Song Annotation Assignment

All of you by now have fairly thorough experience using Rap Genius for annotations. For this assignment, we’ll be taking RG back to its roots (to some extent) and annotating an actual song. You may organize yourselves in groups of up to three, or you may choose to annotate a song by yourself. Either way, choose a song either from the list I will provide or from your own knowledge base that addresses the American dream in some way.

After you annotate the song, you and your group will present it to the class. We’ll first listen to the song and read the lyrics, and then you will walk us through your annotations. This project is intended to be fun, but I do expect quality annotations.

Regarding your choice of songsYour song can be from any country, in any language, and in any genre. Be aware of how popular it is—heavily annotated songs (like Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind," for example) will be more difficult to work with. But you may engage with existing annotations and suggest improvements.

What makes a good annotation?One challenge for this assignment is related to audience. You should relate the song to the American dream and the main historical threads we’ve discussed as much as possible, but you are also writing for a broader audience (of all Rap Genius users) that may have no idea what the American dream is. So the more context you can provide, the better.

A good annotation gives the listener/reader a deeper sense of the meaning of the song, is multimedia (hyperlinks, connections to other texts, photos, videos, links to where we can learn more about the issue, author comments regarding the song, etc.), and ultimately provides a layer of depth and understanding not apparent upon first listen. Unless the song lyric is odd/indecipherable, don't just post a definition, and don't repeat something another annotation already makes clear. Be creative, do research, and have fun with it.