Information for the Power of Influence Assignment The Power of Influence Assignm

Information for the Power of Influence Assignment
The Power of Influence Assignment is due October 4, 2023
You must choose a composition that you believe has been influential. What is influence? Influence can have different meanings. For instance, after a composition was created, did other artists create songs that sounded or conveyed a similar idea or sound? For instance, after Nirvana released “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in 1991, a series of similar-sounding songs were released. Most of these songs were considered “grunge,” a new genre inspired by Nirvana’s music. Another kind of influence can be socially motivated. For example, when Aretha Franklin released “Respect” in 1967, it inspired generations of women to fight for equal rights.
Your mission is to find a song, determine its basic components (harmonic progression, lyrics, groove, timbre, etc.), and prove, if possible, that it spawned a series of other songs that shared some characteristics or a significant social movement.
You should know if your composition is influential long before you begin writing the paper. Pick a song you already suspect was imitated or inspirational. After your investigation, you may find your choice was more influential than you initially thought.
This assignment is in four parts: Analysis, Inquiry, Evaluation, and Synthesis
Part One: Analysis
In this section, you need to define what musical influence is. Sometimes influence can be a direct relation. For instance, Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” was clearly influenced by Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” The chord progression and overall feel are remarkably similar between the two songs. But influence can go much deeper than that. For instance, when Donna Summer released “I Feel Love” in 1977, its electronic background spawned an entire genre that featured electronic beats called disco. Disco was also an inclusive social movement.
Please provide some examples and discussions of how songs have provided both limited influences, like “Thinking Out Loud” or remarkably broad influences, like “I Feel Love.”
Part Two: Inquiry
In this section, please investigate and analyze your composition.
Here are some questions you can answer regarding your investigation, and feel free to use your own analytical tools too:
What is the texture? (monophonic/polyphonic/homophonic)?
What is the instrumentation? (is it an acoustic sound or electronic?)
Are there word/music relationships?
What is the form?
Are dynamics used?
Is there anything unique about the melody, rhythm, or harmony?
What is the harmonic progression?
Do the lyrics have a special or unique meaning?
Does this song efficiently convey the lyrics?
Does this song reflect the time period?
Could there be multiple interpretations of this composition?
Part Three: Evaluation
In this section, please use the information you’ve learned from your investigation and show how this song has influenced other songs, styles, or social movements. Make sure to indicate how this song influenced other songs. For instance, the influence of “I Feel Love” mostly lies in the background groove and the inclusive lyrics. In fact, after more research, I found that Giorgio Moroder was the producer of this track, and he was very important to later disco. This is the kind of information that should be discussed here.
Part Four: Synthesis
Here, all you have to do is summarize your findings. Summarize what musical influence is, how you analyzed your song, and what other songs/styles or social movements were affected.
Rules and Regulations
The following format rules are non-negotiable. You will be penalized if you don’t use the proper format.
** Check out my sample in this module**
Format Rules
Websites like turnitin do not accept files like “Pages.” When submitting your work, you must use Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word is free to Collin College students within cougarweb.
Use “Times New Roman” with a font size of 12
Place your name, CWID number, MUSI 1306 (add your section number) and date in upper right corner. This heading should be single spaced. Check out the sample!
Center the name of the performing artist, the composition, and a youtube link
Use bold for this heading
MUST be a minimum of 1200 words (word count pertains to the body of the paper, not footnotes or headings). Each section should be approximately 300 words in length. There is a penalty for a low word count. Considering that this is a short paper, overuse of lyrics is an issue. In other words, if over 50 words (or so) of your word count are lyrics, I will penalize you.
Double spaced (So I can see it)
Title all four sections (Analysis, Inquiry, Evaluation, Synthesis). Each section should be equal in length.
Citations
When you are writing for academic use, you must cite other people’s work. If you use the exact words from someone else’s work, you must give that person credit.
Here’s a tip: Good writers don’t just throw in quotes. They take a quote and refer to it. They even use quotes to support their own arguments. Check out how I used quotes in my Concert Critique.
You must cite 2 sources in your writing
You MUST use “footnote” or “Chicago” parenthetical style citations
Footnotes should be “Times New Roman” font of 10
You MUST use “footnote” or “Chicago” style citations, not parenthetical citations
There are different ways to cite other people’s work within your own writing. The way you’re probably most familiar is parenthetical citations (a parenthesis after the quote with a work cited page). This is not the style I want. I want you to use the “Chicago” style, which is a bit more professional.
Chicago style requires a superscript number and a footnote. There’s no work cited page, just the footnote. Footnotes are easy to produce in Microsoft Word. Just position your cursor to the end of the quote, go to “References” and “Insert Footnote.” Then you’ll be able to insert the information. It’s that easy. There are also videos on youtube.com that can walk you through this process.
Footnotes should be “Times New Roman” font of 10
I suggest you go to citationmachine.net, or any internet citation generator, and pick “Chicago.”
These format rules are very important (and easy to follow). If there is any deviation from the format . . . you’ll be penalized.
I will not accept late work.
I’ve provided my own analysis. Make sure to Look at my sample and imitate the entire format exactly.
When you’ve finished your assignment:
Submit it to “Turnitin.com” which is located under “The Power of Influence” module within Canvas. I will not accept late work.
Suggestions
Here are some song suggestions. Feel free to use them or choose your own:
Sam Cooke: “A Change Is Gonna Come”
Band Aid: “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
Edwin Starr: “War”
Billie Holiday: “Strange Fruit”
John Lennon: “Imagine”
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis: “Same Love”
U2: “Sunday Bloody Sunday”
Public Enemy: “Fight the Power”
Bob Marley: “Get Up Stand Up”
Green Day: “American Idiot”
Bill Haley: “Rock Around the Clock”
Don McLean: “American Pie”
Toby Keith: “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue”
The Sugar Hill Gang: “Rapper’s Delight”
Run D.M.C.: “Walk This Way”
Migos “Bad and Boujee”
Method of Evaluation
Criteria for grading
I regard correct format as very important. I expect each student to follow the format and rules exactly. In other words, your paper should look exactly like my paper. If you use the incorrect font, don’t single-space the heading, don’t bold the heading, etc., then I’ll have to deduct points.
I expect each of the four sections to comprise roughly one-quarter of the paper. For instance, if your analysis is much shorter than the other three sections, there will be a point deduction.
Accuracy is important, so I will deduct points for large numbers of errors, misspelled words, low word count, etc.
This is not a complete list, but these are the most common point deductions
Low word count: -35
Single spaced: -20
Missing section: -25
Incorrect heading: -15
Incorrect font: -15
Paraphrasing from internet: -25
Sloppy format editing: -20
Missing citation: -15 per citation
Incorrect citation style (included a works cited when a footnote is required): -15
One section is much shorter than the others: -15