Commercial Success

Question 1

1. Identify at least three musical characteristics that were essential to early African American music. For each of those characteristics, explain how they functioned in slave shouts or ring shouts, and how they functioned in early blues styles or spirituals.

2. Compare/contrast country blues and classic blues: discuss the musical and/or cultural origins of each style, explain three musical characteristics of each style, and identify the relative commercial success of each style. Name two country blues performers and two classic blues performers.

Question 2
This exercise requires you to get the “lay of the land” of a scholarly article in your discipline. These articles are often complex and jargon-ridden, and they are difficult to read since undergraduates are not their target audience. Still, the university now expects undergraduates to read them and cite them in their papers.

To complete this exercise, please do the following:

• Search the university databases for a scholarly article from your discipline that is both current and relevant to your field.
• Read Karen Rosenberg’s “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources,” and review the online interactive tool, the “Anatomy of a Scholarly Article.”
• Use the knowledge you have acquired from reading the Rosenberg article the “Anatomy of a Scholarly Article” interactive and read the scholarly article you chose for this assignment.
• Using that article, complete the “Reading a Scholarly Article Worksheet” (I attached it)

Using the reading strategies you learned from Karen Rosenberg’s essay, “Reading Games,” and the “Anatomy of a Scholarly Article” interactive, scan the scholarly article you chose for this exercise. Next, read the article carefully. Finally, use your article to respond to each item listed below and then complete the Analysis and Reflection section at the end. Enter your responses directly on the worksheet attached. Save the worksheet.