Album Analysis Essay (Draft) (5%)
In this essay, you will write 1000-1250 words about country music album of your choice. Your purpose is to introduce the album to readers who may not have heard of it before and to analyze it using the concepts that are introduced in Rhetorical Analysis, Chapter 2. Since your final essay will be posted under the “Music” tab on the Country Music Project‘s website, you will need to talk about these concepts (kairos, rhetorical situation) in an audience-friendly way.
The first draft you will upload to Canvas. The final draft you will post directly to the Country Music Project site by the date indicated on the calendar.
Selecting an album: You are welcome to analyze any album you like, so long as it has not already been claimed by another student.
- Make sure the album hasn’t already been analyzed by another student.
- Choose an album you are interested in and won’t mind spending a lot of time with. Plan to listen to it several times. The song you analyze in your next paper must appear on this same album.
- It will probably be easiest to analyze a studio album by a single musician (i.e., Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music by Ray Charles). However, you are also welcome to analyze live albums, movie soundtracks, and notable “greatest hits” compilations. Choose an album that you consider a significant country music achievement.
- Note that “long play” (LP) albums have existed only since 1948. (Before this point, discs could hold no more than five minutes of music on each side.) If you are interested in writing about an artist who recorded before 1948, you will need to analyze either the original single, which will include just two tracks, or a later compilation of that artist’s work.
Writing the analysis: Your goal is to introduce the album by describing its kairos (timing) and rhetorical situation. Essentially, you are explaining what circumstances in history, technology, the artist’s life, etc. made this album possible at the time that it was released. You also explaining the “situation” that it responds to and creates by identifying its occasion, exigence, context, forum, genre, kairos, speaker (rhetor), and audience. Remember that you will need to explore these concepts without using the formal rhetorical vocabulary.
If you have selected an older album, you are also welcome to explain the reputation it has developed since its release. If you were writing about Charles’s Modern Sounds, for example, you might point out that the album was initially praised for making country music look high-class, but now it is remembered as an example of the contributions of African Americans to country music.
The album analysis paper is worth 15% of your course grade: 5% for the draft and 10% for the final submission. Each version of the essay will be evaluated for Demonstrating Rhetorical Knowledge, Style and Accessibility of Language, Research and Documentation, Organization, and Format, Neatness, and Proofreading. See the rubric (on Canvas) for more information.
Album Analysis Essay (Final) (10%)
Before submitting your final essay, you will meet with Dusty to discuss your score on the draft and his recommendations for revision. Note that students are expected to make substantial changes to their essays, and that the rubric may be applied more strictly to final submissions.
In addition to revising your essay, you will prepare it for publication on the Country Music Project‘s website. Specifically, you will need to:
- Transfer the text of your essay to the Country Music Project site. Make sure that your paragraphs are spaced appropriately and that your formatting (italics, etc.) remains intact. Follow this example.
- Add a picture of the album to the first line of the essay (as a thumbnail, left-aligned). You are welcome, but not required, to include additional high-quality photos.
- Add hyperlinks. The first time you reference an album’s title, link it to the appropriate AllMusic review. If you refer to a concept that is addressed elsewhere on the Country Music Project site (for example, under the “Country Music History” tab), include a link.
Be sure to “Publish” your essay before the due date so that Dusty can grade it.