1. Analysis of two movies: You must watch at least two movies from the list provided above and turn in two four-page analysis (at least 1000 words each). Papers are due on Tuesday, May 3. You may turn in your papers at any point during the semester in the form of a draft. Remember, a discussion will follow as a class workshop and questions will be addressed about the chosen movies, so the assignment can only be considered completed whether the papers are returned, and the movies have been watched. DVDs are held at the library. In your critical study of the movie, you are required to place the music in the context of the other diverse aspects of the film (performance, politics, theatricality, aesthetics, scenography), by providing a descriiption of the music as evidence of the contents provided and explored in the movie: where the genre, style or performance of the music represents a larger argument about the social manifestation as represented in the movie. On Friday, April 01 a workshop will be devoted to the discussion of possible issues which might arise from the study of the movies and prepare the drafting of the paper.
As your written analysis of the movies must contain an overall argument, some possible areas of discussion for your paper might include the contextualization of the reception of music genre and style as expression of topics as gender or race politics, ethics, social concept, censorship and inequalities. You MUST define all musical aspects of the genre you are analyzing, including instruments used, lyrics (in most of the works performed), timbre, stylistic forms, pitch range, vocal register, dynamics, rhythms, tempos, melodies, harmonies, and sound space. Effective argumentations will be the ones focusing on finding the relevant consistency between music and the political. You MUST discuss at least one song or musical composition of your choice within the movie in the context of your paper to serve as evidence of your overall analysis (do not just describe or list the elements—i.e., ask yourself why certain elements are found in a particular song and then answer what meaning do the elements have in your overall analysis of the music and the movie). In other words, the music is the evidence for your argument. The online music database Oxford Music Online MUST be used as a source in your paper to define the genre and listed in a bibliography in the correct format:
Music & Politics
How to define this statement?
Topics
•Weaponization of Music
•Music as instrument of propaganda
•Writings about music (Criticism and Press) as propaganda tool
•Protest Music and Music as Instrument of Resistance
•Anti-War and anti-Establishment forms of expression
•Music as Carrier of Political and Social Content
•Music and Counterculture
•Music, Gender and Race Equality
•Music as expression of Social Awareness and Success
•Music as Tool of Social Disruption
•Music as Educational Tool
Music in the context of the other diverse aspects of the movie (Intertextuality and Semantic Fields)
•Performance, Theatricality, Aesthetics, Scenography, Plot and Narrative
•Musical Genre (the song, the tunes or the musical narrative), musical style, musical form or forms
•Connection between lyrics (or text) music and the moving image: Structure and Layout
•Soundtrack as Self-Sustaining Work
•Music and Dance. Music and the Animation Narrative
•How music is interconnected with the images and how it does depict them: Timbre and pitch range, intervals and vocal register, dynamics, rhythms, tempos and meter, melodies and harmonies, sonic frameworks and aural spaces
•Music as Parody
•Music as Semiotic Import (Semantics: Signifiers and Meaning)
The movie is called Fame by Alan Parker (1980) and here’s the link to watch the movie for free:
Link to the Director’s website where he explains the movie making process:
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