Name ______Day # 130

Ms. Fisher Many Minds.One Mission.Class of 2021.

Classwork – synthesizing information from two articles

SWBAT synthesize and evaluate information from two texts.

In this task, you will read two articles about contemporary performance artists Rihanna and Alicia Keys. You will complete questions for each article, and will synthesize and evaluate the information from both articles.

Rihanna: Luck and Talent

  1. Some people seem to have all the luck. Then there are those fortunate few who not only have all the luck, but the talent to go along with it. Rising dance-pop diva Rihanna has both luck and talent, and she stands poised to reign supreme on the pop charts. Back-to-back summer hits "Pon de Replay" (2005) and "S.O.S." (2006) catapulted her from a young singer in Barbados to worldwide star status, and her fusion of R&B, hip hop, and reggae have helped her stand out among other pop stars.
  1. Born Robyn RihannaFenty, Rihanna grew up in the parish of St. Michael on the island of Barbados. Although she is living out her dream now as a professional singer, Rihanna did not ever imagine she would hear her songs on the radio. She revealed in a Boston Globe profile, "I would sing in the mirror, holding a brush to my mouth like it was a microphone." Without any professional singing experience, her first standout moment occurred when she was in high school and won a talent contest singing Mariah Carey's "Hero." Along with Carey, Rihanna counts Whitney Houston and Beyoncé as her musical idols. She also points to the beats of Barbados that influence her greatly. She tries to combine the music from her idols with the local sounds of her childhood to make her distinct style.
  1. In December of 2003, while still a high school student, Rihanna was introduced to record producer Evan Rogers through a friend. Rogers, who had worked with Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Ruben Studdar, and Kelly Clarkson, was on vacation with his wife, Jackiefrom Barbados, when he heard Rihanna sing. Rogers was impressed, and flew her to New York to record a demo. Def Jam label president and CEO Shawn Carter, better known as Jay-Z, was the first and last label exec to get a sit-down with Rihanna. After an impressive audition at Jay-Z's office, Executive Vice President Jay Brown recalled in the Globe, "I wanted an artist who could be developed. When I knew she could sing, I knew I could work with her." After cancelling a set of meetings with other labels, Rihanna, who was only 16 years old, signed with Def Jam on the spot, with lawyers completing the contract by 3:00 A.M.
  1. Shortly after signing with Def Jam, Rihanna's career kicked into overdrive; by May of 2005 she had released her first single, "Pon de Replay." It didn't take long for the rhythms of this breakout summer hit to top the charts and score as a huge dancehall hit.
  1. When her first CD, Music of the Sun, came out, it started at number ten on the charts. Amid an avalanche of pop CDs, Music of the Sun managed to earn respectable honor for Rihanna's "above-average" singing. Rolling Stone critic Jason Birchmeier noted, “The CD is one of the more engaging urban dance-pop albums of the year[AF1]."
  1. In 2005 Rihanna took to the road with Gwen Stefani, where she was schooled in rock, an influence that appeared on her 2006 CD A Girl Like Me on the track "Kisses Don't Lie," which blends a rock beat with Caribbean rhythms. On her website Rihanna noted, "Coming from Barbados, I really hadn't heard that much rock music. Touring with Gwen changed my perspective." The album is pure pop, with two runaway hits, "S.O.S" and "Unfaithful." Most critics have credited Rihanna with avoiding a slump through clever and ambitious songs that continue to show the singer's promise.
  1. Although still young years old, Rihanna shows maturity, both in her personal life and in her music. She told London Guardian reporter Amina Taylor, "My mom raised me to be a child and know my place but also to think like a woman. I am very mature for my age. In this business you have to work with the things that get thrown your way….I don't feel under any additional pressure being young. Starting early means I get a chance to grow as a person and as an artist and I am going to do my best to continue my career."
  1. Which word describes Rihanna’s character the best?
  2. Determined
  3. Unmotivated
  4. Challenging
  5. Explain your choice with evidence from the text: ______
  1. Name two ways in which growing up in Barbados impacted Rihanna’s singing.

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Alicia Keys’ Rise to Success

  1. Just three weeks after being released in the summer of 2001, Alicia Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was certified triple platinum. Suddenly you couldn't open a magazine, turn on the radio, or tune into MTV without encountering the stunning Keys. With her classical training on the piano, soul-stirring lyrics, and heart-stopping voice, Keys had become a bona fide superstar. Keys won no less than five Grammy Awards for Songs in A Minor, and she proved her staying power by following up with the hugely successful The Diary of Alicia Keys at the end of 2003.
    Music Came Before Everything
  2. Keys was born Alicia Augello Cook on January 21, 1981, in New York City. Keys was raised by her mother, Terri Augello, a paralegal and aspiring actress. Despite the difficult life of a single mom and the poverty in which she often struggled, Keys's mother was determined to help her daughter as much as possible and enrolled Keys in piano classes. Keys told Rolling Stone, "Music came before everything, everything, everything." Despite her commitment, Keys was aware of the financial strain the lessons put on her mother's meager salary and once begged to quit. "But my mom would tell me, 'Quit what you like, but you're not quitting piano.' She didn't care what it cost." With her mother's support, Keys learned classical piano by the time she was seven. At age eleven she began writing songs.
  1. At age 16, Keys was promptly accepted to Columbia University. At just about the same time, her musical talents also began to reap rewards and Keys found herself in a bidding war between major record companies. In the end Keys signed a deal with Columbia Records. However, just four weeks into her freshman year, Keys walked away from the university. "I couldn't be in the studio at night and keep up with class," she told Rolling Stone.
    Waited and Waited
  2. She managed to score some recording time, yet her talent languished. "They wanted me to be a clone of Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston, and I couldn't do that. I'm not the sequined dress type, or the high-heeled type. I'm not like that for anyone," she told Newsweek.
  1. After signing with producer and president of Arista Records, Clive Davis,Keys finally began to record her album. The album is a fresh mix of old and new, mostly R&B with a strong dose of hip-hop and a splash of jazz improvisations, all wrapped up with a classically-trained musician's sensibility. "I was born in Hell's Kitchen and spent a lot of time in Harlem, and I was exposed to a lot of different types of music, from Biggie [rapper Notorious B.I.G.] to Nirvana to Miles Davis to Nina Simone and back to classical," Keys told USA Today. "I think it was inevitable that I merge all of them."
    Being Alicia Keys
  2. As 2003 drew to a close, Keys got her chance to prove that she was no overnight flash in the pan. Her next album, The Diary of Alicia Keysbecame an instant bestseller, topping the Billboard Top 200 chart in the first week of its release. The first single from Diary, "You Don't Know My Name," had an "old school classic soul feel," according to People reviewer Chuck Arnold. Featuring a mid-song spoken interlude, the song shot to the top of the charts immediately upon release. If her first two albums were any indication of what the future held, Keys seemed enthusedto take over the music charts for a long time to come.
  1. What character trait would you assign to Alicia Keys? Why did you select that trait?

ambitious, hard working, respectful, solemn

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  1. Alicia Keys received support from many people in building her career. Who was the biggest influence? How do you know?

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Questions 6 and ET refer to both articles. Use information from both articles to complete the questions.

  1. What influences made these two performers so successful?

Rihanna / Alicia Keys

Exit Ticket: Why would these two articles have been paired together? What is the connection between them?

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Name ______Day # 130

Ms. Fisher Many Minds.One Mission.Class of 2021.

Homework– completing the graphic organizer.

Directions: Use your TED chart format to complete a graphic organizer on the following planning page. Be sure to use your notes and bullet points to answer all of the questions.

Both Rihanna in “Rihanna: Luck and Talend” and Alicia Keys in “Alicia Keys’ Rise to Success” are young and determined singers. Write an essay that describes how these artists have similar character traits, and how their influences are different from one another.
Be sure to include:
-How these artists are similar
-How their influencesare different from one another
-Use details from the text to support your answer

Name ______Day # 131

Ms. Fisher Many Minds.One Mission.Class of 2021.

Classwork – writing the extended response

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[AF1]Did people generally like her first album?