MUS 114 Opinion Essay Option: I. Define The Term 'Class' ✓ Solved

MUS 114 Opinion Essay Option: I. Define what the term 'class

MUS 114 Opinion Essay Option: I. Define what the term 'classic' implies when used to describe a piece of music or song. II. Choose a piece of contemporary popular music that you believe could become a 'classic' and write a 200-word essay explaining your choice. Address: 1) What attributes of this piece would allow listeners to enjoy it generation after generation? 2) Why might this piece become a classic?

Two-part English assignment:

Part One — Discuss and analyze Harold Pinter's The Homecoming as an attack on modern intellectuals. Write a 5–7 paragraph college-level essay.

Part Two — Comment briefly in one paragraph on each of the following:

a) When Teddy speaks of 'intellectual equilibrium', the play can be associated with the Theatre of the Absurd; discuss whether viewing the play as an attack on modern intellectuals raises the question 'Who uses whom in the man-woman relationship?'

b) The Homecoming is set in the 1960s; discuss whether the play attacks modern intellectuals by casting female independence negatively given the era's gender roles.

Paper For Above Instructions

Part A — Defining "Classic" and a 200-Word Music Essay

What "classic" implies

The term "classic" in music denotes a work that attains cultural durability, cross-generational appeal, and aesthetic or emotional depth that resists passing trends (Frith, 1996; Middleton, 1990). A classic is often both widely recognized and repeatedly reinterpreted, showing adaptability without losing core identity. Longevity, structural craft, lyrical or melodic memorability, and capacity to evoke communal meaning are central criteria (Frith, 1996).

200-word essay: Taylor Swift — "Anti-Hero" as a potential classic

Taylor Swift’s "Anti-Hero" (2022) demonstrates features that could secure classic status. The song combines a memorable melodic hook, candid lyricism about self-scrutiny, and production that balances contemporary pop with clear melodic architecture—qualities aiding transhistorical appeal (Trust, 2022). Swift’s narrative voice transforms private insecurity into collective recognition, allowing listeners across demographics to identify with the theme of internal conflict (Caramanica, 2023). Its structural clarity—a strong chorus, distinctive motif, and emotionally resonant bridge—supports cover versions and reinterpretation, important mechanisms for canonization (Frith, 1996). Commercial success and cultural saturation increase exposure, but the song’s sustained relevance depends on its ability to speak to recurring human concerns rather than momentary styles; "Anti-Hero" addresses perennial themes of identity and self-blame that retain relevance. Moreover, Swift’s role as an artist who shapes public discourse on authorship, memory, and cultural meaning gives the song contextual weight beyond charts (Middleton, 1990). For these reasons—memorable craft, universal themes, and cultural embedding—"Anti-Hero" has strong potential to be enjoyed by successive generations.

Part B — English Assignment: Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming

Part One — Five-Paragraph Analysis: The Homecoming as an Attack on Modern Intellectuals

Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming stages a sustained interrogation of contemporary intellectual life by dramatizing cerebral discourse that yields to base power dynamics. The play juxtaposes Teddy, an intellectual expatriate and family outsider, with his working-class relatives, whose forms of authority are crude but effective. Pinter’s dialogue often exposes the limitations of intellectual discourse when confronted with embodied power; rhetorical claims to moral or philosophical equilibrium dissolve amid transactional and sexual negotiations (Pinter, 1965; Raby, 2001).

First, Pinter frames intellectualism as precarious through Teddy’s repeated appeals to reason and “intellectual equilibrium.” Teddy’s arguments appear formal and abstract, failing to secure safety or agency for his sister Ruth. The play’s associative style—ellipses, pauses, and implied threats—aligns with Theatre of the Absurd strategies that reveal the inadequacy of language to sustain social or ethical certainties (Esslin, 1961). Pinter thereby suggests that intellectual posturing can be hollow when power is enforced through violence, sexuality, or economic leverage (Billington, 2007).

Second, the character of Ruth functions as a corrective to simple binaries. She neither fits Teddy’s intellectual ideal nor the household’s brutish picture of feminine passivity. Instead, Ruth manipulates and negotiates power through performance and sexual economy, demonstrating that agency can arise outside philosophical frameworks. If modern intellectualism claims autonomy from base needs, Pinter shows how that autonomy can be co-opted or exposed by embodied desires and market-like exchanges within domestic space (Raby, 2001).

Third, Pinter situates the drama in a social context where academic discourse is detached from quotidian survival. The men’s talk—about jobs, hierarchy, and memory—contrasts with Teddy’s abstract reflections, and the play’s resolution, in which Ruth accepts a role that unsettles Teddy, underscores intellectual impotence. Pinter thus stages modern intellectuals as vulnerable to practical maneuvers that they neither foresee nor control, advancing an implicit critique of intellectualism’s detachment from material relations (Billington, 2007; Butler, 1990).

In conclusion, The Homecoming reads as an attack on modern intellectuals insofar as Pinter exposes the limits of conceptual mastery when confronted with embodied power, gendered exchange, and the pragmatic logic of survival. The play invites audiences to question whether intellectual ideals protect or betray human relations, ultimately asking whether thought governs action or is subordinate to the social forces it claims to interpret (Pinter, 1965; Esslin, 1961).

Part Two — Two Brief Comments

On "intellectual equilibrium" and Theatre of the Absurd: Teddy’s invocation of intellectual balance aligns Pinter with Absurdist techniques that render language insufficient (Esslin, 1961). The play reframes intellectualism not as dominion but as a linguistic posture easily undermined by physical or sexual power; thus the question "Who uses whom?" becomes central—intellectual discourse is shown to be both a tool and a vulnerability within gendered power plays (Raby, 2001).

On 1960s cultural context and female independence: Set in the 1960s, The Homecoming stages anxieties about shifting gender roles as women sought autonomy beyond domestic confines (Friedan, 1963). Pinter’s portrayal of Ruth both dramatizes male discomfort with female agency and complicates the idea that intellectual modernity automatically equates to progressive gender politics; the play suggests that the consequences of independence are ambiguous and can be read as critique or exposure of fragile intellectual commitments (Billington, 2007; Butler, 1990).

References

• Pinter, H. (1965). The Homecoming. Faber & Faber.
• Esslin, M. (1961). The Theatre of the Absurd. Penguin Books.
• Raby, P. (Ed.). (2001). The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter. Cambridge University Press.
• Billington, M. (2007). Harold Pinter. Faber & Faber.
• Frith, S. (1996). Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music. Harvard University Press.
• Middleton, R. (1990). Studying Popular Music. Open University Press.
• Friedan, B. (1963). The Feminine Mystique. W. W. Norton & Company.
• Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge.
• Trust, G. (2022). Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” and chart performance analysis. Billboard.
• Caramanica, J. (2023). Cultural narratives and Taylor Swift’s evolving canon. The New Yorker.