Post World War II: Class Two Tin Pan Alley, Roots and Blues.
Andrew Scott
Roots of Rock
Although rock and roll music was codified in 1954 with “Rock around the Clock” (Bill Haley).
American music such as jazz and rock do result from a blending of styles, of social groups, of men and women, of different ideologies and of different class, cultural, social and racial backgrounds.
Rock, like jazz, is neither a black nor a white music.
Rather it is a synthesis of styles, such as Western Swing, folk and so-called hillbilly music, blues, rhythm and blues, gospel, country and western and the Tin Pan Alley American song writing tradition.
Congo Square (New Orleans)
African Retentions in Blues
1). Pentatonic melody. A five-note scale arguably deriving from African musical sources.
2). Rhythmically engaging music that emphasizes the “up” or “off-beats.”
3). Bent pitches, microtonal or “blue notes.” Neither major nor minor, but sit between the two. They can be seen as to represent symbolically both a tension between an African musical legacy and a superimposed Western tonality, as well as a successful resolution of this tension.
4). Instrumentation: A hodgepodge of instrumentation that included guitars, drums and horns—instruments that were more readily available and more affordable than pianos or organs.
5). Call-and response or antiphony.
6). Participatory music making.
Call-and-Response: From the Ring Shout, to the Church, to Blues to Rock.
Musical examples:
1). James Brown “preaching” from The Blues Brothers.
2). “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” by the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
3). “Dry Bones in the Valley” by Rev. J.M. Gates.
4). “Shout” by Otis Day and the Nights.
5). “Senorita” by Justin Timberlake.
African Retensions in Blues II.
6). Vocal Timbre. Hoarse, grainy or strained by European normative standards. “Sonny Boy” by Al Jolson vs. “I Feel Good” by James Brown.
7). Form: The majority of blues utilizes a 12- bar AAB form.
Stanza: line of verse (A),
the same line repeated (A)
a third line that rhymes with the first
two (B).
Form
“Oh Well, Oh Well I feel fine today.” (A) 4
“Oh Well, Oh Well I feel fine today.” (A) 4
“My Baby wrote me a letter she’s coming home today.” (B) 4
“Joe Turner Blues”
Race Records
Similarities between “race” records and “hillbilly” music.
1). Oral in nature.
2). Both music’s developed apart from the literate Tin Pan Alley tradition of song writing.
3). Both music’s owe much to the birth of the independent record company (Okeh and Black Swan).
4). Instrumentally: Acoustic guitars, harmonicas, vocals and violins were featured predominantly in both musical forms.
5). Lyrical themes. Told a familiar tale of love lost, of revenge, of problems at work and problems at home that clearly were not racially stratified, but rather were universal.
Two Blues Forms
Country Blues:
Male singer, accompanied by an acoustic guitar, maybe harmonica. Often performs solo, irregular musical form.
Examples include Robert Johnson “Cross Road Blues,” Blind Lemmon Jefferson (picture on right) playing “Black Snake Moan.”
Classic Blues
Classic Blues: Vaudeville Tradition
Smoother more theatrical singing and presentation style,
Full band accompaniment or “scintillating master of the keyboard”
Women singers and women’s themes in the lyric content.
Humour and double-entendre.
“Crazy Blues” by Mamie Smith
Bessie Smith “The Empress of the Blues”
A protégé of Ma Rainey.
Her records sold incredibly well.
Humorous and filled with sexual double-entendre.
“I Need A Little Sugar in My Bowl” and “St. Louis Blues” by Bessie Smith.
Technology
The Birth of the Independent Record Company (Chess, Sun, Atlantic, Black Swan, Okeh).
Recordings = country-wide dissemination of the music.
Sheet music publishing business—Tin Pan Alley.
Tin Pan Alley
Publishers developed a new method of production.
Constructed a national market
Surveyed potential tastes
Contracted composers—such as Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and Irving Berlin.
Established successful compositional formulae
Promoted through “plugging” techniques
“I Got Rhythm” by Ethel Merman.
“Hillbilly Music”—Two Contrasting Images
The Carter Family:
Family values, sweet sentimental acoustic song.
Musical example: “Can the Circle be Unbroken”
“Hillbilly Music”—Two Contrasting Images
Jimmie Rodgers
“The Singing Brakeman”
The “ramblin’ man” persona
Introduced the “lap steel” into country music.
Musical Example: “Blues Yodel (T for Texas).”
Post Great Migration Blues: Two Forms
Jump Blues.
Paired down jazz big bands backing up a blues “shouter” such as Jimmy Rushing (picture right known as “Mr. Five by Five”), Big Joe Turner and Big Joe Williams.
Danceable, upbeat and rhythmic style.
Musical Example “Allright, Ok, You Win” by Big Joe Williams.
Post Great Migration Blues: Two Forms
Chicago Electric Blues.
Ensemble style, electric and amplified guitars and harmonics.
Examples include Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker and John Lee Hooker.
Musical Example “Hoochie Coochie Man” by Muddy Waters (right).
Frith, Simon. “Towards an Aesthetic of Popular Music.” In Richard Leppert & Susan McClary, eds. Music and Society: The Politics of Composition, Performance, and Reception. (Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 133 – 149.
Five Questions on Frith:
1). Discuss the concept of homology as articulated by Frith. What of his argument that there exists a link between social groups and particular sounds (eg. “rock n’ roll as youth music—Dire Straits is Yuppie USA”).
2). Why the premium placed upon ‘authenticity?’ Eg. “Good music is the authentic expression of something; bad music is inauthentic—it expresses nothing.”
3). What does Frith mean when he argues that popular music is popular not because it expresses something, but because it creates our understanding of what popularity is?
4). Why does Frith suggest that the “crudest” measure of popularity is the weekly record sales in the music press (American Billboard)?
5). What are the four “social functions of music” as Frith sees them?
a). We enjoy popular music because of its use in answering questions of identity: a place with society and ourselves.
b). Music gives us a way of managing the relationship between our public and private emotional lives.
c). Popular music shapes popular memory, to organize our sense of time.
d). Popular music is something possessed—Rock music “owned” by its fans.
Towards an aesthetic of popular music
By Scott Holyk
Introduction: the ‘value’ of popular music
-What is the source of musical value?
-a common argument among academic musicoloists is that “serious music matters because it transcends social forces; popular music is aesthetically worthless because it is determined by them (because it is ‘useful’ or ‘utilitarian’)
-sociological approach to popular music makes an aesthetic thoery possible
-is the pleasure taken from listening to popular music equal to that taken from listening to serious music?
-social forces behind serious music is also relevant to it’s analasys
-two sociological explanations for pop music: technique & technology; and social function
-"The phenomenal 1985 successes of Madonna and Bruce Springsteen are explained in terms of sales strategies, the use of video, and the development of particular new audiences. The appeal of the music itself, the reason Madonna’s and Springsteen’s fans like them, somehow remains unexamined.”
-"Everyone in the pop world is aware of the social foces that determine ‘normal’ pop music - a good record, song, or sound is precisely one that transcends those forces!”
-"as folk music rock is heard to represent the community of youth, as art music rock is heard as the sound of individual, creative sensibility. The rock aesthetic depends, crucially, on an argument about authenticity”
An alternative approach to music and society
-authenticity is a perception created in the minds of the listener
-if authenticity in pop music was absolute and objective, then it would be impossible to define
-record sales charts define what music is to be grouped into the category of ‘pop music’ and various sub-genres
-polls about popularity only serve to define what ‘popularity’ means
-popular culture “as the creation rather than the expression of the people”
-pop music tastes place us in a relationship with the artist, the mass media, and the other listeners
-fandom is more significant to music than other forms of popular culture (what about brand loyalty)
-"Other cultural forms - painting, literature, design - can articulate and show off shared values and pride, but only music can make you feel them.”
The social functions of music
-four most significant social functions of pop music:
1) identification
-"The pleasure that pop music produces is a pleasure of identification”
-"the production of identity is also a production of non-identity”
-"People not only know what they like, they also have a very clear ideas about what they don’t like”
-experiencing pop-music does not necessarily involve fantasy the way experiencing a movie does
2) mediating our public and private emotions
-helping us to express complex emotions
3) shaping popular memory in time
-music itself intensifies the experience of the present
-dance
-nostalgia
-youth and adolescence are a time of angst and emotional uncertainty, music we listen to at that time gains nostalgic weight because of the way it helps us to mediate this
4) to be owned by the fan
-your favourite song is “your” song, your favourite band is “your” band
-criticism of music that one is a fan of is often taken very personally
-"In ‘possessing’ music, we make it part of our own identity”
-"the social functions of popular music are in the creation of identity, in the management of feelings, in the organization of time. Each of these functions depends, in turn, on our experience of music as something which can be possessed.”
The aesthetics of popular music
-four aestehtic factors that enable popular music to fulfill these social functions
1) pop music’s “absorbtions of and into Afro-American forms and conventions”
2) “the development of popular music in this century has increasingly focused on the use of the voice”
-people immediately connect with the timbre of a good singing voice
-"This raises questions about popular non-vocal music, which can be answered by defining a voice as a sign of individual personality” (i.e. Charlie Parker)
-allows us to view pop music works as narratives
-image of pop musicians is not only created by music, but photos, videos, texts
3) the subdivision of pop music into sub-genres
-an analasys along these lines will apply differently to music of a different genre
-genres can be defined along marketing categories as defined by the industry
-genres can be defined “according to their ideological effects, the way they sell themselves as art, community or emotion”
Conclusion
-a description of popular music’s social functions can inform an understanding of how we value it
-personal preferences are socially determined
-"Pop tastes do not just derive from our socially constructed identities; they also help to shape them.”
-pop music shapes how we understand and form social constructs such as gender, race
Humber College “Bridging” Semester—Contemporary Music and Sociology of Music
Wednesday May 14, 2007
Andrew Scott
Important Locations
www.andrewjacobscott.com
andrewjacobscott@sympatico.ca
Tonight
1). Course syllabus.
2). Get to know the class.
3). Working definition of popular music.
4). Terminology
5). What to be listening for when you listen to popular music.
6). The Golden Age of Tin Pan Alley
7). Introduction to Adorno.
Three Forms
Folk Music
Art Music
Popular or Entertainment Music
Commerce
Mutually beneficial relationship of music and commerce.
Mediated on mass level…1st through sale of sheet music and 2nd through the recorded medium.
Symbiotic Relationship
Music and Commerce.
The most important development in the history of popular music is the invention of sound recording in 1877 by Thomas Edison (1847-1931).
1887: The development of disc recording (the phonograph) by Emile Berliner (1851-1929).
Early Recording Technology
Technology had musical ramifications
Shouting singing style
Commonplace in the Vaudeville Theatre Era
Stillted diction
Made famous by Al Jolson.
Technology had musical ramifications
The development of microphone meant singers could use dynamics.
One popular result of this was “crooning”
Singers could sing as loud (or soft) as they wished and the engineers would turn up the P.A. (Public Address) system.
Defining “pop” music.
A commonplace term.
Referring to music that is thought to be of…
1). Lesser Value than “art” music.
2). Heightened Simplicity.
Different Approaches
Linking popularity with scale of activity.
Problems = Does not count repeat listening or diverse audiences.
Therefore sales measure “sales” rather than popularity.
2nd Approach
Linking popularity with means of dissemination.
Crucial relationship between popular music and technology.
Problems = 1). divorcing the song from its technological considerations does not take away its popularity
2). All music—from the most commercial to the most avant-garde are technologically mediated for the consumer.
3rd Approach
A third approach is to link popular music with a particular class, social group or age group…specifically YOUTH.
This is divided twofold: 1). “Top-Down:” An undifferentiated group of people being duped by commercial manipulation
2). “Bottom-Up:” People determine what becomes popular.
Authenticity
Music has to be seen as being “real” or “authentic” to be perceived to have value.
Authenticity can be tied to:
Era
Race
History/background of the performer
The amount of corporate/consumer meditation that is “seen” to have gone into making these musicians “stars”
Pop Music…
Historically
Geographically
Technologically
Politically
Musically
Instrumentally
Historically
Post-World War II
Rock n’ Roll entered the public consciousness in 1954 with the release of “Rock around the Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets in the film “Blackboard Jungle”
Created its first major star in 1955 with Elvis Presley (Hound Dog and Heartbreak Hotel).
Geographically
The United States.
Mass market—southern whites and black moving to Northern urban centres.
Canada (?)
Britain (?)
Technology
Radio
Independent record companies
Recording as a means of dissemination
Ability to mass produce albums
Record players
Juke Boxes
Piggybacking “rock n’ roll” in film
Politically
Appealed to a wide cross section of youths (black and white)
Was thought to be subversive
Was thought to be sexual
Was thought to be (and sometimes was) politically outspoken
Musically
Harmonically simplistic
Strophic—vocal with musical accompaniment
Blues Based
Rhythmically based—music to dance to
Often alternates between verse and chorus structures.
Instrumentally
Vocals
Electric guitars
Bass (acoustic or electric)
Piano
Drums
Saxophone
Harmonica
Some Musical Forms
Pop Music as “Escapism” (Madonna or Tin Pan Alley)
Pop Music as “Dance Music” (Earth, Wind and Fire and Chic)
Ballad form (Simon and Garfunkel)
Blues form (The Clash, Little Richard, The Beatles)
Political or Protest Song (Bob Dylan, The Sex Pistols)
Songwriter as storyteller (Eminem, Lou Reed)
Does the music and text match?
If it is a blues tune, do the lyrics have to be blue?
In a political or protest songs, can the instruments and music also express protest?
Is a musical section capable of transferring over to a new performance and vice versa—Two versions of “Tutti Frutti” and “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”
Does it lose or gain meaning in the process?
What to listen for… Music:
a). Ensemble: What Instruments are present?
b). Rhythmic Emphasis: What is the dominant beat? What instrument or instruments carry this beat?
c). Vocal Style: What words would you use to describe the vocal delivery? What musical styles does this vocal style come from?
d). Instrumental Solo: Is there an instrumental solo (generally defined as an improvised melody in the absence of lyrics of one verse or more in duration). What is its stylistic derivation?
e). Harmonic Structure: What chords are present?
What to listen for… Lyrics:
a). What are the song’s major themes? Does it tell a story? Suggested topical classifications: romantic, love, sex, alienation, justice / injustice, introspection.
b). Is there an explicit or underlying political or cultural message?
What to listen for… Artist History:
What are the important elements of the artist’s personal history and career that enhance your understanding of the music? This information can be divided into three areas: a). Psychological, social and economic conditions during youth.
b). Musical history.
c). Important career landmarks.
What to listen for… Societal Context
How did the surrounding political and cultural climate influence the artist and their work? This information can be divided into three areas:
a). Youth culture and its relationship to society
b). Cultural and political movements, including the struggle for civil and human rights for minorities, peace and antiwar movement and the establishment of counterculture alternatives
c). The music industry and its current point of development.
What to listen for… Stance
Which elements of the artists live performances and public actions or behaviour provide us with a clearer understanding of the music itself?
The Mind/Body Split
The Anatomically Correct Rock and Roll Doll:
Mind (Intellectual)
Heart (Emotional)
Genitalia (Sexual)
Feet (Dancing)
Tin Pan Alley
1920s-1930s
Gilded age of American “standard” songs
Often commented on the immigrant experience in the United States
Examples of Tin Pan Alley composers inlclude Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gerswhin
AABA form so-called popular song form
Tin Pan Alley #2
Tie in with Broadway songs and compositional style
Left the vaudeville theatrical tradition behind in favour of crooning (technologically mediated music making practices).
Pop songs as escapism
Theodor Adorno (1903-1969)
“pseudo-individuation”
Popular music as “standardized assembly-line” process
While in WAM each musical cog part of the whole (generative form), pop music is interchangeable
Criticism: Viewing pop through a lens clouded by WAM
The parameters of WAM he celebrates may have no value in discussions of pop
For example, he ignores timbre and rhythm
Faculty: Andrew Scott
Phone #: 416-675-6622 ext. 3427
Fax #: 416-252-8842
Email: andrewjacobscott@sympatico.ca
Office hours: by appointment
COURSE OUTLINE
ACADEMIC YEAR 2006/2007
It is the student’s responsibility to retain course outlines for possible future use in support of applications for transfer credit to other educational institutions.
PROGRAM: Bachelor of Applied Music – Bridging Program
COURSE NUMBER: MUS. 003
COURSE NAME: History & Sociology of Contemporary Music
PRE-REQUISITE (S): Admission into Bridging Program
PRE-REQUISITE FOR: Bachelor of Applied Music (Contemporary Music) Program
CO-REQUISITE (S): None
CREDIT VALUE: 4
HOURS OF INSTRUCTION: 4 hours per week
APPROVED BY: ___________________________ __________________
DEAN (or designate) DATE
I COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course examines the history and sociology of contemporary music in North America from the Golden Age of Tin Pan Alley to the present. Students critically analyze the influence of technology, ideology, aesthetics, class, ethnicity, race, age and gender, on various genres of music including Tin Pan Alley, rockabilly, rhythm & blues, progressive rock, heavy metal, punk rock, disco, country music, hip hop and electronica. Class discussions centre on critical reading of texts and ideas from Adorno, Small, Negus, Frith, Meyer, Hebdige, among others, with the purpose of engaging with some of the significant cultural and musical issues of our time.
II COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students are required to demonstrate the following knowledge and skills to successfully complete this course:
1. Explain specifically how contemporary music in North America is made up of a number of musical streams that occasionally intersect and from which emit many stylistic tributaries.
2. Describe how music has meaning within a complex web of historical, social and cultural conditions.
3. Appreciate the diverse musical styles that make up contemporary music through the study of sound in historical and cultural context.
4. Identify and aurally differentiate among different styles of contemporary music.
5. Identify and associate select artists with specific recordings, ensembles, musical styles and eras.
6. Demonstrate an understanding of where certain musical styles originated and how they came about and influenced subsequent musical styles.
7. Apply analytical listening skills and vocabulary through the analysis of the aforementioned music as harmonic, melodic and rhythmic structures, musical forms (blues, AABA, etc.), musical instruments, timbre and orchestration.
8. Identify the major historical contributions and innovations of important musical figures like Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family, Bob Wills, Woody Guthrie, Mahalia Jackson Bessie Smith, Al Jolson, Bing Crosby Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Phil Spector, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Louis Jordan, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Bill Monroe and Hank Williams, Public Enemy, Eminem, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, the Sex Pistols, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Nirvana, among others.
9. Demonstrate an understanding of the history of North America as it affects the development of contemporary music and the music industry.
10. Demonstrate an understanding of important technological advances such as the invention of magnetic tape, multitrack recording, the LP record, television, FM radio, synthesizers, digital recording technologies and the compact disc, samplers, drum machines, music video, the iPod and the Internet.
11. Describe the role of the music industry as it relates to the commodification practices of music in contemporary society.
12. Read and summarize the main points of important readings in contemporary music history.
13. Describe the problems of the historian and acknowledge the presence of scholarly bias and “grand narratives.”
14. Demonstrate a critical awareness of their own existing biases and ethnocentric views toward music and culture.
15. Define and identify key sociological and musical concepts in contemporary society such as articulation, essentialism, cultural relativism, ideology, musical style, transculturation, authenticity, hegemony, modernism and postmodernism.
16. Read and demonstrate comprehension of academic articles on social theory.
17. Identify the key theoretical positions of such writers as Theodor Adorno, Christopher Small, Leonard Meyer, Simon Frith, Dick Hebdige, Keith Negus, and bell hooks, among others.
18. Locate further academic material on the sociology of music.
19. Answer questions such as what is culture? And subculture? Is race biologically or socially defined? What makes a musical performance authentic or inauthentic? What is modernism? What is post-modernism? How do commercial forces impact on the creation and mediation of art?
20. Analyze and describe the role of music as popular culture, as art, as rebellion and protest, and as expression in religious and in societal rituals.
21. Analyze and describe organizational structures of music and the music industry, as well as stratification of the music world.
22. Synthesize and critique different ideas by specific sociologists and scholars to formulate their own unique position and ideas.
23. Articulate and present their own ideas about music and society through class discussions, assigned writings and original research.
24. Participate in a Socratic form of teaching/discussion with their peers.
25. Acknowledge what C. Wright Mills calls our “sociological imagination,” a quality of mind that provides an understanding of ourselves within the context of greater society.
III GENERIC SKILLS
1. Communication skills: communicate ideas using the most suitable medium for the message, audience and purpose, speaking or writing clearly, concisely, correctly and coherently
2. Interpersonal skills: work effectively and assertively in groups or teams to achieve desired goals and resolve differing and/or opposing ideas and points of view
3. Thinking skills: select and apply forms of enquiry, conduct research, think critically and creatively, make decisions, and solve problems
4. Computer application skills: improve personal productivity by using computer application programs and technology-based communication tools.
IV LEARNING VALUES
1. Broadening students’ understanding of the evolution of knowledge through a growing awareness of the historical context of their studies;
2. Developing students’ broader perspectives through an understanding of context;
3. Enhancing students’ aesthetic development through a growing appreciation of the subject matter;
4. Developing students’ depth and breadth of understanding of the subject matter;
5. Developing students’ independent thinking and learning skills;
6. Encouraging students’ appreciation of and capacity for lifelong learning;
7. Fostering sensitivity for cultural perspectives inherent in knowledge and practice.
V METHODS OF PRESENTATION / DELIVERY FORMAT
Lecture, class discussion, Internet, group work and independent study.
VI REQUIRED TEXTS AND SUPPLIES
Cancopy Course Kit: MUS. 201 Sociology of Contemporary Music edited by Brad Klump
(available at the Humber Bookstore)
VII EVALUATION
Passing mark is 50%.
Class attendance/participation 10%
Listening Quiz #1 5%
Midterm Exam 20%
Short Written Assignment 10%
Listening Quiz #2 5%
Major Research Project 30%
Final Exam 20%
Total: 100%
VIII COURSE SCHEDULE
WEEK I Golden Age of Tin Pan Alley; Introduction to the Sociology of Music
(May 
Reading (all readings found in Cancopy Course kit):
Adorno, Theodor. “Popular Music.” In Introduction to the Sociology of Music. transl. by E.B. Ashton. (New York: Seabury Press, 1976), pp. 21 – 38.
WEEK II Hillbilly Records; Folk; Singer-Songwriter Musical Authenticity
(May 15) Reading:
Frith, Simon. “Towards an Aesthetic of Popular Music.” In Richard Leppert & Susan McClary, eds. Music and Society: The Politics of Composition, Performance, and Reception. (Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 133 – 149.
WEEK III Country Blues, Urban Blues, Rhythm & Blues; Music Aesthetics
(May 22) Reading:
Keil, Charles. “Motion and Feeling Through Music.” In Charles Keil & Steven Feld, Music Grooves. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 53 – 76.
WEEK IV Early Rock & Roll; Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino; Music and Identity
(May 29) Reading:
Negus, Keith. “Identities.” In Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction. (Wesleyan University Press, 1996), pp. 99 – 135.
Fish, Jefferson. “Mixed Blood,” Psychology Today (November/December, 1995).
WEEK V The In-Between Years (Motown, Phil Spector, Brill Building, Surf Music); Music and Commerce;
(June 5) Reading:
Garofalo, Reebee. “From Music Publishing to MP3: Music and Industry in the Twentieth Century. American Music (Fall 1999).
WEEK VI Soul Music, Funk & Disco
(June 12) Reading:
Small, Christopher. “Africans, Europeans and the Making of Music.” In Music of the Common Tongue: Survival and Celebration in Afro-American Music. (J. Calder, 1987), pp. 17 – 48.
WEEK VII MIDTERM EXAM
(June 19) British Invasion & Blues Revival (The Beatles, Rolling Stones)
Reading:
McInerney, Jay. “White Man at the Door” from The New Yorker [available on library reserve]
WEEK VIII Psychedelic & Progressive Rock; Music, Technology and Mediation
(June 26) MAJOR RESEARCH PROJECT ASSIGNED
Reading:
Jenkins, Iredell. “Art for Art’s Sake” in Philip P. Wiener, ed. Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, Vol. 1 (Scribner, 1973), pp. 108 – 111.
Cohen, Sara. (1993) “Ethnography and Popular Music.” Popular Music 12(2): 123 - 138.
[available on library reserve]
WEEK IX Heavy Metal & Glam Rock; Music & Gender
(July 3) Reading:
Hebdige, Dick. “Glam and Glitter Rock: Albino Camp and Other Diversions.” From Subculture: The Meaning of Style. (New York: Methuen, 1979), pp. 59 – 61.
Walser, Robert. “Forging Masculinity: Heavy Metal Sounds and Images of Gender.” In Frith, Simon, Andrew Goodwin and Lawrence Grossberg, eds. Sound and Vision: The Music Video Reader. New York: Routledge, 1994.
WEEK X Punk and New Wave; Music and Post-Modernism
(July 10) Reading:
Hebdige, Dick. “Style as Homology and Signifying Practice.” In Frith, Simon, & Andrew Goodwin, eds. On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word. (Pantheon Books, 1990), pp. 56 – 65.
WEEK XI 1980s: Music Video & Stadium Rock (Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, U2);
(July 17) Reading:
hooks, bell. “Madonna: Plantation Mistress or Soul Sister?” In Black Looks: Race and Representation. (Boston: South End Press, 1992), pp. 157 – 64.
Case Study: Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” Video
WEEK XII Hip Hop
(July 24) MAJOR RESEARCH PROJECT DUE
Rose, Tricia, “Orality and Technology: Rap Music and Afro-American Cultural Resistance.” Popular Music and Society, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Winter 1989), pp. 35 – 44.
WEEK XIII Review
(July 31) Reading:
Love, Courtney. “Courtney Love Does the Math” available at:
http://www.jdray.com/Daviews/courtney.html
EXAM WEEK Final Examination
(Aug. 7)
IX POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
It is the student’s responsibility to be aware of the College’s Academic Regulations, and the School of Creative and Performing Arts official policies and procedures. These academic regulations may be accessed through the College’s website at www.registrar.humberc.on.ca/acregs.html.
SPECIAL NOTE: Labtop computers and other wireless devices are permitted for relevant class use only. Surfing the web, checking email, and web-chatting are not examples of relevant class use.
X ACADEMIC CONCERNS/APPEALS
Any student who has an academic concern should first discuss the matter directly with their professor. If the issue cannot be resolved, then the student is encouraged to bring it up with the program coordinator; then with the Dean (or designate) if the prior two steps were unsuccessful. Please refer to the College’s Academic Complaint and Appeal Policy for details.
XI PRIOR LEARNING ASSESSMENT AND RECOGNITION (PLAR)
Course credits may be granted in recognition of prior learning of this subject upon successful passing of a written and performance examination and payment of the PLAR fee made through the Office of the Registrar.
XII DISCLAIMER
While every effort will be made to cover all material listed in this outline, the order, content, and/or evaluation is subject to change in the event of exceptional circumstances or class needs.
