Critiquing the ephemeral: rhetorical plasticity, popular music, and the composition teacher

Abstract

For modern writing students, an awareness of the influence of popular culture is natural, while academic subjects such as writing and rhetoric often seem alien and artificial. With this observation in mind, the composition teacher should consider using the students' knowledge of popular culture as a tool for leading them to a better understanding of rhetoric and writing. Music, especially, plays an influential role in the students' popular culture, and its use in the writing classroom can be an extremely effective heuristic because of the historical and conceptual relationships between rhetoric and music. This dissertation helps to develop a writing classroom heuristic by specific rhetorical theories and concepts and then applying those rhetorics to an understanding of popular music. This study critically examines the concept of rhetorical presence, the process of meaning-making, and the effects of delivery and then applies those examinations to understanding the choices made in movies soundtracks, the emotional meaning of love songs, and the influence of ethos and persona on the controversial music of Ice-T and Marilyn Manson. In addition to examining the rhetorical dimensions of popular music, the dissertation also illustrates how this understanding of rhetoric and music can be used in the writing class through the presentation of a series of writing assignments and exercises. What is of utmost importance is that this dissertation shows how popular music, although ephemeral and transitory, plays a powerful role in the culture of writing students, and therefore the use of music becomes an important consideration for the writing teacher. It also illustrates how the plasticity, or adaptive quality, of rhetoric, especially when used with popular music, creates a bridge between popular culture and academic culture. It is this rhetorical flexibility combined with popular music that contributes to a ¿Rhetoric of the Ephemeral¿ that can serve a productive role in composition and rhetorical studies.