Process Paper
Why we chose this topic:
We originally wanted to do our project on Elvis, and his influence on the teenage rebellion. Then we came to the realization that our topic was too broad. From there we decided to do Elvis’s influence on African Americans, which was too narrow of a topic. For the third, but not last time, we changed our topic to how media influenced culture in the 50’s and 60’s, which was also too broad. Lastly we came to the agreement to do our project on music and the Vietnam War.
How we conducted our research:
Our group had an interest on why the Vietnam war was such a negative part of American history and why it gets such a bad reputation. We also had an interest in how music has influenced history throughout the years. We found our information while viewing various artists/their music, protests, and a lot of background information on the Vietnam War. We conducted our research into categories of background information on both music about the Vietnam War, and the Vietnam War itself. Then we did a catagory for the protests during the war. We lastly made a category for music that includes the songs about the war, and the artists of those songs. We researched how the music influenced the protests and how they referenced the Vietnam War. These songs reflected the feelings of the protestors at the time.
How we created our website:
We chose to do a website because we could easily show the songs and lyrics that related to the Vietnam war through a video format that could be accessed easily. The website builder we chose was Weebly. We put the website into sections of background, protest, music, and research. Under the music tab we put multiple artists that reflected the politics of the Vietnam War. This made our presentation way more organized. After finishing the website we planned what we would say for our actual presentation.
How our project relates to the theme:
This topic relates to the NHD theme of “Leadership and Legacy” because of the musicians’ leadership roles in the anti-war movement during this hard time. They influenced the strong feelings of the protestors and reflected the hatred for the war. These music icons created a legacy of influencing politics through music.
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