INTRO
In popular music studies, we think about close listening as doing a close reading of music and its sounds. Here, we describe the sounds (vocals, vocal tones, instruments, rhythms, lyrics, etc.) in great detailand then tell a story about how the piece of music tells us something about a particular person or group or people in a specific historical moment in time. We then pair this with close readings of an artists physical presentation. We have practiced close readings through describing photos of musical artists and have practiced close listening’s through describing the sounds and expressions of racial, gender, and sexual identity in different songs.
THE SCENRAIO
You did such a great job with your Music Video Analysis that the GRAMMY Museum has invited you to contribute to a new exhibition: Music Videos of Yesterday and Today. In this exhibition, the museum pairs the 1980s music video that you wrote about in your Music Video TikTok Analysis (your historical object) and a music video or performance of your choosing from the 2000s (your contemporary object). What this means is that youve been asked to write two different music analyses: one for your historical object and another for your contemporary object. For your historical object, you can carry over what you wrote in your Music Video TikTok Analysis. For your contemporary object, you will write the analysis from scratch for the Final Paper. On top of that, youve been asked to write a new third section of analysis: one where you write about your contemporary object and your historical object togetherand then talk about what has (or has not) changed from the recent past (1980s) to today (2000s). All in all, you will perform a close reading and close listening of the sounds, visuals, and representations of race, gender, and sexuality in your historical object and contemporary object to tell a story the changes in life experiences for racial, gender, and/or sexual minorities between the recent past and today.
The expected breakdown of your paper is as such:
1) Introduction to paper: .5 pages
2) 1980s music video analysis: 2 pages
3) 2000s music video or performance analysis: 2 pages
4) Comparison of two videos to say what has/hasn’t changed –> conclusion: 1.5 pages
