due 12/15

According to cultural theorists Robin Kelley (in The Vinyl Ain’t Final) and Tony Mitchell (in Global Noise), how has African American (U.S.) based rap music incorporated elements of local cultures as it spreads around the world? Do you agree with Mitchell that rap has become “a vehicle for global youth affiliation” that provides a forum for global youth protest allowing rap artists to make “political statements about local racial, sexual, employment, and class issues”?

Or do you think that most global rap is just party music that tends to reinforce the values of violence, material greed, and anti-female/LGBTQ sentiments (that are the values associated with commercial U.S. gangster rap)?

Choose a rapper/rap group who operates primarily outside the U.S. Review their history, and how they do or do not conform to the Kelley/Mitchell model. Be sure to analyze the lyrics, the music (the underlying mix), and images if a video is available. Center your analysis on at least one of their rap songs that you have transcribed and translated into English. Include your lyrical transcription in an appendix to your paper, and a link to YouTube or similar website for me to hear/see the rap song you are analyzing.

 

Grading rubric for assignment 5

Form/structure/creative thesis statement
-A title that sums up the argument is given.
-The paper provides an introductory paragraph that frames the topic with appropriate context.
-The introductory paragraph states the problem and an overview of how the paper will address the problem.
-The introductory paragraph states the solution (thesis) to the problem.
-Each developing paragraph starts and ends with sentences that state the main point of the paragraph.
-Each developing paragraph brings evidence supporting the main point of the paragraph (facts, data, etc.), and the relevancy of each item of evidence is explained.
-Each paragraph convincingly constructs the reality that makes your thesis true with facts, quotations, data, image, etc.
-The conclusion paragraph a summary of the paper and restates the thesis in light of the discussion.
-The thesis is ORIGINAL. It is not merely an agreement with an argument we’ve seen in the readings or a basic fact that can be supported with allusion to “common sense,” such as “Salsa music makes people happy” or “Jewish music has changed over the years.”

Style, comprehension, and content
-There are minimal grammar or spelling errors.
-All citations are properly given.
-Bibliography is included. (Any style is fine.)
-The sentences are tight, not baggy. (Tight sentences are concise; baggy sentences say the same thing with more words)
-All referents to the pronouns are obvious.
-Understanding of class discussions, lectures, and readings are demonstrated and commented upon.
-The authors from class readings are appropriately framed when quoted. (Their words are not misunderstood or taken out of context)
-A case study of a rapper/rap group that functions primarily outside the U.S. is fully developed with the following items:
-their history/biography
-an example of one of their songs with the lyrics (translated to English)
-an analysis of the song’s lyrics, music, or music video
-an explanation as to whether they fit or do not fit the Mitchell/Kelley model in your assessment

30/30 The paper demonstrates all of the items above with mastery. The paper is carefully thought out, organized, and written with attention to detail. The thesis is original and convincing, and the developing arguments have nuance.

29/30 The paper demonstrates all of the items above but with less attention to detail.

28/30 The paper demonstrates most of the items above. A thesis is given but is not explicitly supported or engaged with throughout the whole of the paper.

25-27/30 The paper demonstrates some of the items above. A thesis might be given, but is not well-supported throughout the whole of the paper, making it unconvincing.

21-24/30 The paper merely lists items in the assignment prompt and discusses them superficially at the level of “common sense” and “intuition.” No in-depth engagement with class readings/discussions is demonstrated. The paper is not really a research paper, but a list of opinions that are only peripherally relevant to the class content.

20/30 The paper addresses the prompt minimally and meets the word-count.