Songs as Supplementary Texts in English (2u / 3u) (1 Viewer)

[Volarath]

Hi all,
It seems to me that songs are pretty much a godsend as supp. texts as they are 100x easier to handle than a book or even a movie. You read like 30 lines of lyrics compared to hundreds of pages of text...

However, im not entirely sure if they would work as well as a lengthier text. For instance, how does one talk about techniques in songs? Do I talk about the language techniques in the lyrics or about the musical techniques in the song itself?

 

[Ellie_Belly]

I asked my teachers about using songs as supp texts, and they told me that I'd have to address the musical techniques in addition the lyrics. So it might actually be more difficult than using a book/movie.
Why not use a poem instead? Same thing, except you don't have to analyse musical techniques, and it would also be a "safer" option, because you know what markers want from a poem.

Good luck

 

[omar273]

i wouldn't choose a song myself, unless your analysis is very, very sharp and sophosticated. In English (esp new HSC), impressions count. And unless your analysis is spectacular, a song as a ORM is generally looked down upon (mainly because techniques used in songs are very simplified - mainly to fit metre, rhythm and rhyme)

 

[ArtOfLosing]

My teachers suggested that it would be better to do a whole album instead of just one song. But I guess that only really works if you have a concept album as often songes on thesame album don't have much do do with eachother...... like any text, it'll workfor some topics but not others.

 

[glitterfairy]

I too loved songs in the HSC because they were shorter (concequently in uni, I love poems for the same reason ). I did end up picking a song for my RFTG essay but I think something to remember is that there is a difference between SONG (which looks at musical techniques) and SONG LYRICS (which deals with the lyrics themselves).

The former might be tricky, the latter will be fine so long as you DO look at some techniques! If the technique part is weak you had better make sure that your theme analysis is extremely good

 

[kami]

I'm going to be negative here, and say that I'd avoid doing a song. Simply because most of the contemporary pop music, which while nice, doesn't exactly distinguish itself much. Its also quite difficult to analyse the music of a song in any depth unless you have some background in that area. However, occasionally there are songs that are godsends, like 'I'm turning postmodern' or 'orientalism' that have alot of cultural value but are most certainly not mainstream.

So in summary, I guess what I'm saying is: Don't do a song because its easy and avoid doing music or lyrics unless you find something that has a lot of meaning in there for you to use.

 

[glitterfairy]

^ I guess it boils down to the individual, though.

We assume that people aren't going to be stupid and try to link Girlfriend Magazine or Harry Potter with Postmodernism. By the same token, we assume (or at least, I do) that people aren't going to be stupid and try to link Britney Spears or J hip pop with RFTG

 

[kami]

^ I guess it boils down to the individual, though.

We assume that people aren't going to be stupid and try to link Girlfriend Magazine or Harry Potter with Postmodernism. By the same token, we assume (or at least, I do) that people aren't going to be stupid and try to link Britney Spears or J hip pop with RFTG

I've actually met people who did that sort of thing though

And students don't neccesarily do it out of stupidity, sometimes the ease of access is just too tempting and they haven't always been given all the facts from their teacher to know its the wrong thing - and since alot of people ask those questions on here that they thought too obvious to ask in class I always make sure I don't make too many assumptions when responding.