Capstone courses require a lengthy research essay. We’ll be doing that here as well, although how long you want it to be is up to you, depending on what grade you want from the course. As a reminder, if you’re a history major, you must earn a “C” or higher for the course to count toward your major and a history seminar is required for graduation. The Song History is the real meat of the course. For this assignment, you will pick out ONE SONG from the course’s Song List, which is also posted under the “Syllabus” tab. Then, you will conduct research in primary and secondary sources, as well as online, to contextualize the song, who wrote and performed it, what other versions may have been put out, and what the song’s history conveys about the racial, social, economic, and political context of the South and nation at the time. 3 The major questions orienting your Song History should be as follows. For some questions you’ll have more answers than others. But in general, your Song History should strive to find out answers to each. – When was this song first produced? Who wrote it and why? What was Mississippi like at the time of the song’s crafting? Remember that a songwriter isn’t necessarily the song’s primary performer. So, who sang various versions of the song? Any sense of why they sang it? – What does the song seem to be conveying about life in “Mississippi,” or by extension, the broader South? What’s the broader local, regional, and national context into which the song dropped? – Is the song romantic or nostalgic about the “Mississippi” it presents via its lyrics or overall “feel”? Is it defensive about “Mississippi”? Is it critical? Is it just telling a story about “Mississippi” or is trying to do something else? – What are the lyrics trying to say about “Mississippi”? Or the music and instrumentation itself? What lyrical or musical traditions or genres does this song seem to fit into or advance? Is it experimental in any way, expanding the boundaries of a “genre” (blues, country, rock n’ roll, etc.) or is simply affirming those boundaries or offering more of the same? Why? – How did race and gender matter in the song? Did it cross racial boundaries or affirm them? Did it offer relatively conventional visions of gender or challenge them? What exactly was the racial and gendered context into which the song dropped? – How did this song do as a business venture? In other words, did it sell a lot of copies or, in industry speak, “move the needle” and “push units”? What record companies or distribution platforms (radio, television, record shops, etc.) promoted the song – or was it banned? If banned, why? How was it marketed? How was it sold? – Any international appeal to the song? If so, where and why? Political appeal or impact? – What photos would you use to accompany your research? Any album covers? Any pictures of the artist(s)? How was the song presented in a visual sense? – Are there any live performances of the song available? What do they convey about its historical and social context? What might viewers in the audience (whether a live audience in a venue or television studio, or an audience watching at home) have thought about the performance? – Any other questions you come across as you researched the song? Drafts: Obviously, I can’t expect you to have a fully completed draft done by 1/3 or 2/3 of the way through the term. Hence, look at the page number requirements for each grade level and divide by 1/3 or 2/3 depending on what you want to that point. You’ll turn that portion of your Song History on the prescribed due dates and then add more pages over the course of the term, as you conduct more research. Formatting: To keep everything fair, your history must be in 12-Point Times New Roman font, 1’’ margins. Grammar and style will not be stressed (this is not a writing course). But your essay must unfold in intelligible and concise English. Review the plagiarism guide in the syllabus before turning anything in. Oh, and please put page numbers on your Song History. Citation: The Mini-History must be well-cited, using evidence from course lectures, readings, songs, PowerPoints, books, and/or other in-class materials. The more, the better, with the best mini-history’s often using a citation every other sentence or so. During one of our initial class sessions, we will go through proper citation for the field of history. This can be a needlessly complicated subject, so we’ll keep it to the basics. I’ll be using this marvelous Citation Guide as our guide: Always refer back to it if you have any questions about how to cite a source, or feel free to ask me. I won’t be a major stickler for every period and comma. I will want to see that you know where your findings are coming from and you know how to convey your sources in a basic way. I will send my research for the project when a writer is assigned. They are welcome to look up things about the song as well.
