Description

You will have two short essays to complete, which will take the form of either an album or a concert review, 2-3 pages each. Your tone may be informal, as you might read in popular press or online magazines, or formal, as you might see in academic journals. You should address not only the music & lyrics/performance, but the historical and cultural context in which the album was released or in which the concert was performed. For the first review, you will be provided a list of historically significant albums/performances to choose from, all prior to the 2000s, listed below. For the second, you may write about any album you desire, past or present, or any concert you desire, be it a live one you attend or have attended, or a recording of one you found online. It is expected that you listen to/watch the entire album/concert, not just select songs, so that you may write about it as a whole.

Specs 

12 pt. font – Times New Roman 

Double Spaced 

1” margins 

Header (name & date) 

Title 

2-3 pages

Components 

While you may be either formal or informal in your tone, your review should still follow a standard introduction-body-conclusion structure. Each section should include the following elements: 

Introduction 

Some sort of hook: something that will pull the reader in and make them interested to read more.

Basic background on the artist or group you are reviewing: Assume that the reader has never heard of this artist before. What type of music do they play? What other groups/genres/musical trends influence this artist’s work? What are they most well-known or notorious for? Why is this artist worth dedicating a review to? You don’t necessarily have to answer all of these questions, but addressing a few in two to three sentences will establish important background knowledge for the reader. 

Thesis statement: this does not have to be academic in form, but the end of your introduction should indicate whether your overall review of the album/performance is positive or negative. Is the work impressive? Pedestrian? Groundbreaking? Lackluster? Disappointing? Revolutionary? Beyond just “this album/concert is good/bad,” the final bit of your introduction should provide a concise evaluation that you will elaborate upon, and possibly indicate why this particular album/concert is worthy of critical analysis and attention. 

• Other possible elements to consider in the body: 

Themes and topics addressed in the lyrics

• Structure and composition of the lyrics 
• Structure and composition of the music 
• Performance of the music 
• Album cover art 

Vocal performance 

• Body 
• Context: what are the important political, social, professional, personal (for the artist), industrial, or technological contexts in which this album was released or this concert took place? You do not need to address all of these, but at the very least, you should detail one. No piece of art is produced in a vacuum – what are the other elements external to the music itself that influenced its creation? 
• Review of content: while you do not need to (and in fact should not) address every single song on an album or in a concert, you should detail a few of them. Provide an overall review of the album/concert as a whole, and then pick out a couple of standouts: songs that are either particularly exceptional, outliers, or sub-par. Why is this so? How do these songs represent a unique achievement for this artist? Moreover, why is the work as a whole significant? What is its impact on the artist’s career, on popular music more broadly, on popular culture even more broadly, or even on society? What is the power of this piece of art? 
• Conclusion 
• Review main points: this is where you should summarize the bigger insights offered in the body. If you’ve written a lot, condense it down to a sentence or two here highlighting your main take-ways. 
• Restate thesis statement: you opened your review with a concise evaluation of the album/concert, so you should close it by reiterating this evaluation – not verbatim, and hopefully expressing a slightly new/different angle than what you established in the introduction, but after summarizing your main points, you should also summarize your overall take. 
• Closing statement: if the first sentence of your introduction is intended to pull the reader in and get them interested in your writing, the final sentence of your conclusion should give the reader something to think about now that they’ve finished what you’ve written.