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MUSIC 150

Final Project - OPTIONAL

Your optional Final project is an opportunity to explore an area of US music of particular interest to you.

How to choose your topic? Every student brings a host of musical experiences of, interests in and knowledge about various styles and genres of U. S. music into this class. Begin with music to which you have a strong positive response (music that was a part of your childhood, music that helped you grow up, music that moves you, music new to you that really strikes you when you hear it for the first time in class); then select one or more aspects of that music--its defining characteristics, its social and/or cultural context, its origins, its history--as a point of departure for your project.

Make sure your topic is manageable. A five page paper on "Blues" or "Rock Music" cannot hope to fulfill the demands of its subject in the allotted length. Better would be "Rhythm and Blues: 1945-1960" or "Heavy Metal"--but even these can barely be covered in five pages. Better still would be a single artist, a small geographical area, a single group, an even shorter amount of time, etc. One very good possible source of topics is the suggestions found at the end of each chapter of the text. Make sure you check those possibilites.

I need to approve your topic before you begin work.. Send me an e-mail (wj1707@aol.com) with a brieft proposal describing what you intend to do BEFORE you begin work,. I will respond with comments.

All papers are due on Tuesday, December 3. Papers should include, in addition to five pages of text, footnotes and a bibliography of resources used, including Internet resources.

You can receive up to 15 extra-credit points for your term paper. Papers are graded on the basis of content (10 points), organization (3 points) and mechanics (2 points).