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 many questions (not just one or two), and 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, I’ve posted the questions we came up with in class on Moodle. You may use these or others that you formulate yourself. 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.

Your blog is due Monday (January 27) evening by 11:59 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!