WRD

Major Assignment 2: Academic Review and Reflection

Overall description

There are two parts to this assignment: Part A and B. Both parts involve an understanding and engagement with the two major readings for this unit: Selections from Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk about Love: A Journey to the End of Taste and Amy Gentry’s Boys for Pele. In Part A, you will write a relatively formal academic review of the selections from Wilson’s and Gentry’s books that deal with taste and aesthetic judgement. In Part B, you will write a reflection in which you re-consider a specific song that you deemed “bad” by engaging with Wilson’s/Gentry’s ideas—and try to re-evaluate your own standards or taste and criteria for judgement.

Genre, purpose, and audience

In terms of genre, think of Wilson’s and Gentry’s text as models: it’s a balance between the formal (when they represent the ideas of others or complex concepts) and the personal (when they discuss and reconsider their own taste, judgments, and opinions about music).

The purpose of both Part A and B is to show your understanding of Wilson’s and Gentry’s ideas and arguments about taste and aesthetic judgment by summarizing them insightfully and responsibly, analyzing their ideas persuasively in relation to each other, and engaging and applying their ideas effectively to your own taste and aesthetic judgments.

In terms of audience, again, think of the audience for Wilson’s and Gentry’s text: it’s not exactly written for the general public, but it’s also not written for academics: it’s written for fans of music, as well as experts (professional or amateur) of that band/artist. Because both Wilson and Gentry discuss aesthetic theories, however, there’s an academic precision to their discussion that distinguishes their work (and yours as well) from the regular album review—which is more applicable to Part A of this assignment than Part B.

Part A: Academic Review of Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk about Love: A Journey to the End of Taste and Amy Gentry’s Boys for Pele

· Directions: In your 3-page (double spaced, normal size font, normal margins) academic review, you will summarize and analyze the selections from Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk about Love and Amy Gentry’s Boys for Pele in which they discuss, critique, and apply standards of taste to their specific examples of pop music. You should explain each author’s ideas in your own words; you should quote sparingly (only if you’re analyzing something specific and important in their texts); and you should analyze their ideas in relation to each other as well as the larger discussion of taste and beauty.

· Requirements

· In your 3 pp. academic review, you need to include the following

· an introduction in which you overview common ground as well as significant departures in the ways Wilson and Gentry explore theories of taste and beauty (and how they apply to music). Your thesis should address each author’s contribution to a discussion about taste and beauty in music.

· body paragraphs which summarize and analyze how each of the authors respond to prevailing standards/theories of taste and aesthetic judgments on what’s good or bad in art: how they draw, depart, and challenge or critique them. Your paragraphs should also explain and analyze how they interpret aesthetic concepts to their own specific musical examples (Celine Dion’s Let’s talk about Love for Wilson, and Tori Amos’s Boys for Pele for Amy Gentry

· If you’re summarizing their ideas, you should try not to quote. However, if you’re analyzing their ideas in relation to each other or the larger discussion, it’s okay to quote (but quote only as much as necessary—it should not take up more than 3 lines of your text).

· While it’s okay if you primarily summarize one author’s ideas in one paragraph, and the other author’s ideas in another, you should also find key moments to analyze their own arguments about taste and beauty in relation to each other (especially since Gentry’s book is a response to Wilson’s), even if you just use some opening and closing sentences of paragraphs (transitions) to compare the two author’s ideas or otherwise analyze them in relation to each other.

· Your body paragraphs should build upon each other to address this key question: how and why does a critical engagement with standards of taste and beauty compel Wilson and Gentry to change their initial judgment of their music examples (Celine Dion’s and Tori Amos’s music, respectively)?

· Due date for draft of Part A:

· If you’re in the Tues/Thurs class: Thurs., 2/20 before class under “Discussions” on D2L

· If you’re in the Mon/Wed class: Wed., 2/26 before class under “Discussions” on D2L

Part B: Reflection, using ideas from Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk about Love and Amy Gentry’s Boys for Pele

· Directions: In this reflection, you will select a song that you consider to be “bad.” It could be a song you’ve always disliked, or a song that you used to like but now consider “bad,” OR a song that you’re kind of ashamed to admit that you like because you suspect others consider it “bad.” In your reflection you will reconsider this song by engaging with Wilson’s and/or Gentry’s ideas about why songs are categorized as “good” or “bad.” As Gentry and Wilson do in their own books, in your reflection you will interrogate why you considered the song bad, incorporate Gentry’s or Wilson’s ideas to help you re-consider whether you still think the song is “bad,” re-evaluate your criteria/standards of taste/judgement in music, and make a final determination whether you still think the song is “bad” and explore why.

· Requirements:

· In your 2-page reflection you need to have the following

· You must incorporate Gentry and/or Wilson’s ideas at least twice. You can incorporate their ideas by summarizing (concisely), quoting, or paraphrasing.

· You need to be sure that you’re incorporating Gentry or Wilson’s ideas—NOT THE VARIOUS PEOPLE THEY THEMSELVES CITE.

· For example, if you want to discuss the way Wilson thinks through Bourdieu’s ideas of distinction or cultural capital, you have to focus on the way Wilson responds to Bourdieu (not just cite Wilson’s explanation of Bourdieu). Academics NEVER cite indirectly (quote from their sources); they would find the original source and cite it.

· If you’re quoting, you’ll be using MLA in-text citation—see the OWL at Purdue website for more details

· You need to pick a real song that you genuinely considered to be “bad.” And it can’t be a song that Wilson or Gentry discusses (it can’t be from the albums, Let’s Talk about Love or Boys for Pele).

· Due date for draft of Part B:

· If you’re in the Tues/Thurs. class: Thurs., 2/27 before class under “Discussions” on D2L

· If you’re in the Mon/Wed class: Wed., 3/4 before class under “Discussions” on D2L

Final versions of Part A and Part B due: Thurs., 3/5 before class under “Assignments” on D2L (if you’re in the Tues/Thurs class); Wed., 3/

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1 before class under “Assignments” on D2L (if you’re in the Mon/Wed class]

Rubric

Part A: Academic Review: 35 points

· focused and compelling introduction: 5

· well explained academic summaries of each author’s text: 20

· insightful analysis of each author’s ideas in comparison to each other and/or the larger discussion on taste in the body paragraphs : 5

· overall clarity and correctness: 5

Part B: Reflection: 15 points

· sharpness of insight and analysis of own aesthetic standards/taste in music: 5

· thoughtful incorporation of sources (Gentry and/or Wilson): 5

· overall clarity and flow of thought within and between paragraphs: 5

Total possible points: 50

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