Starting on page 39 of your course manual (bottom), Dr. McMurray discusses the use of a folk hero (Anansi, the spider/trickster) as a cultural form of resistance. In a similar way “Rude boy”in Jamaican music are characters used as forms of resistance or to comment on the dominant culture, or values of the ruling class etc.

Also in Jamaican music “Babylon” is used to describe a place with an oppressive social or political system. “Zion” is used to describe Africa or Ethiopia, a place that African-Jamaicans imagine as better offering them more freedom than they currently have, to practice their own traditions and culture without discrimination and harassment. It is also the idea of a better life.
In many genres of music you will find characters like these or ideas or words that are repeated a lot.

Think about music that you listen to a lot,
• Which words or ideas or do you hear a lot in the songs that you listen to?
• What do they mean or what do they represent?
• What subcultures are associated with them?

Pick one character or idea from music that you listen to and write a well developed essay about it. Be sure to answer all of the questions or statements posed fully and thoughtfully. Your essay should be 700-1,000 words in length.

In your essay make sure you are mostly using your own words and ideas.
When you describe what a source says paraphrase with your own words in order to indicate how you understand what the source is saying. When you use direct quotes make it clear using “quotation marks”. In both cases when using quotes or paraphrasing make sure to cite your sources
In general please avoid copying definitions or descriptions from you sources word for word.

You will be graded on the following

1) Introduction with thesis statement 2 points
2) Describe the kind of music this character/idea is found
(relate it ways of describing music from week 1) 2 points
3) Description of the character, word, idea, place etc
(include examples and translate lyrics in foreign language English) 2 points
4) Describe what the character, word, idea etc represent?
(you can relate it to the functions of music from week 1) 2 points
5) Writing – grammar, clarity, citations and references 2 points
total 10 points