Are there political or cultural issues attached to their life or work?

Pick a Musician and a song(s) or album that we have covered in class, there is a list below.

-You may pick different songs from the ones listed below to discuss, but you must pick a musician or topic from the list.

-(30%)-Do some research on this musician and provide some background. What are they significant for doing? Are they a technological pioneer or a genre innovator? Are they both? Are there political or cultural issues attached to their life or work?

-(30%)-Listen to 2 of the selections by the musician and use concepts and techniques weve learned about in class to analyze the music. For example if you write about Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles, you can discuss tape loops, or the Doppler effect on the vocals, or the Indian influenced drone that holds the piece together. You can talk about the inspiration for the song. In general tell us what is significant about this song and why come people regard it as important.

-(40%)-Paper must be a minimum of 4-5 pages and use MLA format for any works cited. The remaining points are will be awarded based on demonstration of critical listening skills and the ability to explain the subject matter in terms of the concepts weve learned in class.

Students may also choose to discuss an inventor and their body of work or the music that was made with their invention (such as Raymond Scott or Leon Theremin or Bob Moog) or a genre innovator (such as Miles Davis or Steve Reich) and the musical innovations they created, these and other alternatives are listed below.

Possible Topics for Final Paper

-Les Paul

Lover

How High the Moon

-Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys a good approach would be to talk about the albums Pet Sounds and Smile.

-The Beatles

Tomorrow Never Knows

Rain

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite

Blue Jay Way