You already know how to say a song slaps. That is a fan post. Today you write a critique: a short piece that names what the song does, who it is for, and what it does to you, with evidence from the words.
By the end you will have a 100–150 word Song Critique Draft for your Communication Portfolio, built on five parts: technique, theme, emotion, audience, and personal response.
Pick any song you know well and can quote one line from. If your class has the anchor song from Lesson 91, you can use that; if not, name another track and work from specific lines you remember.
A critique is not a score out of ten. It is a reasoned position with evidence. Use these three terms as you read and write today.
| Term | What it means for you | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| Critique: a reasoned judgement of what works, for whom, and why | Your draft must take a position and back it with lines from the song | Saying a slow first verse makes the loud chorus feel earned, rather than only calling it catchy |
| Audience: who the piece is speaking to | Name who would feel spoken to, and why the tone fits them | A quiet late-night song for people who have left home, not a festival crowd |
| Personal response: what the piece does to you | Root your reaction in a specific line, not a vague mood | One line about an empty seat on the school bus that made you stop the track |
Five-part shape for every critique: technique → theme → emotion → audience → personal response.
One worked sentence on a different song: "The alliteration in 'bright, broke and brave' makes the chorus bounce, so the theme of being young with no money sounds like freedom, not worry." That sentence already does technique and theme with evidence. You have heard the same move on tracks you already stream: a sound choice that carries the feeling before the line spells it out.
Here is a model critique of Kitchen Light, a song written for this lesson. Read its eight lines with the class first, then see how the critique uses the five parts. You write your own, on a song you choose, in the next step.
Write your Song Critique Draft in the activity below, which saves it as you write.
When it is done, press Copy for my portfolio, paste it into a new document in your Communication Portfolio folder and save it as m4_l95_song_critique_<your-initials>.
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