History of Rock N Roll

For the next two weeks, you will use your blogs for exploring and reflecting on the history of Rock N Roll and the way that history has influenced the music you know and love today. There will be three assignments to do on your blog. I'll put them all here now with the due dates so you can keep track of them as you go:

1.) Required Listening: Go to Spencer's DP and click on "Required Listening List." There you will find a number of songs and the schedule of when you should listen to them. Once you've heard all of them, choose at least three songs that elicit a reaction from you (it could be a good reaction, a bad one, whatever). Write about each one on your blog, discussing why you were particularly struck by it, what someone who has never heard it might want to know, etc. Also, include a photo of each artist in your post. Due Monday, 1/14 by 8:40am.

2.) Album Review: One of the greatest bi-products of the emergence of Rock N Roll was the creation of a new style of media reporting: Rock Journalism. Probably the most familiar form of this writing is the album review. On your blog, write a review of an album of your choice. A typical review includes basic info (artist name, album title, year released, record label), your rating of the album (between 1 and 5 stars is the standard scale), a description of what's good or bad about it (which usually includes specific examples or characteristics of certain tracks), and a picture of the album cover. See Rolling Stone Magazine's review of the Foo Fighters or Pitchfork Media's review of 50 Cent as examples. Due Tuesday, 1/15 by 8:40am.

3.) Talk Back: Leave a comment on at least two other students’ blogs about their posts (either the Required Listening post or the Album Review). Your comment could be a response to their ideas, a suggestion of further reading/resources, other artists/albums that you would recommend based on their posts, etc. Due Friday, 1/18 at 8:40am.