1. "Smith and Jones Forever" by Silver Jews and "I Live In A Trailer Park" by Everything, Now! are two songs that attempt to create representations of the United States. Listen to both songs and then discuss the use of tone, hyperbole and logic in each. Do you find authors' observations fair, persuasive, unjustified? Listen to "Smith and Jones Forever" here and read the lyrics here. Listen to "I Live In A Trailer Park" here , and listen carefully to the words, as the lyrics don't appear to be availabe online.
2. Listen to the song Cattle and the Creeping Things by The Hold Steady. What argument does lead singer Craig Finn make while telling the story? What type of rhetorical strategies does he employ? Do you think he's advocating for Christianity or against it? Download the song here. Read the lyrics here.
3. Listen to the song "The Corner" by Common (feat. Kanye West and The Last Poets). Given the observations Common makes during the three main verses, are the spoken-word verses by The Last Poets compelling? What type of rhetorical strategies are employed in the song? Cite evidence from the song to support your claim. Lyrics here.
4. Listen to the song "Ashes of American Flags" by Wilco. Is there an argument being made here? If so, what is it, and how do the music or words or both help the argument along? Cite evidence from the song to support your claim. Download the mp3 here. Read the lyrics here.
5. Listen to these two songs: Toby Keith's Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue: The Angry American and Green Day's American Idiot. Who is the intended audience for each song? Cite evidence from the music and the lyrics to support your analysis. What logical fallacies can you find in both songs? Lyrics for songs can be found here (Toby Keith) and here (Green Day).
6. Custom Concern and Doin' The Cockroach are two songs by Modest Mouse that deal with social issues. The band uses rhetorical devices in both their language and their music. What are their arguments? What rhetorical devices do you notice? Are they successful? Why or why not? Click here for Custom Concern lyrics. Click here for Doin' the Cockroach lyrics.
7. Does the following song, Light Pollution by Bright Eyes, represent an effective social action? If so why and how? If not, what could be changed to make it more effective? To read the lyrics, click here.
8. Mary Jo by Belle and Sebastian is a song that rhetorically explores identity through both analysis and evaluation. What do you think the identity that is rhetorically constructed in the song would represent if manifested in a real person? What are the implications of rhetorically constructing "people"? Click here to read the lyrics.
9. Listen to I'll Replace You with Machines by Guided by Voices. Then read the lyrics here Decide who the speaker addressing in the song? How does this "assumed" audience affect the meaning of this piece of rhetoric?
10. In Radiohead's "Idioteque," lead singer Thom Yorke seems to be issuing a warning. What is the nature of his warning, and do you find it compelling? Listen to the song here , and read the lyrics here.
11. Listen to "Dear Sons and Daughters and Hungry Ghosts" by Wolf Parade. Read the lyrics, and then try to determine who you think the sons and daughters the lead singer mentions in the song are. What type of message is constructed by the lyrics? Listen to the song here and read the lyrics here.
12. Listen to Bad Religion's song American Jesus and decide whether the arguments are sound. Which parts of the song, if any, contain logical fallacies? How is the song's argument constructed? How is pacing important as a rhetorical strategy? Read the lyrics here.
13. Listen to the Weakerthans' song entitled Plea from a Cat Named Virtute. Who is the speaker? How does this effect the rhetorical value of the argument? What roll do delivery and emphasis play in the success of this message? You can read the lyrics here.
14. How do oxymoron and irony work in the argument contained in Ani DiFranco's song, Gravel? What pathos and ethos strategies does Ani employ to support her claims? Read the lyrics here.
15. The Crooked Fingers song, Doctors of Deliverance, uses narrative techniques to create a story. How does this narrative enhance the argument in the song? Is story telling a successful rhetoricasl strategy? Why or why not? Can you think of examples of this strategy that you have seen recently? Read the lyrics here.
16. Listen to Agenda Suicide by The Faint. What type of social action do you think this constitutes? Is it successful? Why or why not? View the lyrics here.
17. How does the Propagandhi song Anti-Manifesto handle its audience? Is this effective? Why or why not? Read the lyrics here.
18. Cursive's song, The Recluse, creates an interesting rhetorical situation. Do your best to explain it, then analyze it in rhetorical terms? How is it simple? How is it complex? Is there room for ambiguity? Read the lyrics here.
19. Listen to Man-O-War by Eric Bachmann. Read the lyrics here. This song uses many complex allusions. Do your best to explain some of these allusions. Also, do you think the simplistic delivery works for or against the lyrics?
20. Listen to Another Man's Vine by Tom Waits. How does the delivery work with the argument? What does mood do for the argument? How can you create mood in an essay? Read the lyrics here.
21. Listen to Resistance Is Futile by Jets to Brazil. How do you interpret the message of this song? Support your claims with specific references to the song. Here are the lyrics for reference.
