Bog Topic: Music and Family

We've talked about this one a good bit in class, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to you: This week's blog narrative topic is "Music and Family." For this assignment I want you to step out of your own head and into someone else's. Specifically, into the head of someone in your family from an older generation than your own. (You may define "family" as broadly as you need to in order to complete this assignment.)

As we've discussed, you need to interview your chosen family member and discuss with your interviewee what his or her connection with music was "back in the day." For some, you might discuss their childhood; others will want to talk about their teen years or early adulthood. You'll need to ask them between five and ten questions, and please record it if at all possible. (You needn't provide me with the recording--it will just make it much easier for you as you type it up.) You are released from your 500-word limit, as you won't have control over the loquacity of your interviewee. And you may formulate your blog entry as a narrative ("Grandma said that her favorite musician was Lawrence Welk, and that one of the high points in her life was getting to see him live when his train was delayed in Abilene.") or as a dialogue (Me: Who were some of your favorite musicians when you were growing up? Grandma: Oh, I just loved Lawrence Welk--he had such a great show and was quite attractive! And I actually got to see him do a live show when I was about nineteen! You see, his train got delayed when he came to visit Abilene, so they decided to just make the best of it and put on a show. It was so exciting!")

To get the ball rolling, here are the questions we came up with in class. You may use these or others that you formulate yourself:

What kind of music did you listen to as a child?

How did you listen to music, i.e. what technology did you use?

Was there any dancing involved? Why or why not?

What sort of environment did you listen to music in?

How did your parents or teachers feel about your music of choice?

What happened once you became the parent or teacher?

Did you play an instrument or sing yourself? How was that for you?

What was your musical environment like?

Why did you listen to music? Were there any situations that caused you to turn to certain kinds of music?

Were you ever exposed to music outside of your own culture? How so, and what was it like?

You might also want to peruse the final chapter of our textbook for ideas in how to do a field study. The chapter goes far beyond our simple interview here, but it's still quite useful. And remember that you want to avoid leading questions or yes/no questions.

You blog is due Wednesday evening by 11:00 pm. And yes, my Grandmother McElrath really did get to see Lawrence Welk live when his train was delayed in Abilene, Texas. He had such a great show and was quite attractive!