I also went to the music library and found a Beatles album. This gave me the idea to choose a few Beatles songs and write about the cultural implications of there music and, if I chose different songs throughout the course of their careers, I could analyze how there music reflects the changing cultural trends that occurred when they wrote their music. I would focus on the changing style and lyrics of the music and how that coincides with the changing lifestyles of Americans. I could both focus on how the Beatles music influenced these trends and how the trends of the nation changed their music.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Cultural Texts 2
I went to the movie store and decided to look for a cultural text there. I discovered the movie "Thelma and Louis." I have seen this movie and recalled some of the main themes throughout the film. The movie focuses on the interactions between men and women. I think this would be a good cultural texts because it deals with so many issues that reflect how gender roles influence our society and the ways men and women interact. Furthermore, stylistically the film is also reflective of cultural images and it refers to themes throughout other movies and books.
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2 comments:
Both Thelma and Louise and a specific album are excellent cultural objects to explore.
But be careful with the approach you mention here, since they have many unquestioned assumptions that are hard to support.
For example: "I would focus on the changing style and lyrics of the music and how that coincides with the changing lifestyles of Americans. I could both focus on how the Beatles music influenced these trends and how the trends of the nation changed their music."
You're assuming here that the music was influential on American culture even before you get deep into primary or secondary sources. Often locating causality (this music A made people behave in way B) is quite hard in a paper.
Instead, focus on how you might locate and explain patterns within the cultural objects. Begin not with an assumption that goes wide in the time and location "this movie/music did have an impact" but rather a question that gets you knee-deep into the primary source: "why does some version of moment X appear here, here, and here."
Thelma & Louise (Motion picture)
Title Thelma & Louise
PN1995.9.A3 T5 2003
Adventure films.
Films for the hearing impaired.
Women outlaws -- Drama.
Fugitives from justice -- Drama.
Female friendship -- Drama.
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