Extended Essay about music festivals

[mandapleasexx]

I'm doing my extended essay on "What impacts did music festivals (Monterey, Woodstock, Altamont, etc.) have on the world?"
I'v been trying to come up with a better sounding question or thesis statement and a title for my paper. The best i can come up with is something like.. Festivals and the cuotnercoulture: the lasting impact of the movement... Obviously, my ideas are pathetic so I was hoping that someone had an idea or something that will help me ! I need help as soon as possible!


Thank you !

[deissi]

Your subject is...?

[Ruan Chun Xian]

Joel: Music maybe?

[b]You cannot do the impact of something on the world![/b]

On the development of a certain genre of music, on the developement of a certain music movement, yes, but not on the world. Even a country or a culture would be much too broad.

[Vvi]

And you can't choose so many festivals. Pick one, trust me, you'll find 4000 words+ to write on it. One festival and it's impact on one particular style of music in one particular country. There you go.

Have you looked at the criteria for a Music EE before starting? You must have used secondary resources such as textbooks and preferably primary sources such as interviews with actual musicians and taped recordings.

And the criteria specifically states: [i]"Real music should be at the heart of an extended essay in music. This means that particular pieces ofmusic, experienced via recordings, live performances or concerts, should be chosen as the core focus of the extended essay. Students should strive for a coherent verbal analysis and interpretation of one or
more pieces of music in relation to the chosen research question".[/i] So you must talk directly about the songs and their musical features. Pick a few from a festival and relate them. Don't start discussing lyrics and their meaning, as the EE guidelines clearly state

"[i]It is essential that the topic chosen is distinctively musical. It is quite acceptable, for example, for a student to explore a topical question relating to popular music, jazz or blues, but the primary focus of the essay must be more concerned with the music itself than with the lives of the performers, the nature of the instruments used or the lyrics. Supervisors should, therefore, strongly discourage students who are primarily interested in analysing text or lyrics, particularly of pop songs, from submitting extended essays in music.[/i]

An example of a research question given in the guide was "What is the influence of Edgard Varèse on the musical output of Frank Zappa?" So I think if you phrase your question like that and consider actual musical elements, stickign strictly to musical theory, you will be fine. Don't get lost recoutning the history of Woodstock and the culture you are relating it to.

[mandapleasexx]

sorry

i thought that i should narrow down the amount too, but my advisor said not to...
He said that the impacts of the world was narrowed down enough, so now im confused
for example, altamont was the end of movemnt. monterey was the beginning. live aid was charity as was farm aid. and so on

i guess what im going for is

the impact the festival movement had. and its throughout the world because live had effects in africa and isle of wight was overseas.

he told me to mainly focuse on monterey, woodstock, and altamont, the more important ones.
so um. what do i do
sorry

and thanks for everyones help.

[Vvi]

What you're doing sounds more like an EE from a social point of view. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with actual musical theory, and so is going to score poorly as a Music EE. If you want to do the social impact of music festivals on the world, your EE should be submitted under History and not Music. Unless the festivals influenced the development of an entire new scale and meter in Ethiopia and this was then carried forward into a symphony by an Ethiopian compsoer who used the beat of Bob Geldof's rock music to create his own? Do you see my point? There's nothing "musical" about your essay, it's a historical EE that is considering social and economic consequences of music festivals.

As said before, global impact of music festivals is too broad. Advisors are good for some things, but my sister's EE advisor was going to let her write an EE on "The causes of corruption in Kenya". Advisors, especially if supervising for an EE subject that they have never supervised before, can be wrong too. They are humans. And the global impatc is simply too large to discuss. You can't expect to write about how the festivals influenced every single corner of the globe, can you?

Focus [i]only[/i] on the three most important festivals, and pick [i]one[/i] country or group of people to analyse its effects. For example, evaluate the impact of those festivals on American hippie culture during the period ____ to _____ (whenever the first festival was to whenever the last one was). Don't stray and start talking about smaller festivals, even though your advisor said to talk "mainly" about the 3 big ones. Your EE will not be focused enough.

If you really want to discuss the effect of the festivals in Africa, cahnge your title to "the social and economic effects of ______, _______ and ________ (names of festivals) in the developing world, with specific reference to Ethiopia and _____ (countries). You are allowed to have long titles that set out very directly what you will be analyzing.

I realize it's hard to decide between so many factors if you're really excited about your EE and your topic, but you have to pick an area and narrow it down, even if you have to leave out some parts you want to discuss.

[mandapleasexx]

so my subject is officially history and my advisor said to do the evolution of music festivals from 1967 to 1985. ... still bad ?

[Vvi]

Don't just do the evolution, because then you are only narrating history and descriptive EE's get low marks (C and down). You have to either analyse the reasons behind the festival movement, or their consequences (liek I suggested earlier, how they affected economic and social policies in a specific place).

The time period is fine, now just specify the place, which festivals you will look at and what aspect you will consider their impact (socio-economic? Political impact?)