Reference no: EM132179959

Rhythms of History

Song is one of the most ancient methods of recording the past. Even civilizations without a written language have used song as a means of preserving their heritage. In the modern era, we often think of music as nothing more than a form of entertainment, but it can still provide important insights into society.

Songs can memorialize an actual event, the way Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" mournfully recounts a tragic maritime accident; shine a light on an abhorrent social evil, the way Billie Holliday's "Strange Fruit" vilified the practice of lynching; or they can capture the mood and spirit of a time, the way Nena's "99 Red Balloons" reflects the anxieties of living during the Cold War.

And unlike a dry, textbook recounting of events, songs connect with us emotionally, allowing clever musicians to communicate feelings, not just facts.

Here's the scenario: The year is 3520. You are a historian specializing in the post-Civil War history of the United States, an ancient civilization which is shrouded in mystery.

While the United States was once the most thoroughly documented and analyzed civilization in humanity's past, virtually all of that knowledge has been lost due to the disintegration of paper documents and the Reamde computer virus in the Second Millennium, which resulted in the destruction of countless yottabytes of data.

Fortunately, though, not everything was lost. From time to time, archaeologists unearth clues to the society that was. One such recently discovered clue is a song from your specialty period.

Your job now is to analyze that artifact and produce a report detailing your findings for an upcoming cultural history of the United States - the first such book to be produced in more than a thousand years.

Your submission should be between1000 and 1500 words long - this means TEXT, not counting any headers, titles, footnotes, etc. (For this exercise, you are not required to use any outside sources, so footnotes/bibliographies are not necessary). In addition to your analysis, you must also include the lyrics to your song - you can compile them yourself or simply access them from a website like lyrics.com (you should note the source at the bottom of your lyrics page). Song choice is entirely up to you, but the song must have been released before 2000.

Any genre of music is fair game. You may even choose a song that contains profanity or obscenity, provided you address that in your analysis (you might also consider that slang usage can change radically over time).

As historians, we are frequently called upon to analyze all manner of primary documents: speeches, letters, diaries, songs, etc. The purpose of this assignment is to encourage you to think like a historian. In other words, ask yourself what you can learn from this artifact about the society that produced it.

Is it a political statement? A cultural manifesto? A commentary on race relations?Something else entirely?Even if the song you choose is complete popcorn crap, thatcan still tell you a lot about the society that produced it.

Keep in mind that you know very little about this society in this exercise. In fact, all you really know for certain are the major events in American history - the sort of things that might appear in the chronologies at the end of each chapter in your text. What you're trying to discern from your analysis are insights into the people who lived in America: What were their hopes and dreams? What did they believe in?

What did they do for fun? What were the issues/problems that troubled them? How did they treat one another?

Be creative, but be careful not to over-speculate. For example, in this exercise you wouldn't have any way to know how popular a song was or whether it was critically acclaimed; whether it was performed in front of sold-out arenas or sung as a bedtime lullaby.

The main purpose of this exercise is to analyze a primary source like a historian, but you should also consider the limitations of these sources as well.