L3 Civilisation britannique – Popular Culture in the UK
since 1945
L’examen de deuxième session posait la question suivante
« Popular music is not just about melody
and words. It is about who we wish we were. » Discuss, giving plenty of
examples from British popular music since 1945.
Many of the answers were fine. Here are some of the main problems
encountered.
The first is with the analysis of
the question : "popular music is about who we wish we were". That means it
is about imagining we are someone else. A typical answer would be first to show
some ways in which this is true (the young person who had to work in a rather
uninteresting office during the week could be a punk or a mod or a metalhead at
weekends), and then to show some ways in which popular music means other things
which are not connected with pretending to be someone else.
A commmon mistake was to write an essay about another subject – usually the
use of popular music in political protest. This is very interesting, but that
was not the question.
Another major mistake was to give French or American examples to
illustrate what the student wanted to say. This is an exam about British
popular culture since 1945. If you use mostly French or US examples, you are
telling the examiner that you know nothing about British examples.
It is also a
good idea to avoid using extremely famous examples. If the only British groups
you mention are the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, well these are examples that
everyone is aware of whether or not they have followed a course on British
popular culture since 1945 : better to avoid them, because they are not
impressing the examiner.
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