Directions:
This essay will ask you to compare and contrast two musical performances. These two musical performances can be found on YouTube and can be music videos, videos of live performances, or two music performances you will attend (such as a friend’s concert, a choir concert, a church musical performance). Be sure that your two musical performances are closely related in some way (theme/artist/message/etc.).Example: two music videos about positive body image, but each is by a different artist.
Ideas to compare: What specifically about the message is similar? Similar choreography? Similar genre? Similar artistic expression? Similar background sounds?
Ideas to contrast: Different attitudes toward a similar message? Difference in tone (sad/happy). Difference in type of language used (formal/slang). Difference in who is speaking/being spoken to? (voice).
This paper will focus on creating a thesis, sentence structure, and body paragraphs with details, and explaining your reasoning between comparisons and those details while pulling out specific details from the performances.
Guidelines
This essay will be a 500-wordand will reach at least two body paragraphs in length with the following music video MLA citation twice at the bottom of your last page, one for each performance:
Begin with an opening statement/thesis discussing your plan for the essay.
Write a conclusion sentence at the end of the last paragraph that uses one of the strategies we discussed this semester (look to the future, call to action, thought-provoking question, and more) while focusing on what the songs have in common as they work together to lookat the “big picture.”
See Owl Purdue for MLA in-text and Works Cited citations.
We will also use in-text citations in this project. Use time stamps (3:23) for items heard and seen in the video. Use in-text citations with the artist’s name (Mumford and Sons) for lyrics.
View Rubric
