Protest Music s26 Song Lineages Project

For this project, each student is going to chose a social, political, and/or economic theme/subject area and will consider how that theme/subject area is treated in similar and different ways in 3 to 5 different songs. As a class we will brainstorm possible themes/subject areas (and I will include the list below) but the ultimate subject is up to each student individually (with Bill’s approval).

The key is to choose a subject area you are interested in, know little about, and have not created a project or done research on it before. That is, you want to find a subject area that will result in you doing new and interesting research and will also keep your interest. As we have been doing in class, students should address the song’s music, lyrics, and delivery.

The project will include two phases:

• a Proposal, due Wednesday 2/9 by 11:00pm
• a written Narrative, draft due in print by the start of class
• a Digital Presentation, due Friday 2/27 by 11:00pm

Both will have specific instructions, which will be included below.

Choosing Your Song Lineages

By lineage, I mean how songs connect to one another by theme. For example, consider the lineage of:

Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” –>
Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner” –>
Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A” –>
Childish Gambino’s “This is America” –>
Gary Clark, Jr.’s “This Land.”

Each of these songs has the theme: “critique of America.” Knowing about the prior song(s) adds a new level of understanding to the other song, especially when there are direct hints at connections in the titles and lyrics: the titles “This is America” and “This Land” are direct references to “This Land is Your Land.” All together, they construct a history of critique that spans 75 years.

We also see a lineage in the songs we listened to for February 2:

Rhiannon Giddens, “At the Purchaser’s Option” –>
Our Native Daughters (featuring Allison Russell), “Quasheba, Quasheba” –>
Adia Victoria, “South Gotta Change” –>
Mickey Guyton, “Black Like Me” –>
Amythyst Kiah, “Black Myself.”

Each of these songs connect the experiences of racism of the past to experiences of racism in the present, specifically through the lens of Black women’s experiences.

Song Selection and Length Requirements

Each student must select 3, 4, or 5 songs, with the following constraints:

• Three songs (2:30-3:00 minutes long): You will receive no higher than a 84 points for a final grade
• Four songs (3:00-3:30 minutes long): You will receive no higher than an 89 points for a final grade
• Five songs (3:30-4:30 minutes long): You will receive final grade of up to 100 points

I encourage you to choose one song with which you are familiar but the others should be new to you. That is, you should do some research on songs relating to the subject area/theme of your choice.

Two of the songs must have been released during your lifetime. The other(s) may have been released during your lifetime, but to encourage to you choose some older songs, here are some incentives:

• If you have one song released between 1990 and 2005: 2pts added to final grade; or
• If you have one song released between 1975 and 1990 1989: 3pts added to final grade; or
• If you have one song released between 1950 and 1979 1974: 4pts added to final grade; or

Whatever is the oldest song you have, that’s the bonus you will get. This is for only one song; bonuses cannot be stacked.

The Proposal

Completed on paper.

The Narrative

Due to time constraints, the assignment is going to stop at the written narrative. While my initial vision of the narrative was rather loose because it was eventually going to be transferred to a digital recording, the fact that we are not going to create the recording will result in making this a bit more formal and essay-like, though the source requirements are the same. I hope you understand. This will give us more time to focus on Project 2.

I will be sharing with each of you with a GoogleDoc where the whole of your narrative must be written. You cannot copy large chunks from elsewhere and paste it in. Everything must be composed within the document itself. You may not use AI for this project. Doing so will result in a zero, which, as stated on the syllabus, will result in failing the course. Wikipedia is not an accepted source.

Here are the requirements based on the number of songs you will be using. All pages are double-spaced, font size 12, Times New Roman. The Works Cited list is in addition to the page requirements.

• Three songs
  • 2.5 – 3 pages (go slightly longer if you need to)
  • 1 scholarly source about the issue (academic journal or book); use Google Scholar to help you find them
  • 1 journalistic (magazine, newspaper, news article) or respectable blog sources about the issue
  • 3 scholarly, journalistic, or popular sources about the songs (1 per song)
• Four songs
  • 3 – 4 pages (go slightly longer if you need to)
  • 2 scholarly sources about the issue (academic journal or book); use Google Scholar to help you find them
  • 2 journalistic (magazine, newspaper, news article) or respectable blog sources about the issue
  • 4 scholarly, journalistic, or popular sources about the songs (1 per song)
• Five songs
  • 4 – 4.5 pages (go slightly longer if you need to)
  • 2 scholarly sources about the issue (academic journal or book); use Google Scholar to help you find them
  • 2 journalistic (magazine, newspaper, news article) or respectable blog sources about the issue
  • 5 scholarly, journalistic, or popular sources about the songs (1 per song)

When thinking about and composing the narrative, you should understand that this is a narrative about the issue, first, and the songs, second. That is, begin with the issue, discuss it, break it down, consider why it is important, and then show how the songs reveal the issue in similar and different ways. But—and this is key—try to avoid having one paragraph per song: song one does this, song two does this, song three does this, etc. And don’t feel like each song requires it’s own paragraph. Instead, try to move between songs in a more fluid way. Compare lyrics from one and the other within the same paragraph. Think about how the song-writers are conceiving of the issue based on what you’ve found they’ve said or written about it.

Make sure you distinguish between the song writer(s) and the performers because they very likely will be different. Make sure you quote the lyrics and, when they impact meaning, the music, delivery, and instruments.

Citing Sources

You can use what ever citation system you would like—make one up, if you want—but you must have:

• parenthetical citations that have the author and, if appropriate, a page number
• a Works Cited list in alphabetical order by last name that includes: the name(s), publication date, title that is linked to the source, and publication.
• do not paste in a URL; make the title clickable

Parenthetical citations are a way to give credit to the where you found the information you’re writing about. These can be from summaries for direct quotation. For example:

Pete Seeger was forced to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where, instead of pleading the Fifth Amendment, he challenged the validity of the Committee and its legal and moral authority to compel him to answer questions (Lithwick 2014).

According to Kerran Sanger (1995), “During the years of the civil rights movement, activist sought strategies to communicate with one another” (p. 15).

Do not cite lines from songs as block quotes, as they eat up page space. Cite them in the text, like this:

Tracy Chapman reveals what it is like to live when you have so little that life seems devoid of meaning: “Starting from zero, got nothing to lose / Maybe we’ll make something / Me, myself, I got nothing to prove.” Echoing Bob Dylan’s famous lines form “Like a Rolling Stone,” “When you’ve got nothing, / You’ve got nothing to lose,” Chapman starts her song at bottom, hoping to find a way out, to make her life better, to break free of the institutional racism and generational trauma that has plagued her.

The / indicates when there is a line break.

Assessment

The assignment will be assessed using the following rubric:

• Lineages Assignment Rubric (.pdf)

The Digital Presentation

Due to time constraints, there will be no digital presentation portion of the assignment. It will just be written.