Process Paper
Music is an essential part of life. We Americans listen to music in our homes and our cars, however, controversial music is becoming more popular and we need to be aware of its affects.
On the first day of school we learned the theme of National History Day, "Rights and Responsibilities". We began to consider various topics such as the Berlin Wall, World War II and several others. Then we came across an article in the LA Times discussing lyric content and the images of rising music stars such as Eminem and Christina Aguilera. After careful consideration we decided this topic related to the Rights and Responsibilities theme. We then began our research.
In order to conduct our research we immediately went to the web. Google connected us to links that dealt with our topic. Certain links dealt with the PMRC, Parental Music Research Center, and historic Quotes from famous philosophers. Our next step was to visit the library to find books. We discovered books with useful information on Tipper Gore, the creator of parental advisories, and the first amendment rights from our A.E. Wright library. Then we wrote and received extremely informative and helpful letters from Tipper Gore and Bill Clinton. After that, we interviewed Clive Davis, President of RCA and J Records. Finally, we surveyed students on A.E. Wright campus, and adults from a variety of place.
We now had to decide what the best way to present our topic and prove our opinion would be. Originally we planned to create a documentary to present our project. Then one of our group members came up with the idea of a website after receiving a letter from Tipper Gore, so we could show the letter. We finally decided that this would be the best way to showcase our presentation because we could display our letters and results from surveys. Also we thought a website was much more interactive. One member of our group was knowledgeable and experienced in creating websites. So with her help, we started to work on our website. First we designed the layout for our website. We then learned about HTML (hypertext mark up language), and began our website. Meanwhile, we downloaded, scanned, saved and copies all-important information that we thought was useful to our project. Then we transferred it to our website and made our bibliography and process paper.
Our project relates to the "Rights and Responsibilities" them in numerous ways. First of all, our topic discusses the constitutional rights of music artists. For example, the freedom to write, sing and sell their music. Our project also discusses how parents are responsible to be aware of what their children are listening to and how it affects them. Though the music kids listen to does influence them, the musicians aren't responsible for how kids are affected by their music.
Music is an art and should be expressed however the artist prefers. If certain music is popular among kids, their parents need to be aware of its influence.