English 2130 -Creative Final -Annotated Mixtape & Fanzine -The American Mixtape Class -Spring 2024
-Digital submissions via iLearn OR physical paper or multimedia fanzines (preferred) are submitted in-person
-Whether submitted via iLearn or in person:
due no later than the beginning of class on Wednesday, April 24th, 2024
For this fun final assignment, you will research a collection of songs to reveal your particular interpretation of and on a specific aspect of American culture. This assignment consists of
-a playlist, preferably presented on Spotify, plus the following, presented in a “fanzine” format:
-an annotated track listing (list of songs, with notes for each song)
-an introduction
-artwork (original art or a cut-and-paste collage of sources or many combinations therein)
-all of the above are compiled in the fanzine or webzine format; format creativity is greatly encouraged and examples will be shared. There are never any limits to the creativity encouraged and allowed for this assignment.
Like 20th century exemplars Alan Lomax and Harry Smith, you will be a song hunter for your specific approved topic. Like Rob Sheffield, you will be open to your emotions to guide you in making the mixtape into a most meaningful expression. Try to use the many themes of the class to inspire you to go digging, hunting, searching, even down the detour of the road less taken or down the rabbit hole of discovery, to create something truly special and memorable.
While the term mixtape is today all-but synonymous with playlist, the original mixtapes were just that, tapes. Similar but somewhat unlike playlists, the original mixtapes were collections of songs, poems, voices, or sounds recorded onto a physical cassette tape from a number of sources: like vinyl records, radio broadcasts, or straight from a microphone.
But what truly makes a mixtape unique and different from a random shuffled playlist is its meaning. Mixtapes-have-meaning, even make meaning, and are an art form to themselves. Every song on a mixtape should be a deliberate choice. Its lyrics, energy, genre, and even its placement within the mix in relation to other songs, all of these are all considered when creating a mixtape.
The “annotations” are your notes on all the songs included in the mix, and this, along with your introduction and any other fan commentary and artwork, will be included in a blog, website, social media post, or much preferably, a physical fanzine format. So the project includes: (1) the specific American mix itself (available in a format like Spotify) with (2) the typed playlist, annotations, introduction, and the extended art or fan commentary in an online or physical fanzine format.
This creative final is worth 10 points and will be graded based on your creative effort –going “all in” with tunes and topics, images and ideas, leaning fully into the spirit of the task.
Purpose: To develop an appreciation for specific American musical artists as part of our unique culture, learning the art of mixtapes and fanzines, how to make them, and to have a better understanding of their history and sentiment within our American pop music fan culture.
Assignment: Create a mixtape (playlist) and fanzine (digital or physical format) of at least 15 songs (and absolutely no more than 30) with a specific (preferably approved) theme and purpose in mind. Successful past topics have included historical, geographical, and activist topics, as well as genre or gender-based ones, as well as personal or romantic ones. Try to be as creative, innovative, and specific as possible.
For this assignment, mixtapes can be playlists made on Spotify or YouTube or any music app where the mix can be shared via a link for free (without the listener needing to purchase access). If you create your mixtape in Apple music (or any other service to which Mr. Smith does not have a subscription), the instructor will not be able to access the songs, but as long as the song list/annotations/fanzine are accessible, it can still be evaluated.
Mixtapes and fanzines must have a title. Give your whole project a creative title that reflects your theme. Whatever angle and approach you take: Be specific. Be creative.
The original fanzines were photocopied, print, hard-copy projects; you can add your photos, original artwork, additional commentary, and other creative aspects to your physical or online submissions. Physical fanzines are much preferred
Include a 300 -word minimum description of the project’s purpose within the fanzine format.
Include a track list of the artists and song titles of the mixtape.
Example:
Father John Misty – Real Love Baby
The Lumineers – Ophelia
Dawes – A Little Bit Of Everything
Under each song, you will have your annotation, which is your brief commentary on the significance of that track to your overall theme and its inclusion in this playlist. Annotations are often 30-80 words long.
You can also include additional bonus content like album or concert reviews, testimonials, blurbs, or links to other content.
Additional Purpose Thoughts & Specific Instructions:
When choosing the unique theme for your tape, try to go as deep and narrow as possible, but also seek something that is relevant to you personally, as long as we can agree that it connects to the purposes of this class, specifically unique themes, places, and topics in American culture. This could locate your mix within one musical genre or across many genres.
All United States/American musical artists required. (Warning: Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse, Beatles, Coldplay, Mumfords, etc are not US-based, so cannot be included)
Digital-only fanzines should be shared somewhere. You can use a free blog site or website builder like Blogger, Tumblr, etc for the digital fanzine. You can make an Instagram or Facebook post to share the website link with your followers, taking a screenshot to share with the instructor for extra points for social media shares. Extra points are provided for anyone who takes their public blog or website and makes posts about this project on their personal Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook and who provides screenshots of such. Make this project “real” by dropping the tape for your friends to hear. Links to the digital fanzine can be uploaded to iLearn.
Here are a few online webzines of completed mixtapes from previous semesters, simply to see how others have addressed their topics.
A break-up mixtape:
To: The Boys Who Never Cared
https://hellobreakupnicetoseeyouagain.blogspot.com/2021/12/to-boys-who-never-cared.html#more
Small town appreciation:
https://lizanderson15.blogspot.com/2021/11/small-town-appreciation.html
Mr. Smith’s seasonal playlist on “grub and gratitude”:
http://www.teacherontheradio.com/2009/11/totr-66-grub-gratitude.html
