I want to do my paper on “We Are The World” by Michael Jackson

Music and sociology (should be at least 5-6 pages)

This is a term paper. It is expected that you will work a little bit on your term paper all semester. However, realistically, I want you to make sure you put a few weeks effort into it. It is meant to demonstrate all the various sociology you have learned and how you can apply that sociology to just about anything.

In this particular case, you will be applying that sociology to a cultural product: a song. This paper will require you to apply sociological themes, do outside research, and analyze a song on multiple sociological levels.

I don’t think there are any songs that are bad choices. You can sociologically analyze any song. However, there are songs that will be easier to analyze than others. Songs that have clear social or political messages, songs by artists that are fairly well known, and songs that have a fair amount of lyrical content are generally easier songs to write this paper about.

For your purposes, a good song is one which has a good amount of lyrics, enough themes that you think you can incorporate lots of sociology, and a song popular enough that there’s enough outside sources to research about it. You may choose your favorite song by some obscure artist, but that may limit the amount of research available to you and your research is being graded.

You can essentially look at this paper at having three parts.
Interpreting symbolic elements.
The first part of the paper will require you to analyze the lyrics of the song you choose and interpret the important symbolic features of the song. In other words, what does this song mean? What do the individual lyrics mean?
Ultimately, I’m asking you to analyze what the song means and/or what the song is meant to mean (sometimes artists intend things other than what is taken by the audience). And a bit more directly, how can we use sociology to understand it?
Does the song reference other songs or artists? This may require some research.
If we were to look at the three grand theories of sociology, what grand theory do you think best represents this song? Why?

Analyzing small group interaction.
You will have to do some research on the group or singer that released the song. You will want to know the dynamics of the relationships in their lives at the time that they released or wrote the song. This is so you can tie these events to the writing, performance or reception of the song.
You are looking for ways in which the way the group’s social experiences (at the time or during life) affected how or why they would write this song. For example, Eric Clapton’s son dying was the reason he wrote Tears in Heaven. So we’re not just looking for random facts, we’re looking to construct a sociological explanation for why what happened (the song) happened.
As you include things, ask yourself, “Can I make a connection between these events and why this song was written?” because that’s primarily what I’m asking you to be doing.

Analyzing the social structure.
Here, you will have to do research on what is occurring in the world when the song was released and when it did or did not become popular. You want to make major connections of things happening in the larger social structure to the song you chose. These songs were not released in a vacuum.
Do not just find a bunch of things that happened during this year and list them. Think about what things would have an effect on why a song was popular or not. Think of it this way, why was Ice Ice Baby popular in 1989 and why wouldn’t it be popular now (or why wouldn’t it have been popular in 1932)? Lee Greenwood’s I’m Proud to be an American was not popular when it was first released, but became popular after 9/11. These are the sorts of connections I’m asking you to make. You’re looking to construct a sociological framework to explain why the song was received the way it was received and/or written.
As you include things, ask yourself, “Can I make a connection between this and why this song was written or how it was received?” because that’s primarily what I’m asking you to be doing.