Humanities Homework Help

The assignment uses an annotated playlist called “We Insist: A Century Of Black Music Against State Violence,” created by a group of music scholars and critics. There is a webpage with a brief introduction and a paragraph of description for each song (Links to an external site.), and you can hear the music tracks through a playlist available on either Spotify (Links to an external site.) and Apple Music (Links to an external site.).

Instructions

1. Read the brief introduction (3 paragraphs) at the top of the webpage. (Links to an external site.)

2. The playlist has a total of 50 songs, divided into 4 different groups by chronology. You’ll be using 3 songs for this assignment but you must pick 1 song from each of the first three sections. In other words: Pick 1 song from the first section (“1927–1963: Witness & Resistance”), pick 1 song from the second section (“1967–1985: Black Power”), and pick 1 song from the 3rd section (“1985–2012: Policing & Protest”).

3. Listen carefully to all 3 songs, taking notes on what you notice. Read the paragraph on the webpage about each song. Optionally, you can also seek out any other information you would like to know about the song or artist, or look up lyrics online.

3. After you’ve spent some time with each song, write a paragraph about each song, answering these questions for each one:

• What is your overall reaction to the song? What feelings or thoughts do you have when listening carefully to it? (The point is to answer these questions, not just to state whether or not you like it.)
• How do you think the sounds in the song contribute to the effects it has on you? As in some past discussions, you must say something about the actual sounds in the song, not only the lyrics. There are many possible sounds and musical qualities that you might choose to discuss, such as timbre of voices or instruments, the song’s rhythms, how it changes over time or any other qualities you notice. We realize it is challenging to describe music, but as in past assignments, you should do your best to share comments that reflect careful listening.