music cultures of the world position paper

POSITION PAPER #2
Music 227

Instructions

For your second position paper, please to compose a response to one of the prompts below, which tie together some of the themes and some of the readings from the last few weeks of class. This essay should be between 750-1000 words. Papers should be double-spaced, in Times New Roman 12 point font. When quoting from the readings, please indicate the last name of the author and the page number next to the quote—no other documentation is required. Example: “In his article, Bull looks at how listeners “sonically privatize space” through the use of their iPods.” (Bull, 527) 

Prompt

Music and Transformation

A theme that has run through the course material for the last several weeks is the theme of music and transformation. In Pieslak’s chapter from Sound Targets, the author looks at how American soldiers in Iraq use metal and rap music to psychologically transform themselves in the midst of military conflict—this same music is used to irritate and antagonize detainees and facilitate interrogation and intimidation. In Michael Bull’s piece about iPod culture, the author demonstrates how the privatized nature of listening through the iPod technology helps listeners transform the space around them (often the city, in his article) and create personal “audiotopias.” In your paper, develop an original argument that will connect these different instances of musical transformation. You might want to draw a comparison or distinction. You could perhaps connect the two readings via some common theme, such as technology, or the idea of individualism, power, timbre, volume….You will want to begin by brainstorming connections between the two articles and then settle on an original position, which you will then support/explore using specific examples from the texts. 

Evaluation criteria

Besides your adherence to the length and format requirements, your paper will be graded based on. 1) Your understanding of the article’s content and the author’s argument. 2) Your application of this understanding to the material specified (video/music). 3) The clarity of your writing and the presentation of your argument.

Please note well that the most important aspect of a position paper is its position (in other words, your paper needs to have an argument/thesis).