AP Human Geography

FOLK CULTURE VS. POPULAR CULTURE PLAY LIST PROJECT

Music is one of the best ways to express traditional culture and modern culture. Music in America has shown us many cultural aspects of our heritage as Americans, historical events, and societal issues. Even music today is used to show political, economic, and social issues to Americans and it is a way to demonstrate our free speech right.

The Task:

You will need to create a music play list on a CD that demonstrates American folk and popular music. You may pick any songs from any decade that represent both types of culture. ( All songs must be school appropriate.) Your play list is worth 20 points of your project. The items include:

- At least 5 American folk songs (10 points)

- At least 5 American popular songs (10 points)

- Burned to a CD (10 points) *You can purchase a blank CD from me for only $.10

- CD cover (10 points)

- Track list of song titles and artists in the order of the play list (10 points)

Here are some websites that can help you find songs:

Folk Songs: http://kristinhall.org/songbook/USFolk.html

Pop Songs: www.billboard.com

http://www.popculturemadness.com/Entertainment/Decades/90s-Music.html

Folk Song Analysis (20 points)

From your play list, you will need to pick one of the folk songs. Provide the lyrics of the song. Analyze the song’s lyrics with the major concepts that we discuss in AP Human Geography. Provided are some thinking questions to help you:

· What do you think this song means?

· What characteristics of Folk Culture do they exhibit and or discuss?

· Are there any political / social meanings of the song?

· How well did the song help the artist?

· How did the song affect or add to the culture of the US?

· Why did you pick this folk song to analyze?

Pop Song Analysis (20 points)

From your play list, you will need to pick one of the Pop songs. Provide the lyrics of the song. Analyze the song’s lyrics with the major concepts that we discuss in AP Human Geography. Provided are some thinking questions to help you:

· What do you think this song means?

· What characteristics of pop culture do they exhibit and or discuss?

· Are there any political / social meanings of the song?

· How well did the song help the artist?

· How did the song affect or add to the culture of the US?

· Why did you pick this Pop song to analyze?

Creativity (10 points)