Song Diagram or Infographic (10%)
For this assignment, you will use digital tools to create a visual representation of structural elements of a single song. The focus might be on arrangement or instrumentation, lyrical content, chord structures, samples, or other elements of your choice. You will also include some written reflections on what visual representation enables us to understand about the song. We’ll examine several examples of data visualization and infographics together, so you’ll have a good sense of the range of possibilities and the tools you’ll need for the task. Many writers who create infographics adopt a fairly neutral tone, but others adopt a fan or afficionado voice. It will be important to make careful choices about tone and voice–and to be sure that these choices are also reflected in the visual elements of the piece. (Graphics + 250-500 words)

Album or Performance Review (10%)
For this assignment, you’ll write a short review of an album or performance (live or recorded). We’ll read several examples of reviews like these, along with advice from music writers. As we discuss these, we’ll focus on the range of conventions and rhetorical moves possible in the genre–including voice, description, analysis, and contextualization. (500-750 words)

Personal Essay, Blog Piece,  Artist Profile, or Memoir Mixtape (20%)
For this assignment, you’ll write a somewhat longer essay in one of these three genres. We’ll read many examples from each as well as advice from music writers focusing on them. There is a lot of range and flexibility here. Your piece could take the form of a memoir mixtape, annotated playlist, liner notes, or a narrative essay. Voice and description continue to be vital–and a narrative or analytical structure will be really important too. If you choose a genre like a memoir mixtape or liner notes that lends itself to something shorter, you could write two shorter pieces–for example a memoir mixtape plus an artist profile of one of the artists on the mixtape. Finally, if you want to write in a genre I haven’t listed here, get in touch and pitch me the idea. The total should be between 1500 and 2000 words.

Podcast or Radio Show (10%)
Each student will produce either a ten-minute podcast or a sixty-minute music radio show. The due dates will be staggered. Podcasts may be based on the formats of the ones we listen to as a class, or you may choose an alternate format. Radio shows should have a theme–a genre, a feeling, a year. You’ll sign up for the date of your choice and post your completed project on our site, via Soundcloud.

Record Club (10%)
Record Club will be part of many of our class sessions. One or two students will bring in a song for the session. We’ll listen to it in silence, then discuss it briefly. You’ll sign up for dates of your choice, and I’ll post them on our calendar. You might choose to bring in a song that’s related to that session’s reading or just choose something you want us all to hear. Think about whether you want to bring in a song you know well or something you might not ordinarily listen to.

By the following day, you will post your track to our blog, with some reflection–including discussion of music terms that help describe what’s interesting about the song. (See our Music Terms page.) Then, three students will be assigned to respond to your reflection. Each responder will post a song that is also illuminated by at least one of the music terms you chose. Note : To embed from YouTube, Vimeo, or Soundcloud in a post OR comment, choose “Share,” then “Copy Embed Code.” The sites will give you some HTML code. Cut and paste that into the comment and it the video or audio track should appear once you’ve hit “Publish” or “Post Comment.”

The grades for Record Club will be based on your posts and responses. They will not be based on your song choice or your discussion of it in class, which will be informal and often based on your personal relationship to the music.

Portfolio (40%)
Your end of semester project will be putting together a portfolio of revised writing (at least 12 pages and at least 3 pieces). You may choose to include revisions of any of the pieces you’ve written for the course–including blog posts. Videos or podcasts count as writing, so they can be included too. If you include non-written work, we’ll come up with an agreement about how it will fulfill the page requirement. You’ll post them on a QWriting site of your own, and I will add links to your portfolios to our main page so you can see each other’s work. We’ll spend some class time workshopping your portfolios.