Work Cited

Curry, Renee R. “‘Hairspray’: The Revolutionary Way to Restructure and Hold Your History.” Literature/Film Quarterly, vol. 24, no.

2, Salisbury University, 1996, pp. 165–68, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43796715.

The main point of this journal article is that the writer goes in depth of breaking down. Hairspray, and evaluating the little things that one doesn’t notice at first. The topics covered include the racism and racial segregation of African Americans in Hairspray, and the characters that played a negative role. Curry does a great job in examining the way the musical was filmed, and relating it to the bigger social issue portrayed in the musical.

This article will be very useful to my project. The author goes in depth to break down the musical and the little things that one might not think too much about. The information is reliable, and the author is more objective than biased as he uses evidence by relating back to the musical many times. The main purpose of this article was to show how Hairspray portrayed the happy ending of desegregation, while as in real life it didn’t happen like that. This source correlates with my other sources as it explains how the moments in Hairspray relate to the real life events that were occurring during that time, such as the comparison between The Corny Collins Show and the Buddy Deane Show.

This source will definitely be useful for my research project. It will be a great help to help others further understand the musical, in case they haven’t watched it. The author does a great job in explaining the main points in the musical that relate to real life. This will shape my research essay as it goes on to explain the changing times in the musical and breaking down the small details that one wouldn’t look at.

“Black Musicals.” The Theater Will Rock, by Elizabeth L. Wollman, University Of Michigan Press, 1978.

The main argument of this source is proving how rock music, a form of music created by African Americans, was stolen by white people. They would often make covers of the music yet gave no credit to the original artists. These covers were promoted more on the radio, television and much more allowing them to benefit financially while the original artist received no promotion at all since he was African American.

This source is useful, and it compares with my other sources as it explains the racism in Black musicals, specifically with rock music. The information definitely seems reliable and the source appears more objective as the author appears to be using more facts and doesn’t seem to be including her personal experience or feelings. The main goal the author is trying to achieve is to inform readers about how rock music originated and how it was stolen by the African Americans, and goes into depth with real life information.

This source was very helpful to me as it relates to many moments in Hairspray. The African Americans hardly received any show time compared to the white people, similar to how African American artists never received the same promotion as White people. This source supports my research as it brings in evidence that White people would often steal dances and music created by African Americans, yet give no credit.

Haspel, Paul. “Roller Coasters and Civil Rights: John Waters’s ‘Hairspray’ and the Desegregation of the Gwynn Oak Amusement

Park.” Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 26, no. 2, Popular Culture Association in the South, 2003, pp. 23–35,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/41970397.

In this source, the topic of racism in Hairspray starts on page 27 and onward. The main point during these few pages is that there are many moments in the film where racism against African Americans is pointed out. Additionally, the author goes on to correlate these moments in the musical to a real life event, the desegregation of the Gwynn Oak Amusement Park, thus further proving the idea that these issues were occurring in real life.

I believe this source will be useful. The author doesn’t seem biased and seems well known with the musical as he mentions major key points. This compares to other sources I’ve included as he mentions similar moments in the musical that other authors have mentioned. The information definitely seems reliable as he brings out evidence. The goal the author is trying to point out is the comparison between the racial segregation moments in Hairspray to a real life event that had occurred in Baltimore.

This source will be very useful for my research project. The author points out many key moments in the musical that portray the racism and racial segregation against African Americans, and is able to connect it to a real life event.

Hoffman, Warren. The Great White Way: Race and The Broadway Musical. Rutgers University Press, 2014.

In this book, the specific section I am looking at is the overture. In this section, the author goes over how musicals have a lack of diversity and have been taken over by whiteness. He goes on to explain how musicals created by African Americans were often segregated from the rest of Broadway, similar to how the characters in Hairspray were segregated at school, The Corny Collins Show, and much more.

I definitely think this source will be useful. It compares with the other sources as it goes in depth to explain the lack of diversity and racism in American Musicals, not specifically Hairspray, but in Broadway itself. This information definitely appears reliable as it comes from somebody who knows musicals well, and has experience. That being said, I do think this source is biased as he could be explaining his personal feelings and opinions into his writing without realizing it.

This source was very helpful to me and could be used in my research project. Hoffman does a great job on explaining how racism is portrayed in Broadway and American Musicals, and further goes on to describe the Whiteness seen in musicals. This helps shape my argument as it adds onto to the topic of racial segregation of African Americans, and the lack of diversity in Musicals.

THE ESSAY

Doing this project, I learned a wide variety of skills when it comes to writing with sources. The first main thing I learned is not going straight into using any source that involves my topic, but going more in depth to see how reliable the source actually is. I did this first by looking into the author’s background, the publisher, if a works cited page was included, and much more. Additionally, learning to use an advanced search made it much easier to narrow down my sources, as I was able to pick the key terms I felt were most useful. I’ve always had trouble when it came to correctly citing and annotating sources, so I feel that this project allowed me to finally truly understand how to do so. I now know that when evaluating a source I should look at its reliability, whether it’s biased or not, the author’s qualifications, and how each source compares to one another. A critical analysis skill I used when breaking down each source is determining whether or not the author was biased or objective by looking for key terms they used, to evaluate whether or not any person’s feelings were involved. The annotated bibliography has helped prepare me for the upcoming research essay in many different ways. First being I’ve found two sources that I will definitely be using in my research essay after being able to evaluate them for this assignment. I feel that doing this project allowed me to narrow down all the sources I found as I was forced to look at the little details that play a huge role on the reliability and effectiveness of the source. Additionally, it allowed me to gather more information and knowledge that I can use when it comes to searching for other sources to use for my project. Doing this assignment did not only help for the upcoming research project, but it will help in many future assignments that deal with writing sources.

Some of the key terms I used to form the basis of my theory of writing vary from racism, african americans, hairspray, racial segregation, segregation, Baltimore, 1960s. These are all terms that relate to my research question and led me to find the sources I felt would hook readers. When choosing sources, I looked for ones that provided both context and evidence. I feel like this was very important as I’m unaware of whether or not my audience has seen the musical I’m researching, so providing context always gives them a little background information. Additionally, I looked at ones that provided straight forward evidence that made it easier to guess the purpose of the writing, and clearly understand what is being said. Doing this makes it easier to see the clear connection between all the sources, and how they all support my topic. A rhetorical situation/aspects I found via the sources I chose is the purpose. Determining the main goal of the author’s writing, whether it be to inform, persuade, or entertain, is very important as it impacts how the author communicates with the audience. For the most part, all of the authors were writing to inform their target audience about the racism and racial segregation of African Americans in musicals, and real life. I see many opportunities to apply the skills I learned in this project to other academic assignments. I now know how to cite and source my sources, and how to carefully examine and evaluate whether a source is reliable to my research. To add on, learning about the rhetorical situations and aspects in writing allows me to better choose my sources as I am able to note the similarities in each source I find. Lastly, learning about the importance of key terms allowed me to find the right sources that provide the best information to my topic, which is very important and helpful. This being said, these skills will be extremely useful in the future.