Randomly view a number of videos from Batch #1 until you find one that you are excited and curious about. Do the same with Batch #2. The two videos you select can be very similar to each other or radically different. After viewing both videos only once, write down your "first impressions" in great detail. These "first impressions" should be your honest gut responses to a type of music that you quite likely have never encountered before, and should be "raw" and totally uninformed by the reading material and the lectures. Many of your "first impressions" will likely be questions or answers to questions: What the heck did I just watch? Is that even 'music'? Do those people consider that to be 'music'? Why does this music sound so radically different from what I'm accustomed to? Does it make me uncomfortable to listen to? If so, why? What was that instrument the woman was playing? Why did that man's voice sound so uncomfortable to my ears? What language were they singing in and what might the words mean? Can I pick up any clues by observing the people's behavior? Why was the child dressed in that peculiar clothing? Why were the spectators/audience laughing? crying? looking angry? Why was the audience behaving in such a reverent manner? or such a casual manner? Why did they combine those particular instruments in that ensemble? Were those men engaging in a friendly competition as they sang, or did they actually feel animosity toward each other? Why do the singing and the instruments sound out of tune to my ears? Why is that woman making ecstatic noises while she's dancing? How can the audience stay so rapt for 30 or 40 minutes if the music has no lyrics to listen to? etc. etc. etc. [The foregoing questions are ONLY examples of what might be asked. DO NOT just copy the sample questions I have provided here.] After you have recorded your "first impressions," go back and view each of the two videos again and again and again, many times. As you engage in repeated viewing and listening you should record very detailed descriptions of everything you hear and see in the video. Create what I like to call "thick description" (a term used by anthropologist Clifford Geertz); I want to read your descriptions and be able to see the videos in my mind's eye. As you engage in repeated viewing and listening, your questions will become more sophisticated and insightful. Ask new questions with every additional viewing. Allow your observations to evolve with each subsequent viewing. But asking questions is not enough. That's only the beginning; you'll also need to attempt to answer those questions intelligently, to the best of your ability. Some or most of your attempts to answer the questions will be pure speculation. For example: "Well, I can only presume that the reason she acts that way is . . . " "Given my own experience, and what I've seen in other videos, and from our discussions in class, I imagine that the instrument might be considered sacred because . . . " But even though they may be speculative answers, I will be looking for sophisticated and insightful thinking. Finally, each "Interrogate Music" Paper is meant to be a comparative examination of the two videos you have chosen, so you will need to do a classic "compare and contrast" paper. Again, I will be looking for insightful and sophisticated comparison and contrasting of musical sounds and behaviors representing two very different societies.