The theme of this essay is the moral content of the music of this era, from ca. 1955 (the time of the emergence
of rock and roll) until ca. 1970. The principal question is whether this music is a positive moral force, and
negative moral force, or a combination, that may vary from style to style and artist to artist. You need to
consider not only the music and lyrics themselves, but also the onstage and offstage behavior of the artists and
the music industry.
To assist you in pondering this theme, you need to conduct an interview with someone who experienced the
music and the era firsthand, someone who remembers when the music first appeared. The "gold standard"
would be a person who was born in the 1940's (perhaps even earlier) and clearly recalls all the music and the
times. At minimum, you need to interview someone born no later than 1958, who has some recollection of The
Beatles coming to the US and appearing on television for the first time.
An interview subject who completely objects to popular music and thinks it's all immoral -- and almost certainly
knows little or none of it -- is not a good choice. Some who hates popular music -- and almost certainly knows
little or none of it -- is also not a good choice. A person who is only familiar with or only likes some of the music
is not necessarily a bad choice. Someone who grew up outside of North America and Western Europe and
only knew the music (or some of it) from afar may often be a good choice. I note this because many
international students (particularly from Asia) take this course and have had very interesting interviews with
relatives or friends from their home countries.
http://www.azlyrics.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/index.html
Sample Solution