English Language A2 Coursework

Hi guys, I'm having a bit of a problem with my English Coursework.

I've decided on my subject, its a comparison/analysis of protest songs from the 60's and 70's and the 90's and 00's. I've chosen:

Blowin' In The Wind - Bob Dylan
God Save The Queen - Sex Pistols
Killing In The Name of - Rage Against the Machine
B.Y.O.B - System of a Down

I'm going to take the language change stance on this, and hopefully write about the differences between the two "eras" of protest song.

My main problem is that I don't feel like I have learned anything at all this year. I feel so utterly unprepared for this coursework and my exam, and I desperately need the grades to get into Uni (Computer Science BSc). Does anyone have any resources they can share that could get me more prepared for all of this? And if you have any comments or help for the coursework it would all be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys, hope everyone's having a better day than me! :P

Reply 1

JazzB

2

Don't know how much help it'll be, but I have some notes on Language Change and I found some flash cards on different types of lexical change.

If you're looking at the language change in protest songs, it might be worthwhile trying to find words that are used throughout several (preferably all) of them, and how they have been affected by amelioration/pejoration and the context of the song's lyrics.

You may always want to make reference to the artist's use of metaphor and irony. In terms of metaphor, you can talk about Dylan's use of the phrase 'blowin' in the wind' to mean that the answer is obvious/ever present/all around. In terms of irony you can talk about The Sex Pistols's use of the title/lyrics of the national anthem, typically a celebration of the United Kingdom and Royalism, to do the exact opposite and slander the royals and the way that the country is run etc. etc.

Keeping these two songs in particular in mind, you can also make mention to the way that Dylan contrasts rather dark/horrific imagery (e.g. "how many deaths will it take 'til he knows/that two many people have died") with the "softer" more pleasant connotations of the phrase "blowin' in the wind", which suggests lightness and can be linked to birds etc. - again, typically considered to be pleasant. In contrast to this, you can talk about the way that the Sex Pistol's lyrics are rather blunt and explicit, directly "calling out" the monarchy for the way that they operate. This could be due to geographic contextual factors i.e. Dylan being American and the Pistols being English. However it could also be due to the time difference between the release of the two songs - it could be a fact that following the events of the 1960s, people were generally more desensitized to explicit protesting and as such, the Pistols had more freedom to be explicit than Dylan did.

Hope this helped :smile:

ENGLISH LANGUAGE REVISION - Recovered.docx15.0KB

Types of Lexical Change.pdf34.9KB

Reply 2

The Empire Odyssey

21

Original post by corbandioxide

Hi guys, I'm having a bit of a problem with my English Coursework.

I've decided on my subject, its a comparison/analysis of protest songs from the 60's and 70's and the 90's and 00's. I've chosen:

Blowin' In The Wind - Bob Dylan
God Save The Queen - Sex Pistols
Killing In The Name of - Rage Against the Machine
B.Y.O.B - System of a Down

I'm going to take the language change stance on this, and hopefully write about the differences between the two "eras" of protest song.

My main problem is that I don't feel like I have learned anything at all this year. I feel so utterly unprepared for this coursework and my exam, and I desperately need the grades to get into Uni (Computer Science BSc). Does anyone have any resources they can share that could get me more prepared for all of this? And if you have any comments or help for the coursework it would all be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys, hope everyone's having a better day than me! :P

This isn't for the investigation piece is it?

If it is , you are going to struggle quite badly as far as I'm aware, there isn't any language theory about protest song and etc. You are more likely going to have to look at this in a literary sense, which will not get you afar.

If it's the creative piece, then I suggest you try and find ways of how language is reconstructed for meaning. Maybe you just try something like political songs, rather than protest. Political could be ranging from God Save the Queen to maybe Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' song "Same Love". You can perhaps look at the evolution of slang in popular music? But then, you've got to me careful that you don't end up writing a historical analysis on songwriting.

English Language A2 Coursework

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