Проектная работа "Музыка как универсальный язык общения подростков"

МУНИЦИПАЛЬНОЕ АВТОНОМНОЕ ОБЩЕОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕДЕНИЕ              ЛИЦЕЙ №7 Г.ТОМСКА

ПРОЕКТНАЯ РАБОТА ПО АНГЛИЙСКОМУ ЯЗЫКУ

 «МУЗЫКА КАК УНИВЕРСАЛЬНЫЙ ЯЗЫК ОБЩЕНИЯ ПОДРОСТКОВ»

Music is the universal language of teenagers

Работу  выполнила: ученица 6  «В» класса   МАОУ лицея №7 г.Томска                                                                                                              Жаворонкова Даша                                                                                        Руководитель:    учитель английского языка, Лазарева С.В.

ТОМСК 2015

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………….……………………….......... 4
2. Music and culture ………………………………………………………….4
3. Music of 21-st century …………………….……………………………….5
4. Types of music ……………………………………………………………. 7
5. Conclusion……………………………………………………………….. ..9
6. The list of literature……………………………..........................................10
7. Enclosures……………………………………………………..…………..11

The aim of the project work: prove that music is very important for teenagers, it helps them to communicate.

Цель проектной работы: доказать, что музыка очень важна для подростков, она помогает им общаться.

The project tasks:

• Explore the influence of music on teens’ life;
• Find out the teens’ attitude to different styles of music;
• Find out the similarity of Russian and British teenagers’ musical views;
• Tell about music in my life.

Задачи проекта: 

•  Исследовать влияние музыки на жизнь подростков;
•  Выяснить отношение подростков к различным стилям музыки;
•  Найти сходство музыкальных предпочтений русских и британских подростков;
•  Рассказать о музыке в моей жизни.

The hypothesis: Suppose that music has a great influence on teens’ life, it can be a universal language of teenagers.

Гипотеза: Предположим, что музыка имеет огромное влияние на жизнь подростков, она может выступать универсальным языком общения подростков.

        Introduction

Why have I chosen this theme?  Many people say that music is a waste of time. I don’t think so. To my mind - music is supposed to be interesting for everybody.  I cannot imagine my life without music. Teenagers all over the world like music.

A lot of teenagers dance to music. They learn to play musical instruments. Music makes them happy. It even helps teenagers communicate.

I carried out a survey and found out that 97% of students from 6th forms like music. Music plays an important role in teenagers’ life. 78% of students listen to music every day,14%- some days of the week, 7%- once a week and only 1%- rarely.[enclosure №2]

 In songs teenagers see the reflection of their life experience. Lyrics that seem to be personal and painfully honest can’t leave them indifferent. A lot of teenagers are obsessed with their favourite singers who entertain people. Many teenagers want to look like famous pop stars not understanding that their idols are fake personalities. Everyone can like any kind of music and be attracted to any pop star, but at the same time it is important to understand that stars’ lives are not the example for us. There are lots of fan-clubs with billons of teens in them. Music helps teenagers to communicate and find friends in foreign countries.

Music and culture.

Music is a common feature of every culture, and is one of the most popular human interests in the world. Teenagers  listen to music to suit their mood, or to evoke emotions that they enjoy experiencing at the moment. Music has been composed to accommodate any kind of mood, from the depths of despair to complete happiness.

I found out that students of our lyceum prefer to listen to music for fun, 35 of them to relax, 16 for pleasure, 13 to get excited and 3 to concentrate.[enclosure №2]

Music suggests much about the society in which it is created. Whether it is traditional song, a Strauss waltz, a gospel song or a rock video, music reflects the culture it comes from. It expresses experience as well as affecting it, creating feeling and responses in the listener.

Like many art forms, music mirrors society, sometimes raising questions about norms and values, and sometimes even causing change. When this happens, music can end up serving a purpose it was not necessarily intended for.

Popular music has been known to create an identity for groups of people. Songs that were popular during World War II helped unity soldiers with those at home, for example, songs by E.Peterburgsky “Dark – blue Shawl” and V. Soloviev-Sedoy “We Haven’t Been Home for Long”, “The Evening Before the Raid”, and “My Moscow”.

Songs and music sometimes become symbols for a particular group of people, a place or a historical event. Some music is even considered a symbol for a whole generation. Probably for your parents, singers such as Victor Tsoy (Kino), Boris Grebenshchikov (Aquarium), and Yuri Shevtchuk (DDT) created much of the music that embodied what it was like to be a teen in the 1980’s.

Music exists in many forms and means different things to different people.    

Music of the 21-st century.

The 21-st century is by all means considered to be the most influential period of time in the development of music. In the 21-st century there were more practicing musicians than in all previous centuries taken together. In the 21-st century there was no mainstream but various styles in music. It is not an easy task to describe these music styles. They reflect the world that was constantly changing. Desires and fears of the people of the 21-st century found their outlet in music. The 21-st century opened a new era in the history of mankind, and the new epoch was to be described in new musical forms. The rules were left in the past. In the 21-st century everybody could choose the music that he would enjoy. It was exciting in its adventurous freedom.

In the 1920s in New Orleans beautiful music filled the streets and cafes. The black and poor singers sang about their hard lives. Their music - jazz, ragtime and blues - soon traveled to Europe. It was the time when the black music entered the whites' culture changing the lifestyle of the people all over the world. Ever since the 1930s music was not just a way to relax. From that time on music began to reflect and determine the people's way of life.

Many sub-cultures developed as a result of the fusion of black and white music cultures. Black music evolved in the Caribbean and in the United States, later it moved to Britain. Such styles as reggae, rap, and hip-hop to say nothing of the blues were created by the black community. Today many white musicians either perform the black music or use the black melodies in creating their own songs.

In the 1940s and 1950s new styles of music emerged. Swing, rock'n'roll and singers like Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry destroyed the laws of morality that were imposed on the people by the Church for centuries. In the 1950s Elvis Presley became the king of rock 'n' roll in the United States of America. The new music traveled to Europe soon. It was especially popular among the teenagers. The parents were really shocked by "Devil's music" that their children adored. The young people disagreed with their parents, wore their jeans and danced to their rock 'n' roll records.

In the 1960s in Great Britain, in Liverpool a new band was created. It was soon to be known world-wide as the "Beatles". John Lennon and Paul McCartney were writing simple songs and performing them so brilliantly that they gave a new impulse for the development of the musical community. Other members of the famous group were George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Such songs as "Yesterday", "Let It Be", "Love Me Do", and "Yellow Submarine" made them the most popular band not only in England, but throughout the world as well.

From the British Isles their music quickly traveled to Europe, America and other continents. Early in 1964 what soon came to be called "Beatle mania" struck the United States. For the first time British pop music was important abroad. Such U.S. performers as Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley admired the music of the "Beatles".

The long hair and tastes in dress of the musicians became popular in different countries. The freshness and excitement of the earliest days of rock 'n' roll and simple but engaging lyrics of John Lennon and Paul McCartney kept the group at the top of popularity charts for several years. They won recognition from the music industry in the form of awards for performances and songs. Soon they became not only popular, but rich as well. With the money they earned they could experiment with new musical forms and arrangements. The result was a variety of songs ranging from ballads to complex rhythm tunes and songs of social comment. Their music inspired hundreds to create new music.

In 1969 at Woodstock, near New York a great rock festival attracted nearly half a million young people. Most of them were hippies, who shocked the world with their beards, long hair, old jeans and their calls for peace and love. They came to listen to such new stars as Jimmy Hendrix and Joe Cocker. They sang about the war in Vietnam and about violence in the world. The music performed at Woodstock had a tremendous influence on the development of the culture of the youth. The young people rose in protest against the mercantile society. The ideals of the hippies are still living in many hearts. In the middle of the 1990s the Woodstock festivals were revived. But today Woodstock is no longer a great party it used to be in 1969. Young people who come to Woodstock today simply want to see the violent youth of their parents.

The mid-1970s witnessed great changes in the music. The gentle mood of the 1960s was gone. The music became violent and aggressive. This was a protest of the new generation, not peaceful pacifist protest of Woodstock, but protest aimed at the negation and destruction of the existing order. Hard rock, heavy metal and punk became popular among the young. Such groups as "AC/DC", "Kiss", "Black Sabbath", and "Sex Pistols" shocked the public by their music and behaviour. Although music of such kind still has its fans, the peak of its popularity has decreased.

Music that developed in the 1970s and 1980s had its own peculiarities. Melodies were simple and often unoriginal, different group would easily borrow the popular melodies written by competing groups. Young people would not listen alone to their favourite bands; they would rather have a get-together or a party or go to a disco club. The new music styles that appeared in the 1980s were aimed at dancing and disco clubs, thus rhythm and beat became more important than the melody.

Multiculturalism found its expression in the music. In the 1980s young people started to listen to different kinds of music and they were not afraid of choosing what they really loved. No single style or set of styles can be attributed to the 1980s and 1990s. The best world to characterize what was going on in the world of music at that time is diversification.

The 1990s witnessed further changes in the world of music. Pop music became extremely fashionable among young people. Madonna, Michael Jackson, and "Spice Girls", and "Backstreet Boys" give an example of what teenagers preferred to listen. At the same time a powerful opposition to the pop music appeared. Rave, techno, rap, chaos, and acid styles were gaining momentum in the 1990s. Young people who preferred this kind of music would never attend a pop show because of a general disgust and hatred for pop music.

The music of the 21-st century did a lot to change the outlook of the people, make peace and bring some positive social changes. It still plays a great role in the life of people of the 21st century. Everything either happy or tragic that occurs in our life is set to music.

    In the 21-st century the USA developed several distinctive and highly influential types of music: jazz, blues, country, and rock'n'roll. The most important performers were Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane in jazz; Muddy Waters in the blues, Hank Williams in country and western, and Elvis Presley in rock 'n' roll.

Music plays an important role in the life of young people. It even determines their life style and fashion. Teenagers try to imitate their favourite musicians in appearance, dress, and lifestyles. Hippies originally tried to imitate the "Beatles;" Hippies usually have long hair; they are dressed in torn clothes. People who prefer heavy metal would rather be dressed in leather and be richly decorated with decorations made of iron.

Young people in Russia prefer different styles of music. Among the most popular groups are "Mumi Troll", "Agatha Christie", "Tatoo", "Bee-2". Many teenagers want to look like famous pop stars not understanding that their idols are fake personalities. Many pop stars don’t struggle with drugs addiction; some of them advocate suicide and violence. Everyone can like any kind of music and be attracted to any pop star, but at the same time it is important to understand that stars’ lives are not the example for us.

Types of Music

In my opinion it is very important for teens to get to know different kinds of music starting from classical music and finishing with rock and pop and understand the real values of the world.

I wanted to know what styles of music Russian teenagers like.50 students like to listen to rock music, 27 -classical music, 39- pop music and 34- rap,11 prefer jazz and only 2 like blues. [enclosure №2]

Teens can hear music everywhere: in the streets and at home, over the radio and on TV, in the shops and in the parks. Teenagers all over the world are fond of music. They listen to music, they dance to music and they learn to play musical instruments. Unfortunately, only 26% of 6th form students can play musical instruments. [enclosure №2]

But what is music? Specialists explain that music isn't only a combination of pleasant sounds. It is an art which reflects life. There are a lot of different kinds of music. Some of them appeared long ago, and some are modern. For example, folk music appeared long ago, but it is still alive. There are many local performers, choirs and folk groups in Russia; but perhaps the most famous singer is Nadezhda Babkina. Folk songs are very tuneful and pleasant to listen to. Classical music is often associated with the music of the past. However, this style also includes music being written now, and we may speak of modern classical music. Rap is a modern musical style where the singer speaks or shouts the words in time to music with a steady beat. Such groups as Public Enemy or House of Pain are leaders in this style.

Great Britain has produced more popular music stars than any other country. Over the last 30 years rock and pop music have been very popular in Britain. The Beatles, with their style of singing, eloquent and exciting, is still one of the most popular groups. British groups often set new trends in music. New styles, groups and singers continue to appear. Some of the more recent pop groups are Dire Straits, Eurhythmics and Spice Girls. Many of the new bands have been able to use the changes in technology to develop their music. Computerized drum machines, synthesizers and other electronic instruments are now just as popular as the piano and electric guitars.

Tastes differ. So teens’ musical interests range from pop and rock music, which are extremely popular nowadays, to classical music and opera.

My favourite style of music is pop and rock music, because it is breathtaking and full of energy. When I listen to pop music it makes me remember happy times and forget the problems of everyday life. It helps me to relax when I'm tired, and entertains me when I'd like to have fun. My favourite group is Abba. It was formed in 1973 in Sweden. Abba's cheerful tunes made them international pop stars and one of the most successful groups of the seventies. Their most famous songs ("Waterloo", "Money, Money, Money", "Knowing Me, Knowing You", etc.) often topped European charts. Though the group doesn't exist any more, it is still popular with people of all ages. I can't but admire their style of singing. I find it fascinating and overwhelming. When I have free time I listen to their records. I also like Katy Perry and US5.

As for rock, my favourite groups are:  “The Rasmus” and “Tokio Hotel”.

The Rasmus was formed in 1994 in Helsinki, Finland. Into initial structure of group have entered: Laurie Ilonen (vocal), Pauli Rantasalmi (guitar), Aero Heinonen (bass), Akey Markus Hakala later to group has joined also (shock). The first steps in music The Rasmus have undertaken still teenagers when they went to school. The group acted in school parties, executing a cover-version of songs of groups Metallica and Nirvana. Their contemporaries were in delight from execution, and someone even has suggested group to try to write something. Once during summer vacations four of young children decided to earn some money. They got a job at once in some places. The earned money sufficed to record the first demo. The collective had written some songs and dispatched them to different Finnish radio stations. By any strange accident one of songs put on air, and soon edition was filled up with letters and calls with requests to tell about The Rasmus. Letting out label Warner Finland paid attention to the group - the Finnish branch of label Warner Records. In May, 1996 on Warner Finland there is the debut album which received the name “Peep” and has missed a quite good parameter to measures of small Finland. It has been sold about 10 thousand spears of an album. The Rasmus has a great popularity now.

“Tokio Hotel” was founded in 2003. The first album was named “Shrei”, the second “Zimmer 483”. Their last album “Scream” is very popular nowadays. It is the English version of the songs from “Shrei” and “Zimmer 483”. There are four boys in this group. Bill and Tom Kaulitz have been making music since childhood. The band is now touring the UK. Bill has been writing lyrics since primary school. The band is shooting the video for their next single "Spring Nicht" (“Don't Jump”). The four members of Tokio Hotel have been performing together since they were about 12 years old. The guys have been working hard on their English since they gained popularity. The band is currently working on their English skills. Tokio Hotel is promoting the launch of their English-language album “Scream”.

As for me I can’t live without music. Music plays an important role in my life. I’ve been going to music school since I was 5. I play the flute and I’m good at it. I took part in different music competitions and came out on top. I can listen to almost any kind of music, my tastes range from classic to pop music. And I believe that music will be with me forever.

It’s interesting to know that 70% of students think that Russian and British teenagers listen to similar music. [enclosure №2] I surfed the Net and found out that British teenagers like the same kind of music as Russian ones. [enclosure №2]There are lots of fan-clubs of different bands all over the world. Teenagers from different countries can chart and talk to each other about their idols.

Conclusion

I found out the following:

• Music  has a great  influence on teenagers life;

• Teens like different styles of music;

• Russian and British teenagers like similar music.

I came to the conclusion that music can be a universal language of  teenagers. Music has been affecting teenagers greatly, in terms of  behavior and cognition. It goes without saying that music plays a very important role in teens’ life. It reflects their moods and emotions. Music even determines teens’ life style and fashion. Teenagers try to imitate their favourite musicians in appearance, dress, and lifestyles. Besides, listening to, music is the perfect way to spend free time and not to feel bored. The majority of  Russian and British teenagers spend their free time similar. CDs and the concerts of modern music are the subject of every day talk of teenagers. British pop stars are famous all over the world: from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to today’s hit musicians. The British teenagers as well as Russian enjoy listening to the latest music on their mobile phones.

So if teenagers of these countries meet, they will find common language with each other. You can hardly find a teenager who doesn't like or need music and who never sings or dances.

Reference index

1. Научно-методический журнал «Иностранные языки в школе», Методическая мозаика. 2006 №3, стр.2.

Internet sources:

2.http://www.answers.com/Q/Teenagers_life_in_Britain

3. http://pullion.com/acceptance-admissions-essays/206-essay-what-is-role-of-music-in-the-modern-life-of-teenagers.html

4. http://myzukavsem.ru/muzyika-v-zhizni-podrostkov.php

5.http://project.1september.ru/works/594720

Enclosure №1 Questions for survey “Music in teenagers’ life”

1. Do you like music?

1. Yes                      2) No

2. What type of music do you like?

1)         Classical

2.        Rock
3. Pop music
4. Rap
5. Blues
6. Jazz
7. RnB
8. Electronic

3. Can you play music instrument?

1. Yes (what?)                     2) No

4. What do you listen to music for?

1) to relax

2) for pleasure

3) to concentrate

4) for fun

5) to get excited

5. How often do you listen to music?

1) every day

2) three times a week

3) once a week

4) rarely

5) never

6. Do Russian and British teenagers like similar music?

1) Yes     2) No

Enclosure №2 The results of the survey.

Do you like music?

How often do you listen to music?

What do you listen to music for?

Can you play music instrument?

What type of music do you like?

Do Russian and British teenagers like similar music?

Russian and British teenagers music preference.