Themes


 * Theme Album: Music Video**

T**his is the central project of our Poetry in Motion unit. In our theme album, you will create an album using three songs that share a common theme, and create a poem to serve as the lyrics to a fourth song that will complete your album. You must use songs from three different artists, but you can use the same genre. Again please post: a link to the lyrics of the songs you chose, writers, artist, and year released. Next you will create a music video for you song by developing a digital poem combining images with words or narration. A good digital poem will include words, imagery, and backgroud music. Please make sure to credit all your sources! You can find free music to use from this site: [|Jamendo]**
 * If you are working with a partner on this project, please find five songs to use in addition to your own.**
 * When you have completed your project please create a discussion thread so that others are able to respond to your work. Likewise, please respond to at least three others work. Here is the rubric for this assignment[[file:Digital Poem Rubric.xls]]**


 * Social Justice: Rock and Rebel**


 * [|Tool: "Right in Two"]** Written by Maynard James Keenan, Adam Jones, Danny Carey, and Justin Chancellor. 2006

[|Bob Dylan: "Maggie's Farm"] Written by Bob Dylan. 1965

[|Rage Against the Machine: "Testify"] Written by Zack de la Rocha, Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk. 2000

These songs all have a central theme of social justice. In Tool's "Right in two" the lyrics question why we as a society continue to fight one another rather than sharing what we have been given: "Monkey killing monkey killing monkey Over pieces of the ground/Silly monkeys give them thumbs/they forge a blade/And where there's one/They're bound to divide it/Right in two." The song has a focus of social justice because it is proposing that we have enough of the things we need in this world, and rather than fighting over possessions like animals, we can learn to share in peace. The line "and where there's one/they're bound to divide it/right in two" suggests the possessive nature of humanity that the artist is suggesting. The element of fighting is suggested by the lines: "Give them thumbs/they forge a blade" In this line the artist is suggesting that rather than using our intellingence to improve our society, we have used our abilities to create war tools-to fight and possess. This song makes me think of all the wars fought over //things//: diamonds, drugs, land, ect. That is why I think this song demonstrates a clear theme of social justice. Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" is a song about the power structure of the working class and the wealthy. In the lyrics we see a person fighting this power imbalance: "I've got a head full of ideas that are driving me insane/It's a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor/I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more." In this we see an undervalued individual; a person with a head full of ideas but who is relegated to scrubbing the floor. This song is about social justice because if focuses on the inheritant inequality of our society and in a rally call for people to take a stand, to leave Maggie's farm. Rage Against the Machine's "Testify" is about corruption and deception within society. In the lyrics it is discussed how we have been blind to the injustice that surrounds us, but now it is a time to recognize this: "My slaving sweating the skin right off my bones/On a bed of fire I'm choking on the smoke that fills my home/The wrecking ball is rushing/Witness your blushing/The pipeline is gushing/While here we lie in tombs/While on the corner/The jury's sleepless/We found your weakness" This song specifically focuses on the fighting over oil, and all the harmful things that have been done to secure this oil. However the song is also a warning to the proponents of this fighting, saying that it is now time you recieved justice.

Here is an example of a digital poem: [|Into Nothing] by Nick Schreiber