Write a brief abstract of no more than 250 words (or one-page double-space 12 point font) describing your essay topic. The following is a small sampling of suggested general topics suitable for your term paper. You are welcome to “take one off the shelf” but I also encourage you to use these topics as a point of departure for your paper. Many of the topics are purposefully very broad so they require substantial focusing in order to serve as the basis of a term paper.
Gender and Sexuality in Music Videos (be specific and focus on one artist and one or two videos)
Why Adorno is (or is not) Still Relevant in Popular Music Scholarship
Hip Hop Music: Race Constructs and Authenticity
Music, Celebrity Culture, and Consumption (lifestyle marketing)
Music, Celebrity Culture, and Politics
Bro Country and Constructions of Gender
Authenticity Constructs and Commodification
Social Media and New Models Artist/Audience Relations
Axel Bruns’ Concept of Produsage and Mashup Culture
New Business Models (the 360 deal for e.g., subscription services, etc., subscription services, etc.)
Globalization, Cultural Imperialism, and Music in (whatever country, genre, scene, city of your choice)
K-Pop and Glocalization
Music and Intellectual Copyright Law: Public -vs-Author Rights
Media Consolidation and Content: Mass-vs-local culture
Mass Culture and Audience Agency
Music Streaming Services, Big Data, and Marketing
Global Music and Constructions of Otherness
Music 2.o and Social Media (Community and Marketing)
Online Music Distribution and re-commoditizing recorded music (Spotify, etc. )
* CLEARLY STATE YOUR THESIS AT OR NEAR THE BEGINNING OF YOUR FIRST PARAGRAPH.
Provide two (2) academic sources documented with two (2) footnotes and two (2)
bibliographic entries in Chicago Manual of Style notes and bibliography style ONLY.
*Note: Opinion-oriented writing is NOT acceptable (e.g. Why is Kanye West So
Awesome?;or, Nickelback: The Greatest Rock Band in the History of the Known
Universe…and Beyond). Your topic/research area must be presented either in an
argumentative or expository essay, be supported by academic books and journal articles, and
be related to issues covered in the course. Sources such as non-academic websites,
Wikipedia, etc. are not acceptable. However, the nature of some topics may legitimately
require use of sources such as academic blogs/sites, popular press, etc. If so, these must be
supported with academic sources.
