Choose only one musical example by an entertainer, artist, or popular musician of your choice.( Will You Be There by Michael Jackson) Analyze the reception history of this piece, and then create an argument that discusses how the piece is viewed in our society today in comparison to how it was viewed at the time of its creation. It is important to choose a strong musical example here. Not finding many secondary sources for the song that you choose will more than likely lead to an argument that is unsound, uniformed, or forced. Try choosing a piece that has elicited a great deal of controversy. You can simply start by googling "100 most controversial songs." Analyze the discourse of your song chronologically. For example, if the song was released in 1960, then see if you can find some reviews from the 90s, etc. Examine how the views on the piece/work have changed over the course of time (review historiography powerpoint). Once you have chosen a piece and have found some evidence to support your stance, then use the evidence you find to create an informed response that supports your points.

The formatting should be exactly as follows: 12-point Times New Roman Font, double spacing, 1-inch margins on all sides, no extra spaces between paragraphs. The body of your paper must be at least 750 words. You must cite everything that you borrow, that is, you must have a bibliography page with the individual citations placed properly within the body of your paper. Use Chicago Manual of Style for this. Failure to do will result in at least a 25 point deduction.

Absolutely do NOT cite Wikipedia. It is a great place to start, but you need to cite the sources that are being used for Wikipedia, assuming they are credible.

You must have at least 5 sources for your paper.

Here are some points to consider:

1. You do not have to address all of these questions, but rather the ones that are the most pertinent to the song you choose to discuss. Questions you might want to address could be the following:

2. What are the controversies surrounding the piece? What is the piece about? If the piece has text, what is it discussing?

3. What sorts of social, political, cultural, or economic conditions surrounded the work's creation and how have those factors conditioned that same piece in our current time?

4. Make sure you can find some written examples to support your argument: For example, maybe a music critic has written about that song in way that supported his own opinions rather than the opinions of the general public. Perhaps he was promoting his own political agenda. Look up some reviews about the piece and cite them. Who said what about it and why? Use google and wiki as starting places to see what you find. Wiki will have a bibliographic reference list below that can point you to some great sources.

5. Evaluate your evidence and then offer your own opinion as why the song/piece is where it is today? Did the piece disappear? Is it alive and well? How do you know this?

6. How is the majority of society responding to it? Has its meaning changed? You might examine the functionality of the piece. For example, was it contemplative or concert music during its heyday, only to now serve as a football game fight song, mall music, or some other kind of background music?