This was so far one of the most difficult tasks I have had to complete for the class so far. I spent at least a week trying to think about how to analyze the data. It was rather difficult because there were so many ways that the data could be sorted.
Once sorted, I did not feel that I was familiar enough with my classmates to allow for a complete analysis. For example, some data that would have been useful would be age, background, etc … I tried to look at my classmates’ websites but not all of them have an about me page (which I would suggest making it one of the tasks for future courses) and trying to look at everyone’s work at the same time was overwhelming.
Every time I thought I found some sort of connection, there would be something else that did not make sense. I remember reading from our chat group that one student did a lottery for choosing the ten pieces which makes trying to analyze the data even more complicated. Despite the many challenges, I tried to analyze the data that was given to me in a number of different ways to the best of my ability.
Using Palladio, the first thing I did was to find the person who was most similar to me. It was a coincidence that Helen was closest to me and that I used her post for one of my linking assignments because we were both talking about the story of how we met our husbands. When I looked at Helen’s explanation of song choices, I found that we were so different and yet had a similar way of classifying songs. Helen has no background in music while I do but we both choose to curate music from different places around the world. Due to my science background, I chose a systematic approach to choosing the songs and picking one from each continent while Helen’s humanities background lead her to pick a couple of songs from areas around the world but not necessary continents.
Next, I was interested to look at who I have the least in common with. There were three people who shared only three songs with me and I chose to analyze one of them. I was surprised to see that from the data, Shaun and I only shared so few songs in common. Looking at his choices, I would have thought we had more in common because we both talked about choosing songs from different continents and also songs from different musical eras. I really liked how Shaun even went into depths of comparing different songs from the same continents and also paying tribute to different instrument voices. This is not something I thought of doing. However, one thing did bother me is that while he mentioned grouping songs in different musical eras, he has only included one era which is the classical period but has put the wrong composers in that period. This is something only people with a music background would notice.
Next, I went to find my group and look at those who made selections closest to my own. I wanted to try and find similarities and differences between who we were. I was in a group with Laura and Kristin and they both shared four song choices with me. I was not quite sure how we were put into a group because to me, having four out of ten choices is not that similar. I was curious to see if we have any similarities in our background but did not find any information about their background on their blog. I next looked at how they both chose their list of ten pieces for the golden record.
Laura originally wanted to do something similar to me which is “progressing from the more traditional tone to rock”. It was not as technical as my analysis but we had the same idea. She did change her criteria to “focus on global and temporal diversity, and the human voice.” It was quite different from how I chose my songs.
Kristin, on the other hand, had a very systematic way in choosing her songs, which I appreciated. She mainly went for songs that have a different tone. What bothered me was how she chose the classical songs. Again because she did not have a music background, at least she did not mention that she did, she grouped composers together that were from different eras and said that they were basically the same thing. I think it was only by chance that Laura, Kristin and I were put into the same group. I do not think we have that many similarities.
Lastly, I took a look at the most and least popular song choices from our class. I was surprised that every single piece was chosen at least once. The most popular song chosen from our class was Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. It was not a surprise to me as this piece had a significant cultural influence due to the time that it was written. It had a long lasting impact on various different cultures. Even for people without classical music training know about the motive of the song, “dit-dit-dit-dah”. It is still widely used in different scenarios and cultures.
I was surprised to see one person, Daniella who chose New Guinea’s Men’s House Song. I tried to look at Daniella’s reasoning behind choosing this piece and looked into her background. There was not much about her but she did say she chose her songs based on the “emotional effect” on her. When I looked at the list of 27 pieces, I didn’t choose Men’s House Song because I did not like how it sounded.
To take this further, people might subconsciously not pick this piece due to the title which was gender specific. In 2017, the Me too (#MeToo) movement started. This is a movement that promotes feminism and targets men due to sexual harassment and abuse. Many women stepped into the light to publicize allegations of sex crimes commitment by powerful men. Although this might be far fetched but with a population of over 50% female in our class, it might have something to do with why this piece was chosen only once.
After a long data analysis, I was able to learn a few things about my classmates using indirect data from their song curation. There was a diverse amount of criteria which my classmates used to classify which songs seemed the most important or most appropriate to them. There were some overarching criteria that seem to be due to their cultural significance such as the Fifth Symphony. Its influence can be quantifiably measured by the amount of selections it received. The least selected song can also derive its lack of selection through social influences and current events. I found it quite interesting to compare and contrast my own selections and the selections of my classmates as the dateset provided a good source for identifying cultural, social and personal differences.
Hi Sarah,
A very thorough assessment. I have a background in music as well but it appears you went much more in depth than I did with my selections. I was surprised at how much effort you put into trying to determine what everyone’s motives for selecting the different songs were but I think that it makes it difficult when people can make the same or different choices for completely different reasons.
I find your comment for Men’s House Song interesting as I did choose this in my selection. I tried to avoid any bias ( I did not enjoy how this sounded either), by selecting songs from different genres and since this had a unique category it ended up in my selection.
I wonder if all students had decided on 4 or 5 specific criteria to judge these records on, do you think that every song would still be selected?
Hi Sarah!
I have to say that I was also surprised to see that one person chose the “men’s house song.” I was even more surprised, clearly to my own biases, that it was a female in our section that chose it. When I was choosing my own songs for the record, I wanted to make sure that I was choosing ones that showcased strong female voices among the many that were either sung or produced by males. Even after I listened to the “men’s house song,” I too, did not enjoy the sound and felt there were other songs on the record that would be better suited to my curation.
I like that you brought up the #metoo movement and how that could have impacted our other classmate’s choice to not choose this particular song. It is still very fresh in our minds and yes, I looked at the % of female to male in our course (this is actually how I depicted the data) and thought that might be a reason as to why it wasn’t chosen as well. But then, Daniella put a wrench in that idea when she chose it lol. Great post – lots to think about!