Music



The Existential Dance **How do modern day musicians/artists reflect their own existential conflicts within the lyrics of their songs? **

So far in the existential unit, we have read and analyzed a number of popular existential essays, short stories, and poems. Some of these works are over 2000 years old. In an effort to emphasize that mankind continues to seek purpose and ask the ‘big questions’ regarding life, fate, and overall significance in today’s modern world, students will look into their own genre of music to find a song that echoes some of the questions and concerns that unfortunately, “flesh is heir to” (Hamlet).

1. Find a song that really resonates an idea you respect with regards to existentialism. 2. Take time to really listen to the song and interpret its meaning. Often, this task is difficult because song writers rarely share their purpose for writing music, especially when the lyrics are so personal, but this is where you will use your best critical thinking skills and inference abilities to draw your conclusion as to the position this artist takes on life. 3. Find specific song lyrics that will support your conclusion. 4. Your 'conclusion' becomes the thesis of your paper. Many people can argue with what you concluded about these song lyrics so your paper must provide a persuasive argument that will assure all audiences that your thesis is indeed the best way to interpret this song. 5. Because there are many ideas that you want to incorporate into this paper AND because the length of this paper is limited, you must heavily plan through an outline. You will have to choose your BEST arguments, limit wordiness, eliminate repitition, and most importantly, prove your thesis in only one page. This outline is your ticket to hand in this paper. Without an outline, your paper will not be graded. There is no late outline. There is no late paper.

Requirements: 1-2 page (end on second page but do not exceed to page three), TYPED OUTLINE, 12 font, double spaced, Times New Roman

Rubric: Structure: 50 Clear Thesis (last sentence in intro)*without a thesis your paper is a zero* Major Topic Sentence (links to thesis)

Support: 30 Minimum Three Song Lyrics Interpretation of each song lyric Analysis of each song lyric Transitions between major ideas

Conclusion (confident, reflective): 10

Overall Writing Style Strength: 10 Sentence Variety Word Choice Blending Ability Comma Control

Seek Up Dave Mathews and Tim Reynolds

Assignment: