music 26AC American Culture

I’m working on a Music exercise and need support.

Create an identity map describing your identity through music. Select three different social, cultural, or political identities and, for each, select one piece of music to illustrate it. For each musical piece, list and describe three features that demonstrate its connection to that particular identity. Descriptions should be approximately 3-5 complete sentences, not bullet points.

Musical pieces should be incorporated into the map through video links. Pieces can be instrumental or with words, from any genre, and in any language. If you include a song in a language other than English and the title or lyrics are important to your point, please translate the necessary segments.

You will build your map into a Prezi (Links to an external site.) presentation, including your text and video links (here’s a partial example (Links to an external site.)). Feel free to use one of the Prezi templates or create your own. You’re welcome to add other text, images, or design to the map. Be creative and have fun expressing yourself!

Please submit the link to your finished identity map here. Once completed, feel free to peruse your classmates’ and learn more about them. Positive feedback, points of connection, and other comments are highly encouraged!

If you get stuck:

  • Remember, identity is not the same thing as personality. Identity describes the ways in which your individual life is linked to larger communities, organizations, or belief systems, or how these institutions are articulated through your life. Some examples of identity categories include race, culture, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality, religion, age, class, occupation, and geographic situation.
  • Use other concepts we’ve discussed to stimulate your self-exploration, such as migration, hybridity, power, diaspora, multiculturalism, and the border.
  • Musical features can include: language, instrumentation, creator, performer, genre, lyrics, stories, themes, production, vocal register, audience, visual elements (clothing, movement, staging), function, venue, and sonic elements such as rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, and form.
  • Think about the contexts in which you have listened to or performed music. Are there pieces you associate with family, school, work, beliefs, or important life experiences?
  • How have your musical tastes changed over time? How do they correlate or not with those of your family or friends? How have you used music to present yourself in a particular way to the world?
  • Outline and organize your thoughts and text before jumping too deep into building the Prezi. This will allow you to make sure you have a cohesive map that you can then visually realize.

Rubric (100 points total):

Includes three distinct identities (race, culture, gender, etc.) [20]

Highlights three different musical features for each piece [30]

Draws clear connections between musical features and identity [30]

Uses clear and concise language [10]

Free of spelling and grammatical errors [10]