User:JQGRAY/Choose an Article

Tune-family
The concept of a tune-family is an interesting topic that I'd like to explore. A tune-family is a set of musical melodies from different songs that have a similar structure, often due to their distantly shared origins. The existing article is an extremely short stub, and some of it is a bit tricky to read and understand. Of my three proposals, this one would be the most ambitious and perhaps not wise to take on, as it's somewhat esoteric and theoretical, not to mention the fact that the existing article is quite small. With that said, the concept is one that's always been of interest to me, so it could be an excellent opportunity to do a deep dive into the theory of tune-family and an opportunity to be an early pioneering author of a stub article.

Zydeco
The start-class article for zydeco has some sections that are much stronger than others. What caught my attention is that it lacks any thorough or meaningful description of the genre, focusing almost entirely on the history. I would like to contribute a brief but thorough description of the genre, rigorously backed up by music theory analysis. The page for Cajun music, other than some hints of un-encyclopedic language, is a good example of an article that describes the genre in words rather than simply stating its influences.

Some sections use wide range of references and their claims are cited by multiple sources. Others, however, seem to lack sufficient verification (See: Early history, Post-war history).

Overall structure and organization needs improvement. I'm seeing requests in the talk page for this as well.

Part of my interest to contribute to this article comes from my upbringing in Ithaca, NY, an area with a thriving Zydeco music scene. A friend of mine grew up playing Zydeco on a Cajun accordion and I've tried to learn some tunes from him and I was stunned by how intricate and challenging the rhythms can be, even as a fairly confident accordionist. I've always found the Zydeco sound, as well as Cajun music, to be some of the most infectious, lively, and rhythmically rich music, and would love to do a deep-dive analysis on the theory, and possibly even go into some of the fascinating history behind the cultural melting pot that was Zydeco's origin (though it seems like the article already has a great deal of history covered, so maybe I'll focus specifically on musical analysis).

Clogging
The start-class article for clogging, a style of folk dance popular throughout various parts of Appalachia, is off to a good start but has work to be done. For one, the description section lacks references. Second, the article does not explain much of the cultural history behind clogging, make any reference of contemporary clogging communities, or identify any notable cloggers.

Tune-family
Cowdery, James R. “A Fresh Look at the Concept of Tune Family.”

Zydeco
Tisserand, Michael. The Kingdom of Zydeco. 1st ed. New York: Arcade Pub., 1998. Print.

Ancelet, Barry Jean. “Zydeco/Zarico: Beans, Blues and Beyond.” Black Music Research Journal, vol. 8, no. 1, University of Illinois Press, 1988, pp. 33–49, https://doi.org/10.2307/779502. 

Clogging
Frost, Helen, Jesse Feiring Williams, and Ruth Garland. The Clog Dance Book. New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1925. Print.