Rock Music: The Most Influential Band The Beatles

Write one or two paragraphs on the subject of influences for your chosen song.

Influence is a complex issue and requires specific musical details to establish any claim you wish to make. It is not sufficient to make a statement about influence, even if echoing one made by artist him or herself, without musical information which concretely establishes the connection between aspects of your chosen song and music by the band/artist you wish to assert as an influence.

Also, it may well be the case that a band has been influenced by several earlier bands, but the various specific areas of influence may not be expressed in any single song. For example, although your chosen artist/band may, indeed, have been influenced by the Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, and John Denver (hypothetically...), you may not find evidence to support all those artists as influences on the particular song you have chosen for your analysis project. Influences which cannot be supported analytically in your chosen song should be omitted from your paper; use only those influences for which you can actually trace the musical features which are common to both your song and the artist(s) you hold to have influenced it.

Finally, if you are commenting about the influence your chosen song has had on artists which follow it in rock music history, you must again support your assertions with specific musical details which establish the particulars of the influence you perceive your song to have had on those artists. Note that is not essential for this assignment, or for the Analysis Paper, that you establish the influence of your song on later artists. But if you feel that doing so enhances the reader's understanding of your chosen song, it is certainly an acceptable option, though it must not replace a discussion of antecedents/earlier influences.