Music related to Linguistics & Lx-Anthro?

[eghoffma@umich.edu]

I wouldn't call this upbeat exactly, but it might grab their attention
if you play some sound poetry, like Henry Chopin, when you're talking
about phonology!

On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 8:50 PM, Richard J Senghas
<Richard.Senghas at sonoma.edu> wrote:
> Hey LingAnthers,
>
> I am looking for music (popular, obscure, whatever) that plays with linguistic (& especially anthropological) topics.
>
> I am now teaching a somewhat large (~70 students) undergraduate, lower division Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology course.  It hits us at that just-before-and-going-into dinner hour, when students, even those interested in the topics, begin to fade as their blood sugar-levels drop, and the daylight begins to fade (especially now).  When I taught my Intro to Cultural Anthro course, I found that playing relevant, especially upbeat, music just before class started helped up the energy for the class session, and I would like to use this trick again in this course.  I also found that many of the students started to pick up on the anthropological themes I planted in these selections.  By the end of the semester, students started asking me for my sources, often asking me if they had indeed figured out the thematic connections.  (In a very real sense, this became a not-grade-related extra credit opportunity.)
>
> I plan to start with some more obvious choices (e.g., Laurie Anderson's "Language is a Virus" from her "Home of the Brave" album), but I'm looking for other pieces for later this semester.  Do you have any tracks you'd recommend?  If the topic is obscure, I wouldn't mind being given hints at the reason for your choices, though we could make it a game for this list if you choose to respond on-list.  And energetic music is preferred; we're looking to juice them up!
>
> Best regards,
>
> -RJS
> ======================================================================
> Richard J. Senghas, Professor            | Sonoma State University
> Department of Anthropology               | 1801 East Cotati Avenue
> Human Development Program                | Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
> Richard.Senghas[at]sonoma.edu            | 707-664-3920 (fax)
>