Song Selection for Essays

I am a believer in the strength and power that music can hold in our lives. I am also a believer in the difficulty of writing essays. Thus I believe that there must be some way to harness the power inherent within music to amplify essay writing abilities.

The Topic Selection Phase

First thing to do is choose what one is going to write about. As you need excitement and motivation to begin, I recommend synthpop. This style of music excites you and taps into what you are passionate about and as such what you will find most enjoyable to write about! I opted for the Spanish synthpop music project Culture Kultur.

The Sources Finding Phase

At this stage you should be selecting what you are going to be using to base your opinions on. These should be academic works from which you are going to construct your argument. The suitable genre here is country or folk. While many turn away from this style of music because it is not 'cool', I find it strangely relaxing and often sets one into a more clear-minded and focused mood so that you can browse the library catalogue with ease. I chose Suzanne Vega as her songs will not be too alien to the person still unsure about folk.

The Research Phase

You need to read through your materials now. In this part, one needs to absorb information for future reference. As such there can't be an engaging song to distract your mind. Nevertheless, music quality is vital. Steve Reich is possibly one of the most brilliant musicians and composers alive today. I selected the start of 'Music for 18 Musicians' to get you started, hopefully from there you can explore his other incredible masterpieces to help you in reading those long works of academia!

The Writing Phase

This stage is self explanatory. You finally get to formulate your ideas and arguments, quote your sources and all that. This is a hard phase to support musically. You need to have passion and interest in your topic and views but also clarity of mind in order to express them coherently! I chose Beethoven's famous Symphony no. 5 first movement and also balanced it with Eric Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1. These works will help you with your work I'm sure.

The Re-Drafting Phase

As we all should know, in writing an essay the first draft is always disappointing and it is easy to get waylaid at this point. Therefore an appropriate genre would be one that stirs you up and makes you angry in order for you to get back and complete the jolly thing. Stay away from depressing music, you need to fight the fragmented sentences and awkward paragraphs and correct it! I have chosen a nice fast alternative rock song from Anberlin. Listen to the music and focus on making your essay awesome!

The Citation Phase

This is the time when you go along and check that you have used the correct format for acknowledging your references etc. You need a song to get you excited, cheer you up, make you feel sad and calm you down all at the same time! A tall order for some but I have selected Scottish Indie Pop band, Bis for the challenge.

The Submission Phase

Congratulations you are finished! You just need your name student ID and to hand it in. A perfect song would make you feel relieved, relaxed and refreshed. Thus, I chose, in the spirit of promoting grossly underrated bands, the indie pop band Tiger Baby.

Of course results may vary and you may have to find your own special mix to get that typing done. Nevertheless I only have one objective - to persuade you that by using music you can get an A!

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