choose a song and analyze two different versions.

1 Double-Spaced Page (no more than 2)
A textual analysis aims to understand how a particular act of writing or speaking influences a particular audience at a particular time. The purpose, audience, genre, context, and inferred meaning of a text all come together to create its rhetorical situation. This also includes how the text is presented: the form, font, type of media used, who has access to it, how it’s marketed, how many copies were sold, etc.
Often, presenting a text in two different ways can have a drastic impact on its meaning and impact. We see this often in music. Songs—like essays, images, advertisements, etc.—can be persuasive arguments. The message we perceive is created not only by the lyrics, but the rhetorical situation: genre, artist, audience, cultural context, instruments, mood, pace, video, packaging, voice of the singer, etc.
For this assignment, I want you to choose a song and analyze two different versions.
Your analysis should be 1-2 paragraphs in which you analyze the song’s argument and how it changes (if at all) from version to version. You consider some or all of the following:
What’s happening in each song? What are some of the themes? Is there a plot? Does the song tell a story or convey a narrative? What is it?
How does the presentation of each song differ? Who is singing? What does their voice sound like? What instruments are being used? What tone or mood do these things create? Are there technological aspects in the song? What are they? What effects do they have?
Does the artist’s purpose change from song to song?
Does the cultural context change?
Does the genre and intended audience change?
Do these changes affect the meaning or connotation of the text?
Do particular words take on a different meaning to you?
Does the song’s overall meaning/message, change from version to version? How and why?
Do not simply list out the answers to these questions! Assimilate them into a cogent piece of writing. An introduction and conclusion are not required, but you should have a clearly stated thesis and main points. Your essay should be typed and include your name, the instructor’s name, class, and date in the upper left-hand corner.

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