Project Proposal
For the final project for this course, I’ve decided to start a website that will enable visitors to search for specific words among a large collection of blues lyrics. This means that, in addition to designing the site with standard HTML, I’ll have to enable searching by incorporating database software (such as MySQL) or marking up the lyrics using XML. My ultimate decision on how to enable searching will depend on which process is easiest to learn, which uses less memory, and which will best accommodate ongoing additions to the website. Whichever process I decide to use, I want it not only to enable Boolean searches for words in the lyrics, but also to limit the searches by the artist, the date of the recording, the musical style (e.g. classic, country, urban, or electric blues), the artist’s gender, and the geographical region with which the artist is associated (e.g. Southwest, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Southeast). I would also like visitors to be able to view their search results either by relevance or in chronological order.
In addition to enabling searches, I want the website to enable browsing by artist, song title, or any of the other categories I mentioned above. (Perhaps I can list all of these categories in a sidebar.) I also want the website to present the lyrics in a format that is easily readable (e.g. by clearly indicating stanza breaks and refrains) and printable. In many cases, a blues lyric will also require annotation so that I can explicate unusual words or expressions, indicate the variations among different recording of the same song, and acknowledge wherever I think my transcription might be inaccurate.
My reason for creating this site involves a combination of personal interest and the possibility of future research. Having previously written on the blues, I have always wanted an internet resource that would allow me to search blues lyrics for specific words. At the same time, I foresee that this site will appeal to many people interested in the blues, whether they are scholars or members of the general public. Since this site is primarily a search engine, a resource for others to interpret the past, it will not offer an explicit historical argument. Even so, in order for the lyrics to appear in a standard, searchable form, I’ll occasionally have to do violence to the lyrics. (For example, if I want to facilitate searching, I cannot register the aural difference between songs that use “walkin’” and those that use “walking.”) For this reason, I think my site should include a page that briefly discusses the issues involved and the decisions I made in order to make the lyrics searchable.
Finally, I want to point out that I expect this website to continue growing well after this course has ended. For the purpose of this course, I would like to have a site including more than 100 lyrics that would still fit on the AU server. After the course is over, I hope to add lyrics, move the website to another server, and (maybe) to include streaming audio to accompany the lyrics. My first task, however, is to get a search engine with a substantial number of lyrics up and running.