PURPOSE: The purpose of this assignment is to use content analysis to critically analyze how one social
issue/problem is discussed and represented in popular culture through music lyrics.
BACKGROUND: There are many agents of popular culture through which the messages, themes, and symbols
of popular culture are produced and consumed. Media is a key agent of popular culture, and within it music is
one mode for the production and consumption of popular culture. The music of the 1960s marked a key period
of transition in the United States as themes of social problems and dissidence started to fill the radio waves.
This assignment will allow you to explore one social issue or problem in music today.
1) Choose ONE social issue or social problem (i.e. drugs, the environment, war, teenage pregnancy, hate
crimes, etc.).
2) Find at least 5 songs with lyrics that address your chosen social issue/problem. You will need to cite these
songs using proper APA formatting (see below).
3) Analyze the songs for similarities and differences in how they address the social issue/problem
look for themes within and among the songs (i.e. songs about the war that talk about âending the warâ
consider the year the songs were copyrighted
consider the genre the song fits in
is the song directed at a particular audience? (think socio-demographic characteristics: age, race/ethnicity,
gender, socio-economic status (SES), and sexuality)
what type of vocabulary, words, grammar, euphemisms, vernacular is used for the lyrics?
Consider the actual production of the song as well: tempo, emotion, male/female singer, individual singer/band,
etc.
4) Find at least TWO sources that address music AND your social problem (i.e. the sources are providing
similar analysis or commentary on how your social problem is addressed through music). These may be
popular sources (i.e. magazine articles or websites), but Wikipedia is NOT acceptable.
5) Find at least ONE peer-reviewed article that discusses your social issue problem and how it is portrayed by
the media (ideally this would be focused on your social issue and problem, but this may be difficult to find â so
an article on TV, radio, the internet, movies are OK).
Sample Solution
Tolkien’s Archetypal Hero(s) When J.R.R Tolkien distributed the principal book in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, in 1954 he kicked things off and made ready for dream right to the twenty-first century – a century that despite everything holds Tolkien’s chips away at a great platform that remains far or more those in his shadow. The intricacy of Tolkien’s working standards out a nitty gritty diagram of the whole legend’s journey through what is classified “Center Earth”. The pith of Tolkien’s set of three can be found in this memorial: Three rings for the Elven-rulers under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-rulers in their lobbies of stone Nine for Mortal Men bound to bite the dust, One for the Dark Lord on his dim seat, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie, One Ring to lead them each of the, One Ring to discover them, One Ring to present to them all and stuck the haziness tough situation Them In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. In the prequel to the set of three, The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins finds the “ring to tie them.” He took this ring from Smeagol who has conveyed the ring for a long time; at the same time, the dull intensity of the ring has changed him from a hobbit into an animal of the dim who can’t exposed the light. It is the “dim force” which is associated with Gollum that makes him a vital character all through the entire set of three. In the consummation of The Hobbit, Bilbo passes the ring onto his beneficiary, Frodo. Toward the start of The Fellowship of the Rings, the main book in the set of three, Frodo withdraws, joined by his companions: leaving on the excursion to demolish the ring by projecting it into the Crack of Doom in the place where there is Mordor as he guaranteed Bilbo. The second 50% of this book, the entirety of The Two Towers, the subsequent book, and the main portion of the last book, Return of the King, are the subtleties of sub missions that should be defeated to get to Mordor. In the peak of the set of three the ring is wrecked, liberating Frodo and his surviv…>
Tolkien’s Archetypal Hero(s) When J.R.R Tolkien distributed the principal book in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, in 1954 he kicked things off and made ready for dream right to the twenty-first century – a century that despite everything holds Tolkien’s chips away at a great platform that remains far or more those in his shadow. The intricacy of Tolkien’s working standards out a nitty gritty diagram of the whole legend’s journey through what is classified “Center Earth”. The pith of Tolkien’s set of three can be found in this memorial: Three rings for the Elven-rulers under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-rulers in their lobbies of stone Nine for Mortal Men bound to bite the dust, One for the Dark Lord on his dim seat, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie, One Ring to lead them each of the, One Ring to discover them, One Ring to present to them all and stuck the haziness tough situation Them In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. In the prequel to the set of three, The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins finds the “ring to tie them.” He took this ring from Smeagol who has conveyed the ring for a long time; at the same time, the dull intensity of the ring has changed him from a hobbit into an animal of the dim who can’t exposed the light. It is the “dim force” which is associated with Gollum that makes him a vital character all through the entire set of three. In the consummation of The Hobbit, Bilbo passes the ring onto his beneficiary, Frodo. Toward the start of The Fellowship of the Rings, the main book in the set of three, Frodo withdraws, joined by his companions: leaving on the excursion to demolish the ring by projecting it into the Crack of Doom in the place where there is Mordor as he guaranteed Bilbo. The second 50% of this book, the entirety of The Two Towers, the subsequent book, and the main portion of the last book, Return of the King, are the subtleties of sub missions that should be defeated to get to Mordor. In the peak of the set of three the ring is wrecked, liberating Frodo and his surviv…>
