Paper Goals / Performance Requirements
You are a social scientist. You will be writing a short paper (max 4 pages, double-spaced, 12-point font text) about how music and communication intersect using your (careful, social scientific) observations at two live music events as your “data.” The paper is not a description of those two events–it is a social scientific examination of a question or thesis about how music and communication intersect. When you write your paper, put yourself in the position of a scientist who is presenting evidence to support a specific and original point about how music and communication intersect, who is using their observations of live music to support that point. Write in a style and format that befits a piece of social science research.
The performances do not need to be “high level” musical events featuring professional musicians and you dont need to pay for tickets. Indeed, I recommend that the events you analyze are “low stakes” — not bands you care about or events you paid a lot of money for. A band at a bar, a school choir performance, a street musician, your friends playing in their garage would all work. You may not use an event in which you are a performer. The event must involve live music (played/created by real people at the event)a DJ works but only if they are creating original musical content (e.g., by mixing creatively; not a DJ who is just organizing a playlist). You do not need to spend money (see separate D2L announcement for suggestions on free events). You must have attended the performances during the current 7-week semester and with awareness of this assignment (i.e., prepared to take notes, etc.). The events must feature contrasting styles or types of music (e.g., classical and pop; jazz and folk, etc.: two EDM concerts wont work). You may not use recorded events (e.g., YouTube concerts) that have not been preselected by the instructor. Do not use your recollection of events you attended in the past.
Observing and Note-Taking
When attending the performances, pay careful attention to performer and audience behavior. Keep detailed notes for at least ten minutes of each performanceyou might find it helpful to observe for longer. Keep notes using the following structure:
Performance 1
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Time
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Observation of behavior
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Interpretation / Analysis
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00:34
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Band introduce themselves; Joke about Tucson heat
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Building rapport with audience?
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00:52.
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Audience member screams I love you to the singer
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Norms here allow audience interaction with artist, low inhibitions. Alcohol? I didnt see the audience screaming at the classical concert I went to.
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Etc.
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In the first column, put the time. In the second, write specific behaviors: manifest or easily observable content. Note anything you see that might be interesting to think about later. In the third, make notes of things that you are inferringideas you have about broader themes that the specific behaviors might represent. These are your interpretations and analysis, not things that are immediately observable.
You will submit your notes along with your final paper, and the quality of the notes is part of your grade (see grading rubric above). These notes are the raw material for the analysis you will report in the paper. Hence, you need detail here aim for at least 500 words of rich, detailed notes per concert. Pay attention to some of the following (IMPORTANT: this is to guide your observations; it is not a structure for your paper):
- Verbal behavior by the musician(s). Do they talk to the audience? Is their communication formal or informal? What are they saying? Is it related to the music or are they talking about other things? What are they accomplishing with their talk? Write their actual words when you can.
- Nonverbal behavior by the musicians(s): What does the nonverbal behavior say about their orientation to the music? Do specific behaviors reflect the content or style of the music? Do any behaviors conflict with the music? Which behaviors are intentional (and what is their intention)? Which are unintentional? How do nonverbal behaviors contribute to the audiences experience? Write details of physical movement.
- Verbal behaviors by the audience: Are people in the audience talking before/during/after the music? What can you hear them talking about? What is their style of communication with one another?
- Nonverbal behaviors by the audience: Are people dancing? Why / why not? What other nonverbal behaviors are occurring? What do those behaviors convey to others in the audience, or the performers?
- The setting: How does the physical and social environment contribute to the experience (or detract from it)? Did people pay to attend? Are the musicians professionals? Are they skilled? Is the audience here primarily for the music? Are you indoors or outdoors? Standing or sitting? What are the social norms here?
Thinking: Have a Point
Once you have attended both performances, reflect on your notes. Think about concepts you have learned in this or other Communication class. Decide on a POINT (a thesis, argument, case, claim, perspective) about music and communication for the paper: use your observations to help you make that point.
Your point might be something about how musicians communicate their ideas, how audience behaviors reflect music, how musicians communicate with each other, etc. The point should be illuminated or informed by the details of the two performances (e.g., in terms of differences between the performances, or different ways the same process emerged in the two contexts). Some things you took notes on wont be in your paper. That is OK: part of your job here is curating your diverse initial observations into a focused argument. Avoid making your point something like: Communication is important in musical performance. That is an assumption of the assignment; you need to say something specific and unique to your observations.
This paper comes at the time in the course when we have just talked about nonverbals (adaptors, illustrators, etc.). Perhaps because that is fresh in your mind, 75% of the papers we read involve descriptions of those things. Thats fine (so long as you have something creative and interesting to say about them). But to set yourself apart from the crowd, think also about other sections of this class and concepts you have learned from other classes!
Before you begin writing, make sure you know what your point will be.
Writing the Paper
Remember: You are a social scientist presenting evidence for a claim. A scientist wouldnt describe how excited they were by the concerts or go off on a tangent about having trouble parking. Provide an analysis of the role of communication in live musical events using your observations as the “raw material” or “data” for your analysis. Be creative in using your observations to support your point. The paper should illustrate your ability to critically analyze communication events and to have something interesting to say about them. See attached template for help keeping to the following structure.
The paper should be organized as follows:
- Title: Have a catchy and creative title that captures the key POINT of your paper (you have a point, right?).
- List of events: List these as bullet points before the text of your paper starts and include all the following information:
- Performance 1: Venue, time and date, artist(s), style of music
- Performance 2: Same information as Performance 1
- Introduction Paragraph. This should state the key POINT your paper will make. The sentence containing your key point should be in bold so that we know exactly what your point is, and you should also have a few sentences elaborating on the point. The point should be creative and specific (see rubric above). Then, briefly outline/preview the key areas of your paper (In this paper, first I will and then I will). [You might want to write the introduction last, so you are certain that it relates to what comes next!]
- Body of the paper. The bulk of the paper should then build a case for your point, drawing on your specific observations to elaborate on that main point. Talk about what particular musicians or audience members did or said at specific moments in the performances to illustrate your point. Organize the body of your paper around key issues relating to your main point, not around the performances. Papers that have a point and illuminate that point by integrating concrete, specific observations from both performances are likely to get good grades. Papers that describe one performance and then describe the other performance will receive low grades. You might organize this with three subpoint paragraphs that relate to your main point, for instance.
- Conclusion. This should address broader issues of musical performance and communication behavior. Having analyzed the performances (in the body), now discuss how your analysis provides broader insight into communication and/or music. If someone were to attend other musical performances, would they see things that would reflect your ideas? If a researcher were to use your ideas, what sort of research might they do? Are there implications for non-musical communication in your analysis? The conclusion is a place for you to stretch yourself and be creative. There are no penalties for going out on a limb!
- References / Works Cited: If you cite any external sources (including the class text) in your paper, provide a reference list with full citations. You may use any style (APA, MLA, etc.), but be consistent. Citations are not required for this paper, but careful use of external sources that materially support your point will be rewarded.
- Appendixes: appendixes are required:
- Appendix A: Your notes must be included as an appendix (and are graded). See earlier for details
Length: Maximum of 4 pages, double-spaced, 12-point font text (this doesnt include the appendices, notes, diagrams, reference list, etc. there is no limit for those). Evaluation will be based on all the issues described above, as well as professional presentation (quality of writing and editing). The final submission must be a SINGLE file including all the above materials (MS Word or PDF). If you have videos, include hyperlinks to them in your document dont embed in the document.
Look at the grading rubric (above), to make sure your paper is doing what we are looking for. You may submit a draft of your paper up to 10 days before the papers due date to get feedback. After that date, you will need to visit office hours to ask specific questions about content; we do not read full drafts in office hours, but we can certainly read short passages (e.g., an introductory paragraph) and offer feedback.
ChatGPT/AI: You are welcome to use AI tools to help you write the paper. However, the primary goal of this paper is for you to generate a unique and interesting thesis statement based on observations that you made. ChatGPT is unlikely to write a convincing paper if you didnt actually attend the events. And it is unlikely to generate a unique, creative, and interesting thesis statement based on the concerts that it didnt attend! IMPORTANT: Content produced by AI is not content that you produced; hence, just as with any other external source, you should cite ChatGPT (or whatever the source is) when you are using an idea that it generated, and you should use “quotation marks” and cite if you are using verbatim a string of more than 3-4 words that some other entity wrote. Most models like ChatGPT plagiarize liberally from other sources; if you submit plagiarized material, saying that you took it from ChatGPT is not an excuse — do your own writing if you want to avoid the chances of this happening. There is more information on use of AI in the announcements area from early in the class.
If you’ve read the syllabus, yes, it’s true! You may take a 48-hour extension on the due date for this paper with no penalty, and without needing to ask. Enjoy.
Appendix: Writing in First Person
In parts of the paper, you will be describing your own reactions, observations, or ideas. In those places, it is fine to use “I” and “me.” But remember that you are not the subject of your paper, so do this judiciously.
Situations where writing in the first person is a good idea (in moderation):
- You are describing how you made your observations (e.g., I observed from a seat in the balcony, about 70 feet from the main stage is better than the passive The concert was observed from a seat in the balcony.). Dont overdo it, though once you have set the stage for how you made the observations, you dont need to remind us of that (see first bullet in the next section).
- You are describing your own emotional responses to a performance (e.g., The bass solo in the third song gave me chills is much better than gave one chills or a statement that you cant support such as everyone got chills).
- You are making a broad claim for which you know you dont have a huge amount of evidence and want to qualify it (e.g., Based on these, admittedly limited, observations, I think that musical performances can). The I think in this sentence tells your reader that you are going out on a limband we want you to do that in this paper. Please take risks and try saying something controversial or original. Once youve said it once, however, dont feel you need to qualify every related claim. One I think goes a long way.
Situations where it might be a bad idea:
- Descriptions of the fact that you are making the observations. I saw that the drummer was regularly pushing his hair out of his eyes can just be written as The drummer was regularly pushing his hair out of his eyes. This is a factual observation, and we know you are the one who observed it.
- Extended narratives about attending the event (e.g., On the day of the concert, I washed my hair, feeling super-excited about the musical treats awaiting me, and ordered the Uber about 45 minutes ahead of show time.). Unless your personal experiences are directly relevant to the point you are making about musical communication, minimize this sort of narrative.
- Descriptions of your paper writing process (e.g., When I first started writing this paper, I was expecting to discuss nonverbal communication, but then I got really interested in the verbal communication by the artists). If you went through an intellectual journey to write the paper, thats fantastic. But you dont need to explain that journey to us.
Music event 1: Beyond Wonderland Southern California. Date: March 27-28, 2026
- Beyond Wonderland Southern California 2026 is a two day electronic dance music festival produced by Insomniac at the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino, held on March 27 and 28, 2026. It is an 18+ event and is known for turning the venue into a large, fantasy themed experience inspired by Alice in Wonderland. For someone who has never heard of it, the easiest way to describe it is as a 6 stage, massive rave and music festival where people go to see well known DJs, explore highly decorated stages and art installations, and dress up in colorful, creative outfits. The event blends live dance music with immersive production, including themed visuals, performers, and a storybook style atmosphere that makes it feel more like entering a different world than just going to a concert.
- Music event 2: CRSSD Music Festival, San Diego. Date: March 14-15, 2026
- CRSSD Music Festival in San Diego is a two day electronic music festival held at Waterfront Park downtown. It is a 21+ event known for focusing on house, techno, and related dance music, with multiple stages, waterfront views, food and drinks, and a more polished city festival feel than a camping festival or massive rave.
A template for the paper is attached
- attached are also two reference photos for what the fesitivals look like, but you dont need to include them yourself.