User:A.Evanzz/Evaluate an Article

Music and politics - Wikipedia

With regard to the introduction section and the folklore section I think that they both are written in a fairly neutral tone and are neither too academic in their writing style nor too basic for the subject matter. I think that the sections could be structured a bit better as while I appreciate much of the information given, I think that the listing of songs within the American Folk Revival section could be trimmed from the reading. ￼

When looking at the section for contemporary western folk music I think that there is a lot of good information and it builds well off of the last section, but it seems to me that there are quite a few grammatical errors that could be solved to make the section easier to understand. The section of folk music around the world was well done however I feel as though there must be more information about folk music in other parts of the world that could and should have received more attention here. It seems to me that even most of the things referenced still had something to do with the Western World.

When it moves into discussing African American music it begins with the blues which seems like the most logical place to start seeing as how it is the earliest form of music from this group that had political messages, although I think it is important to discuss negro spirituals and their place in this. The section regarding disco music is devoid of citations and is in desperate need of them as it makes many claims with no backing.

The section regarding rock music is very similar to the section that has to do with folk music and its revival in that it is a very deep dive into the music and the artists. In fact, it even breaks it down by what could be considered generations or subgenres of the music. The subsection that had to do with counterculture in the 60s and 70s does not have many citations but has hyperlinks to many other articles about what it is discussing. The section for punk rock music was very in-depth and well written. The section shows that the music was used by both left- and right-wing groups but was more often associated with leftwing groups.

The section on hip hop is sparse to the say the least as it jumps from the music of N.W.A. to Kamikaze by Eminem. It has some good information about very early hip hop music but does not even attempt to go into the same depth that it did with rock music or folk music. It does however show that like all the other forms of music it has been used to promote political activism for both sides. The section that follows on Reggae music is even more sparse and while this one does talk about some of the extremely political effects of the music it barely even scratches the surface for the music and its importance in political consciousness through the interaction that it has with many listeners.

The next section about popular music is a fairly brief section which makes some sense as it is not a highly political genre of music. The information that it gives is good and neutral while being brief. The section on country music has a good number of citations though it needs a few more in my opinion but it also shows that the music can be used for either side of the political spectrum. The sections on classical music still need a lot of work as they lack many citations throughout the sections.

Overall, this article is decent. It has some sections that are much stronger than others and the organization could definitely be improved in some instances like moving hip hop into the category of African American music especially if it is to remain as small as it is currently, and while some sections definitely need to have an increased number of sources throughout it does well in that it keeps a fairly objective view and shows that most if not all of these forms of music (aside from the white power music) could be used to back any political side depending on the artist and their feelings. There are some links that no longer work within the sources that are cited at the end but the majority of the ones that I tested worked. I think that its rating as a start class project on the quality scale is indeed accurate.