Today’s readings include a piece by Camille Paglia entitled “Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Hollywood Are Ruining Women.” This piece has provoked a lot of responses–let’s hear yours. Write a thorough critique of the article. What is her argument? Which points do you agree with, and which not? Is Paglia’s evidence solid?
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The readings for today highlight some of the ways that women are portrayed in lyrics and music videos in heavy metal and rap.
For this assignment, choose a song from one of these genres and write a thorough analysis of it. (You can also analyze the video, if there is one.) How are women portrayed in the song? Does the song illustrate (or counter) any of the common themes described in the readings? How do the music, lyrics and/or images work together?
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The album Free to Be You and Me was released by the Ms. Foundation for Women in 1972–a television special followed several years later–and it was intended to encourage gender neutrality.
We’ll be listening to some excerpts for class today, but for this assignment, you should listen to the whole album. Write a critical response. How do the songs challenge traditional gender roles or stereotypes? Do the messages of these songs hold up in 2013?
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Take one of the songs on the listening list for today, which all either support or caricature the women’s suffrage movement in some way. Write a detailed, 1-page analysis of the song. Your discussion should include both the lyrics and the music.
What is the form of the song? What message do the lyrics send, and how do they send it? How does the music support or alter the meaning of the lyrics? (Listen for the use of major or minor keys, the tempo, the way the performer sings, etc.)
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Write a critical assessment of Marian Wilson Kimber’s article. What is her thesis statement, and what are the major points she makes? What kind of evidence does she use to back up her argument? Do you agree with her conclusions?
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As Jennifer Post points out in her article, “Erasing the Boundaries between Public and Private in Women’s Performance Traditions,” historically, cultures have tended to separated music making into “men’s” and “women’s” spheres. Summarize how these two spheres differ–what associations do we have with each? How are they oppositional, and how do they overlap?
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In the packet of lyrics posted on Blackboard, you’ll find a selection of medieval lyrics. Some have been attributed to women, some to men, and some are anonymous, but I have blacked out all of this information. Looking only at the lyrics (and their English translations, of course), do you think it is possible to determine the gender of the author? Select the lyric you think is most likely to be by a woman and the one you think is most likely to be by a man, and write a description of each. Point out any words, phrases, or grammatical features that you think could possibly indicate the author’s gender. The articles listed under the reading for today describe what historians look for, and will give you some ideas.
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You will learn from today’s reading that in some African and Afro-Carribean cultures, women are restricted from playing certain drums, particularly in religious contexts, and that the drums themselves are thought of as gendered. The packet of readings for today includes four brief excerpts from articles about this topic by ethnomusicologists. Two are writing about their native cultures, and two are not.
Write out brief answers to the following questions, and be prepared to discuss your responses in class:
(1) What methods do these scholars use to investigate the relationship between gender and drumming, and do these methods ever depend on being a cultural insider or outsider?
(2) How does knowing the gender and nationality of each author shape your response to their arguments?
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Write out answers to the following questions, and be prepared to discuss your responses in class:
According to Sherrie Tucker, what is the “dominant swing discourse”? In other words, why are women swing musicians so often left out of jazz history?
What challenges does Tucker face in revising jazz history to include all-girl bands, and what strategies does she plan to use to overcome them?
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Attend one of the concerts announced on Blackboard or in class. Write a 1-page concert report. How did the music and/or the way it was performed relate to topics we have discussed in class?