Learning Goal: I’m working on a music theory writing question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.
This week, you have a choice between two different WA prompts, one that goes further into the close listening you have practiced on the prior two WAs, or another option that builds on this week’s lectures and readings on IP and copyright law. Please choose only one of these WA prompts to complete and submit! (Do not submit both.)
Option 1: Close listening practice
This assignment is a kind of experiment: You will listen and reflect on musical examples based on the sounds alone, without any information about the traditions or context. To start, review the tracks on this Spotify “WA3 playlist.” (Links to an external site.) Pick 2 tracks from the playlist and listen carefully to each several times. Some tracks will include singing in languages you cannot understand, but again, as part of this experiment, you can ignore the words’ meaning and should focus your attention on the sounds alone.
After listening carefully to both tracks several times, write a response of roughly 2 paragraphs, addressing these questions:
Summarize the features of each track’s sounds that especially stand out to you. You can discuss any aspect of the music you consider important, including rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, the way the music changes over time, or other qualities. But as in the past two assignments, rather than only describing your overall feeling or emotion, you should also connect your response to specific sounds and details that you notice through careful listening.
In addition, please compare the 2 tracks you selected: In what ways are those details in their sounds similar, and in what ways are they different?
You can address each question above in its own paragraph, or write a response that is organized in any other way, as long as it is roughly 2 paragraphs and addresses all of the questions.
Grading Criteria for Option 1To earn a grade of Complete, your response must meet the following criteria:
You address the questions listed above, in a way that reflects careful listening.
It does not contain significant grammar or spelling errors, and reflects time spent revising your writing. If it has extensive grammar problems and the meanings of some statements are not clear, the TA will ask you to revise it.
It follows the basics of the instructions above, i.e. it discusses 2 songs/pieces of music from the Spotify list linked above, and is roughly 2 paragraphs long.
Option 2: Music and intellectual property laws
This assignment asks you to summarize some of the ideas in this weeks assigned materials, and then to respond with your own opinion on a related question. Please write a response of roughly two paragraphs that reflects careful thought and attention to the questions below as well as the related readings/videos. Make sure that most of your response is in your own words, with a minimum of quotes from other sources. In any cases where you do use other sources, be sure to follow proper citation practices and academic integrity guidelines as summarized in this class announcement. Also, avoid directly quoting from instructor lecture slideshows.
First paragraph: What does Joanna Demers mean (p. 7) by “the conflation of transformative appropriation… with plagiarism… and music piracy,” and why is she concerned with the way this conflation often takes place in the application of copyright law? How does her argument on this topic relate to Lawrence Lessig’s main arguments in his lecture “Laws that choke creativity”?
Second paragraph: The Demers book and the Lessig presentation are both from around 15 years ago. Do you think that the problems they discuss and the framework of analysis they provide for dealing with those problems are relevant today? Why or why not? In responding, you may wish to draw on examples from your own experience as a consumer of popular music and media.
Grading Criteria for Option 2To earn a grade of Complete, your response must meet the following criteria:
You address both question groups listed above, in a way that reflects careful reflection and engagement with the assigned materials.
It does not contain significant grammar or spelling errors, and reflects time spent revising your writing. If it has extensive grammar problems and the meanings of some statements are not clear, the TA will ask you to revise it.
It follows the basics of the instructions above, i.e. it addresses both questions and is roughly 2 paragraphs long.
FYI: assigned movie link–
and Video: “Laws that choke creativity” by Lawrence Lessig.
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