Assignment
Choose an album produced by one of the following record labels: Putumayo World Music, Real World Records, Shanachie Records, or Folkways Records (many are available online). Make sure that you can access all album tracks and the liner notes for your chosen album, since you will need to analyze them in detail. Listen to your chosen album carefully and critically, then answer the following questions thoroughly (with 2-5 sentence answers):
1. Provide a bibliographic reference for the album (include performer, date, title, label, and catalogue number) and describe the liner notes (list the number of pages, language/s, photos, maps, song texts, and other relevant contents).
2. Provide a short biography of the performer/s.
3. Discuss the musical content of the album as a whole. Who performs on it? What languages are sung? What style/s of music are they playing? How many tracks on the album? What instruments and/or voices are featured?
4. Describe and analyze one track from the album in detail. Use terms from class and describe texture, melody, rhythm, meter, and timbre.
5. Discuss the over-all representation of the album. How do the images and text of the cover and liner notes correspond to the musical sound of the album? How does this connect to the representation and/or commodification of world music/global pop since the 1980s?