Popular Song Assignment
For this assignment, you will need to select a song performed and recorded between January 1, 1960 and December 31, 1972. The term "popular song" does not refer to sales but to the type of song. The dictionary defines it as "appealing to the popular taste, including rock and pop and also soul, country,reggae, rap, and dance music." The term excludes what is usually called "classical" music. So do not worry about whether the song you choose made it to the Top 100 Billboard charts and such. The song you choose has to relate to the history we have been studying in this course. You will write a one-paragraph answer to this question:
How does the song you have chosen reflect the ideas, opinions, and writings of people involved in the movements we have been studying?
These are the civil rights, black power, anti-Vietnam War, counterculture, and feminist movements. Your paragraph should start with a topic sentence that summarizes your judgment about the song's relationship to these movements.
The rest of the paragraph needs to discuss particular words or ideas in the song's lyrics that relate to one or more of the movements.
In this assignment,you may include quotations, but they must come from the song only.
Commonly historians only quote sources when they want to discuss the particular words or phrases that an author uses, so it is appropriate for this assignment to quote from the song. Otherwise, you are to write the rest of the paragraph entirely in your own words. Your paragraph must be at least five sentences in length, including the topic sentence. Please remember to:
• Put your name at the top of your paper
• Type your paper double-spaced
• Mention the title of the song and the performer (an individual or a group) in a title at the top of the paper or in the body of the paragraph
• You must submit your paper on Blackboard by 11:00 p.m. on November 22.
• Submit your paper in a format compatible with Microsoft Word for Mac 2011. Note: Rich Text Format is a common format that is compatible with this standard. Please avoid using PDF or Apple Pages formats if you possibly can.
• The link for submitting it is under the Writing Assignments section in a folder labeled "Popular Song Assignment." In that folder is a link labeled "Submit the Popular Song Assignment."
• If something goes wrong submitting it on Blackboard, immediately e-mail me a copy as an MS Word file before the deadline. Problems with Blackboard are not an excuse to submit the paper late.
• This paper will be graded on a 50-point scale.
• The grades of all late papers will be lowered two full letter grades (for example, an A paper becomes a C paper if it is late). And I will not accept the papers more than one week late.
• Papers that include passages plagiarized from the Internet, another student's paper, or any other source will receive a zero (no credit).
You must also submit a copy of your song in an e-mail either as a link to a YouTube video or as an MP3 format file, so that we can listen to it in class.
The performance that you submit must be by the original performer of the song. Below is a list of songs from which you can choose if you like. Feel free to choose songs not on this list that fit the criteria at the beginning of the assignment sheet. Also, bring a copy of the lyrics to class with you; you do not need to make copies of the lyrics or send them to me in advance.
Possible Songs
"We Shall Overcome"
Beatles, "Can't Buy Me Love"
Beatles, "Let It Be"
Beatles, "Nowhere Man"
Beatles, "The Fool on the Hill"
James Brown, "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing"
James Brown, "I'm Black and I'm Proud"
Sam Cooke, "A Change Is Gonna Come"
Bob Dylan, "Ballad of Hattie Carroll"
Bob Dylan, "Blowin' in the Wind"
Bob Dylan, "Only a Pawn in Their Game"
Bob Dylan, "The Times They Are AChanging"
Buffalo Springfield, "For What It's Worth"
Byrds, "Turn, Turn, Turn"
Country Joe and the Fish, "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag"
Creedance Clearwater Revival, "Who'll Stop the Rain"
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, "Ohio"
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, "Southern Man"
Doors, "Unknown Soldier"
Aretha Franklin, "Respect"
Aretha Franklin, "Do Right Woman"
Marvin Gaye, "What's Goin' On"
Jimi Hendrix, "Machine Gun"
Jefferson Airplane, "Volunteers"
Jefferson Airplane, "White Rabbit"
Joni Mitchell, "Woodstock"
Phil Ochs, "I Ain't Marching Anymore"
Tom Paxton, "Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation"
Pete Seeger, "Waist Deep in Big Muddy"
Rolling Stones, "Satisfaction"
Sly and the Family Stone, "Everyday People"
Edwin Starr, "War"
Temptations, "Ball of Confusion"
Bobby Womack, "Across 110th Street"