Last night, searching through youtube I came across something very interesting. My favorite band (and Jason Webley, very interesting man who opened for them...plays the accordion, and i will add, he plays it rather stylishly) covered "Living on a Prayer" by Jon Bon Jovi. I thought this was an interesting selection because The Dresden Dolls (my favorite band) don't strike me as Bon Jovi fans. So, the video began and several things made me want to turn it off: at first there was no visual image, then they just started to play and the quality was bad, and the video quality was not clear ...But then it happened.
Something that I think is exceptionally cool. They stopped playing. And the three of them proceeded to analyze the lyrics of the song. What was happening (in my eyes) was a visual critical paper. They presented their argument, their thesis, and then they provided examples to support their thesis. I thought this was extraordinary. They looked at this song critically and reflected upon it. I love artist's social commentaries on other performer's work. So here is the video, watch it, it is brilliant.
Similarly, in the classroom, I would show my students this clip and then tell them to do the same thing. I would assign them to look critically at a song, analyze and interpret it, and give a visual response. I think that is a very cool assignment, I know as a student I would love to do it.
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