Analysis of Baby Song by the Raincoats

You will write a 1600-1800 word essay describing what you hear happening in "Baby Song" by The Raincoats (from their album, Odyshape). Using time-code (the minutes and seconds after the song starts that an event you're noting happens) describe the texture of the music and how it changes throughout song. These observations should be empirical - that is describe what something sounds like to you (you don't have to accurately identify what is making the sound; an you can mak up words - "sounds like whoooshhhishh" would be fine). For example: "The song starts with a steady rustling noise (maybe a drum); there's no groove yet" or "At 00:43 a high voice sings [try to transcribe the lyrics] and about 6 seconds later whispering voices fade in - talking not singing - saying [try to transcribe the lyrics]; the high singing voice seems far away and the whispering/speaking voices seem close, right in my ear." Try to transcribe all of the lyrics. Discuss the lyrics as you hear them rather than as how you read them; that is, if you cannot understand the lyrics at a given point in the song, tell me when that point is, describe why you can't understand the lyrics, and discuss how what is audible but not understandable impacts your impression/interpretation of the song (however, the lyrics are available online - genius.com/The-raincoats-baby-song-lyrics - you can refer to these to check how what you heard and understood lines up with the lyrics as written; if you have room this might enter your discussion as well). This should be a part of a more general discussion about the affect of the song, how you perceive the various sounds of the texture (including the voices) together with the lyrical content working as a whole.
Do not include a formal introduction and conclusion (that is, do NOT tell me what you're going to do in the paper at the beginning and then tell me what you just did at the end).
This assignment should NOT include any history about British post-punk, the Raincoats, Odyshape, or "Baby Song"; it is strictly about what you are hearing and how you are experiencing what you are hearing. THERE SHOULD BE NO CITATIONS.
Given the previous point, write in the first person - "I", "me", etc. - the paper is about your listening experience. Do not conjecture on how others might hear it or what the popularity of the song might be in relation to other pop-after-rock.
Use an informal voice in your writing, as if you were writing to a friend. However, you will be marked on grammar; what you're saying has to be clear and coherent. I recommend you read your writing out loud (preferably to someone you trust to be frank with you) before you submit; I have found that's a good way to know if what you have written is what you mean to say.
Here's a rubric:
55%: Your description of distinct sound events that take place in "Bay Song": how they sound; when they occur (when they start and stop); if an event involves lyrics, what the words are if they are clearly understandable and what they seem to be or sound like if they are not clear.

Baby Song AssignmentPosted on: Monday, May 4, 2020 12:19:38 PM EDT Hi everyone,
Just because the time-frame for this course is so compressed, I would recommend that you start the Baby Song Assignment sooner than later.
I've made some additions to the explanation of the assignment that I hope will help:
You will write a 1600-1800 word essay describing what you hear happening in "Baby Song" by The Raincoats (from their album, Odyshape). Using time-code (the minutes and seconds after the song starts that an event you're noting happens) describe the texture of the music and how it changes throughout song. These observations should be empirical - that is describe what something sounds like to you (you don't have to accurately identify what is making the sound; an you can mak up words - "sounds like whoooshhhishh" would be fine). For example: "The song starts with a steady rustling noise (maybe a drum): there's no groove yet" or "At 00:43 a high voice sings [try to transcribe the lyrics] and about 6 seconds later whispering voices fade in - talking not singing - saying [try to transcribe the lyrics]; the high singing voice seems far away and the whispering/speaking voices seem close, right in my ear." Try to transcribe all of the lyrics. Discuss the lyrics as you hear them rather than as how you read them; that is, if you cannot understand the lyrics at a given point in the song, tell me when that point is, describe why you can’t understand the lyrics, and discuss how what is audible but not understandable impacts your impression/interpretation of the song (however, the lyrics are available online - genius.com/The-raincoats-baby-song-lyrics - you can refer to these to check how what you heard and understood lines up with the lyrics as written; if you have room this might enter your discussion as well). This should be a part of a more general discussion about the affect of the song, how you perceive the various sounds of the texture (including the voices) together with the lyrical content working as a whole.
• Do not include a formal introduction and conclusion (that is, do NOT tell me what you’re going to do in the paper at the beginning and then tell me what you just did at the end).
• This assignment should NOT include any history about British post-punk, the Raincoats, Odyshape, or "Baby Song”; it is strictly about what you are hearing and how you are experiencing what you are hearing. THERE SHOULD BE NO CITATIONS.
• Given the previous point, write in the first person - "I", "me", etc. - the paper is about your listening experience. Do not conjecture on how others might hear it or what the popularity of the song might be in relation to other pop-after-rock.
• Use an informal voice in your writing, as if you were writing to a friend. However, you will be marked on grammar: what you're saying has to be clear and coherent. I recommend you read your writing out loud (preferably to someone you trust to be frank with you) before you submit; I have found that's a good way to know if what you have written is what you mean to say.
Here's a rubric:
55%: Your description of distinct sound events that take place in "Bay Song”: how they sound; when they occur (when they start and stop); if an event involves lyrics, what the words are if they are clearly understandable and what they seem to be or sound like if they are not clear.
25%: Your discussion about the affect of the song, how you perceive the various sounds of the texture (including the voices) together with the lyrical content working as a whole; that is, your response to your listening experience.
20%: Language use (clarity, coherence, grammar, spelling)
cheers,
Martin

More on the Baby Song assignentPosted on: Monday, May 11, 2020 7:01:03 PM EDT Hi everyone,
Someone asked if they could see an example of a successful Baby Song assignment. I'm afraid that wouldn't work. The writing should be personal and casual; there's no one right way to do it and by way of it being personal I don’t want you to follow an example beyond what I’ve supplied in the assignment description. But look at that description really carefully! I gave the example: "The song starts with a steady rustling noise (maybe a drum); there’s no groove yet"; you could start your paper like that -remember there should be no formal introduction. On the other hand, you're supposed to give your impression of the affect the song has on you, so you could start with something like: "I have never heard a song like the Raincoat's "Baby Song" before. I especially find the way they use their voices and treat the lyrics strange and disorienting, but it still really gets under my skin [of course, you’d only say something like that if you meant it; and if you do make generalizations like the one I just made, be sure to remember to get back to it and get more into the specifics of what you mean]. However the song doesn't start with the voices, it starts with a steady rustling sound [...]". Remember, most of your mark will be based on how carefully you tell me the details around what things change/enter/drop-out during the song so really focus on that; for instance. I heard 10 different sonic events between the the initial "rustling" and 00:43 when the high voice comes in. You're not expected to notice everything I do (and maybe you'll notice different happenings or more happenings than me!) but the more detail you call attention to the better you'll do.
You're telling me what you hear and occasionally you're telling what you think about what you hear - how you grasp it how it makes you feel, questions that arise from your experiences listening to the song. And you're writing it as if you were writing a diary or letter to a friend.
Make sure you do not write less than 1600 words if you're hoping for a good mark; this shouldn't be hard - there's always more to notice and more impressions to share
I hope this helps!
cheers,
Martin
25%: Your discussion about the affect of the song, how you perceive the various sounds of the texture (including the voices) together with the lyrical content working as a whole; that is, your response to your listening experience.
20%: Language use (clarity, coherence, grammar, spelling)
The songs that I have listed as belonging to the 12 Mixtapes (one Mixtape per module) are songs you have to access somehow, most probably through finding them on the internet, either to stream or download (previous announcements have suggested a few different places they can be found). I want you to listen to these songs because I think they're important (and, for the most part, kind of wonderful). They are one set of musical artifacts through which to discuss ideas around the history of Pop After Rock. But as I hope I've made clear in various locations throughout the course materials, thousands of other songs that could have been selected that are important as well, and which would have given rise to other stories and histories (and your final assignment involves you choosing one that I omitted and arguing why it should be in the course).
But getting back to the songs I chose: I have made a podcast about every song from every Mixtape; each podcast contains excerpts of the song in question along with a bit of history and some of my ideas around why I think the song matters. As I said in an earlier announcement, be sure to take notes on the info/ideas contained in each podcast; your knowledge of the podcasts (along with the Module writing and the info in the video intros) will be tested in the quizzes.
The idea behind me presenting the lists of songs as Mixtapes is mostly for fun; I find listening to the Mixtape as a whole, all the songs one after another, to be a provocative way to take in an idiosyncratic cross-section of some of what was happening in certain societies' popular music cultures in a given five-year period. I think you should listen to all of your playlists all the way through at one time as well, but I will never know if you did or not.