Playlist Progress Review

            Prior to taking this Music and Literature senior seminar, all that I knew about music and literature was that songs and writing both involve language.  For example, the lyrics of songs could sound like poetry set to music.  I also thought that people cannot read music or listen to literature because of the human senses involved with music and literature.  After taking this course, though, I learned that music and literature are actually interdisciplinary.  For example, music and literature both convey emotions about fundamental themes within the human experience.  In fact, understanding music and literature involves all of the senses.  Since they both involve the humanities, I now know that music and literature offer ideas about what it means to be human.  Specifically, music that my classmates listen to is different from the music that I personally listen to, but that reveals our uniqueness.  I might not be the same as someone else, but all people share the basic humanity that makes the world the diverse place that it is.

            The experiences I had in this class contributed to my current knowledge of Music and Literature by revealing to me different facets about these two entities.  For example, before performing Darwinian analysis on the Beach Boys, I never thought that music would evolve along with society.  Interestingly, the Beach Boys still has a seminal quality that affects people in the twenty-first century even though this music group was popular during the 1960s.  Therefore, the impact that music has on people reveals the universal quality of music.  Additionally, I realized that music and literature both have many dimensions that define people.  Specifically, the music of the Beach Boys defined a generation, which reveals how music has a history of its own.  Society might be different today, but there are still some commonalities that people share because they are still fundamentally human no matter how to world changes as time passes.

            In terms of my Playlist, I still need to revise my writing based on feedback that Dr. Ramey provided for me.  It is true that I am still working on my blog, but I am learning how to take constructive criticism so that I am able to improve my writing without feeling ridiculed.  So far, I have at least rough drafts of the different sections of my Playlist up online.  Between now and the end of the course, my plan is to revise the writing as much as I can so that I am able to make my Playlist the best that it can possibly be.  I also need to make sure to include more peer-reviewed scholarly secondary sources to make my work more credible.  I could do this my doing research in databases like JSTOR.  My blog is not yet complete, but I am proud to admit that I still have a prototype of what my blog could be by the end of the course.  More importantly, my Playlist will be a reflection of who I am, and reveal everything that I had learned in this course.

            Finally, remembering to work at a steady pace will help me complete my Playlist calmly.  I can remind myself that if I do sections of my Playlist at a time, and really focus, then I can have a satisfying outcome at the end of the quarter.  I can also take advantage of my free time by working on a particular section instead of procrastinating.  If I find a few moments to spare, I could just log on to my blogger account so that I can revise my writing.  I must admit that I have also been busy with errands and personal issues, but I am learning to take advantage of the time I have.  I also like to tell myself that if I feel like I have free time, I could log onto my blog and work on my Playlist instead of wasting time.  Time really is of the essence, but I am reminding myself to simply stay calm and focus.  Finally, panicking would not be appropriate, but focus and dedication with my work can help me ensure success as I create my own Playlist as a blog.