Think of at least three research questions relating to the music culture that you want to explore. Reflect on these questions.
To guide your reflections on these questions, compile source information on your subject through library and Internet research, documenting three of the best library sources (these may be in the form of eBooks and articles from the UMGC Library) and three of the best web-based sources. Visit the "Is My Source Credible?" page provided by the UMGC Library and the Research Guide for Music (including links to Open Access Music Journals) for assistance in locating reliable, credible sources.
After compiling your list of six sources and reflecting on each of the three research questions, write 2-3 paragraphs in response to each question. Locate and include images, listening examples, or videos to illustrate your reflections.
Here is a partial sample assignment submitted by a former MUSC 210 student that earned full points. It contains 2 out of 3 research questions (including listening examples) with reflections and the bibliography. Images were also included, though they do not appear below.
THE TOPIC IS SOUL MUSIC BUT THIS IS JUST A SAMPLE
1) What is the history of soul music?
Soul music is special as it is a mixture and merging of various different kinds of music from before its time, and had an incredible outcome of popularity and influence. Coming from the substyles of the 1950s and 60s, soul music was like the birth from various different kinds of music from before its time, such as gospel, jazz and the blues. (Nero)
The word soul already holds much importance to the genre as it was first spread through music, and musicians and critics liked to use the word as it was to name its big character as a movement within jazz and revolutionized what the new mainstream music would become. Baraka claims that the word soul is important as soul music is "an ingredient so essential to African American music that its absence would cause a knowledgeable listener to question the authenticity (as African American music) of what they are hearing." (Rudinow)
Video: "Ray Charles and the Birth of Soul" documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3AFhSsRyyk.
Sample Solution