Project Name: “The Times They are a-Changin’”: A Look into Protest Music’s Evolution Throughout the 1950s-1970s
Project Owner: Heather Stokes
Project Summary:
Research Question: What was the evolution of protest music between 1950-1979 due to the events that occurred and how did the music connect with each other based on messages, themes, and events.
The aim of this project is to provide a definition of what protest music is in order to analyze how the music has evolved and how it is used to express opposition to injustice and unifies people from different backgrounds. To do this, there must be a basis for what protest music is, hence the definition, along with an understanding of what events took place over these 3 decades which will be presented as a timeline and event breakdown. There must also be a selection of songs that fit into this category, even those that are considered counterculture to traditional protest music, in which these songs will be broken down to their fundamentals, such as artist, genre, themes and messages, to provide a data analysis of how this music has evolved and stays connected to current events of the time. This analysis will provide context as to how music provides a voice to those who are not typically heard while also allowing for a large platform of the cause that is being sung about. The audience for this project will most likely be current or previous activists along with those who lived throughout the time period who would like context for the music of the time and the response to certain events.
Deliverables:
- Home Page
- Explanation of Project and Definition of Protest Music
- Data:
- Timeline
- List of Overall Events
- Events Tied to Songs
- Artists
- Bios
- Songs
- Genre
- Year
- Themes/Messages
- Event
- Analysis
- Data Visualizations
- Graphs
- Flourish
- Connections
- Anomalies
- Holes
- Data Visualizations
- Timeline
- Tools
- TimelineJS
- Flourish
- Excel
- RAWGraphs
- Sites at Gettysburg
- WordPress and/or Scalar
- Maybe
- SoundCiteJS
- Digital Assets
- Images for Tools and Pages
- Spotify Playlist of Songs to Embed
- Youtube Videos to Embed
- About Section
- About Me
- About the Project and Fellowship
- Sources
Timeline:
- Week 1 – Start
- Learn the Basics of the Program
- Start Timeline Research
- Have Definition of Protest
- Week 2 – Research Part 2 Electric Boogaloo
- Continue Timeline
- Start Event Research
- Choose List of Songs
- Project Charter
- Personal Narrative
- Week 3 – Digital Tool Learning
- Experimentation of Tools
- Figure Out What Tools to Use
- Begin Implementation of Data Into Tools
- Wireframe
- Week 4 – Music
- Artist and Song Data Collection
- Figure Out Artist Bios
- Figure Out What Song Goes to What Event
- Write the About Pages for Website
- Week 5 – Breakdown of Data
- Create Graphs
- Figure Out How Tools and Data Connect
- Figure Out What Final Project Will Look Like
- Data Fully Implemented into Tools
- Visualizations
- Week 6 – Website Implementation
- Create Website – Full Design
- Import Tools and Data into Website
- Bug Fixes
- First Project Draft
- Week 7 – Research Completion and Finalize Website
- Implement Fixes from First Draft
- Smooth Out Design and Flaws
- Implement Any Remaining Info
- Second Project Draft
- Week 8 – Final Wrap-Up
- Clean Everything Up
- Present
- End of Life Plan Implementation
- Party?
End of Life/Future Plans:
This project is primarily centered around music from 1950-1979 which is intended to be fully complete for the data achieved by the end of these 8 weeks. However, a plan for after the DHF is done would be to extend the timeline into the modern day to further see an evolution of this music. For example, asking the question, does protest music exist in the modern day? If this is unattainable, there are plans to preserve this project as it is by either archiving the website or keeping up with the data and tools used in order to ensure bugs or issues are not encountered.
