Deconstructing Music Reviews

Deconstructing Music Reviews

The goal with this assignment is for you to become very aware of what elements are present in a quality music review. Later you will have an opportunity to create a music review of your own based on what you find.

Process Overview:
1. You will select a music review that features at least two commentators from the NPR All Songs Considered Podcast Archives. I suggest either "Break Up Songs" or "Holiday Music";2. You will listen to at least 30 minutes of music review(s).
3. You will create a graphic flowchart that reveals the components of that/those review(s)
4. You will view the flowcharts others create
5. You may create your own music review in a multimedia format.

Step One – Listen to a Music Review Podcast

There are a number of wonderful music review podcasts offered by National Public Radio (NPR). You can download and listen to these from either the NPR.org website or the Itunes website. I also uploaded a few into the student shared folder. Go to either site and select a few podcasts to listen to.

Listening to them on NPR.org.
1. Go to npr.org.
2. From the program list select “All Songs Considered.”3. From this site you can select one of the programs offered by scrolling down the webpage. You can see more by selecting “Past Stories by Date.”
4. Select a podcast by clicking on the title. That will bring up a new screen. Click on Listen Now. This will bring up another box where you can listen to the podcast.
5. I would like you to listen to at least two podcasts for at least 15 minutes each or 30 minutes of one podcast. Remeber that you need a podcast that has two or more commentators.

(Break Up Song Podcast Direct Link Here)

OR You Can…

Listen to them on Itunes:
1. This will bring up another box where you can listen to the podcast.
2. I would like you to listen to at least two podcasts for at least 15 minutes each (for a total of 30 minutes minimum of listening to the podcasts)or 30 minutes of one podcast. Remeber that you need a podcast that has two or more commentators.

Step Two- Deconstruct a Review and Make a Graphic of the Elements of a Review

Go to Microsoft Word and make sure your drawing tools are available. If you do not see them on the bottom of your screen you may need to load them. You do this by selecting “View” from the tool bar at the top. Then select “toolbar” from the drop down menu. From there check “drawing.” This will make them available. From here you can get the shapes you need by clicking on “autoshapes” at the bottom of the screen. This will give you a flyout menu. You will pick “basic shapes” and then the shape you need.

Once you have figured out how to use the program, you will listen to very small bits of the podcast(s) and make a graphic that represents what kinds of things you are hearing. There are four general types of things you will hear in a podcast review:
 Speaker’s personal comments;
 Comments about the genre and/or elements of style;
 Comments dealing specifically with the band/band members/band history/music;
 Transitions between songs/albums/topics.

Make a graphic representation of the elements of the musical review.
Code the elements by using consistent shapes and shades of colors.

Personal Comments are done in squares and rectangles: (done in shades of green)Personal story connection
* Speaker introduction
* Personal Response and/or connection to self or time period
* Personal analysis

Musical / Genre Comments are in rounded rectangles and squares in shades of yellow:Criteria for selection and/or inclusion
* Introduction to genre / style / musical movement
* Elements of style comments

Music Related Comments are in circles
And ovals with shades of pink:* Background on band / song
* History of band / song
* Transitional comments to song
* Excerpt of song

Here’s what needs to be on your “Deconstructing a Review Podcast” document:
 Your name
 The title of the assignment
 The title(s) of the podcast(s) you listened to and made a graphic of.
 Be sure to use the shapes and colors as dictated in the assignment sheet.
 Instead of generic comments in the shapes, write a very brief indication of what the speaker said or what audio was used. This includes things like song titles, band member names, summary of comments, etc.
 Take particular note of how the speaker indicates that what they are saying is their personal opinion.
 Take special note of how the speaker transitions from one segment of the review to another.
 A print out of the graphic. (You will need to create the graphic in such a way that it will print out on one sheet of paper and still be legible. That is why I began wrapping around my boxes in the screen shoot above.)
 I made my sample in Webspiration, a program that is no longer available. You can make a document that looks the same in Microsoft Word using the auotshapes available with the drawing tool.

Tips for Creating Your Graphic of the Review Podcast:

• Listen to the podcast that you are graphic at least one time without interrupting it.
• Open Microsoft Word. Make sure your drawing tools are available and get started.
• Open a second browser and listen to a very small bit of the podcast.
• Go to the Word screen and make the first few boxes. You will see a crosshair symbol on the screen.
• To create a box simply select a shape from the autoshape menu on the bottom of the screen. This will produce a shape. Resize it by dragging from the handles on the corners of the shape.
• Color the fill color by clicking on the symbol that looks like a bucket with a colored line below it. This is located on the bottom of your tool bar. Clicking on this will pull up a color menu. Select an appropriate color. It will be filled in with the same color that your shape is filled in with. Click on this to bring up a color palette. Select the color you like and check to see that your shape fill color is the same. You can get more choices by selecting “More Fill Choices” from that menu.
• To pick the font/type color look for the shape in the bottom toolbar that looks like rainbow in a box. Clicking on this will produce a set of colors to choose from.
• You will need to use the arrows that shows the flow of the comments. You can produce these by clicking on the diamond shapes found at the center points of the shapes. Clicking on the diamond shape and dragging will bring out the arrow.
• To print it go to document and select page set up. Next, select fit to page and okay. Then select print from the document menu.