ARTS 629
Music in Social Movements

Rob Rosenthal        

Course Readings

Required Reading:

Reebee Garofalo, Rockin' the Boat (= GAR)

Eyerman & Jamison, Music & Social Movements (= E&J)

Rosenthal & Flacks, Playing for Change (= R&F)

Assorted reserve articles and music accessible on Blackboard: http://blackboard.wesleyan.edu

Course Calendar
September 13 Introduction: Music in Our Lives
September 20 How Movements Work, How Music Means

E&J, Introduction & 1   
R&F, Chapter 1  {82}
Lee Hunter, Sing Me a Song of  Social Significance

Recommended
Buechler, Social movement theory

September 27 Academic Visions

Topic for final paper due
Adorno, On popular music
E&J 2
Hampton, Introduction
McClary, Living to tell
Young, Like a critique
Harris, Make my rainy day  {72}
Van Halen, Runnin’ with the Devil
John Lennon, Working Class Hero

John Cage,  Concerto of Prepared Piano and Orchestra
Kingston Trio, Tom Dooley
Janis Joplin, Me and Bobbie McGee
Larry’s Group, Me and Bobbie McGee
Lead Belly, In the Pines
Nirvana, Where Did You Sleep Last Night
Talking Heads, Blind

Recommended:
Negus, Audiences 
McClary, Narrative agendas in “absolute” music
Walser, Beyond the vocals
Kivy, The paradox of musical description
Hampton, Doing the mind guerrilla 

October 4 NO CLASS

[My advice: begin the readings for class 6]

October 11 Artist's Vision: Serving the Committed, Education

R&F, Chapter 5, pp. 1-42
Allen, More subversion than meets the eye
Gleason, Cultural revolution {68}

Recommended
Reed , To do the right thing
Street, Party down
Street, Moving to the music  
GAR 4 (Frith & Street)
Hampton, Well just follow me

October 18 NO CLASS

R&F, Chapter 5, pp.42-85
R&F, Chapter 6 {65}

October 25 Beyond the Committed: Persuasion and Mobilization

Topic for final paper confirmed
Stuessy, Congressional testimony
Christenson & Roberts 7: Did the devil…make ‘em do it? 
GAR 1 (Garofalo) {75}
Almanac Singers. Solidarity Forever          
Nashville Quartet, This Little Light
James Brown,  Say it Loud                                    
Pete Constantini, Pity the Downtrodden Landlord
Sweet Honey in the Rock, Biko                        
Paul Robeson, Joe Hill     
Sweet Honey in the Rock,If You Had Lived    
Phil Ochs, Links on the Chain
Queen Latifah, U.N.I.T.Y.
Paul Brady, The Island 
Constantini & Rosenthal, Down on Penny’s Farm
Joan Baez, Birmingham Sunday
Almanac Singers, Talking Union
Seeger & Claiborne, O.P.A. Shout
Ani DiFranco, On Every Corner
Public Enemy, Bring tha Noize
Jefferson Airplane, Volunteers
Bob Marley, Get Up Stand Up

Recommended:
Pratt, Community, free space, and Utopia in popular music

November 11 Do Lyrics Matter? Does Music?

Assignment 1 due
Christenson & Roberts 6: Making sense of popular lyrics
Mondak, Protest music as political persuasion
Frith, Songs as texts
Lemisch, I dreamed I saw MTV last night  {70}
Barry McGuire, Eve of Destruction
The Spokesmen, Dawn of Correction
Mordecai Baumann, The Strange Funeral at Braddock
Beatles, Revolution
Rolling Stones, Street Fighting Man
Thunderclap Newman, Something in the Air
Tracy Chapman, Talkin’ ‘bout a Revolution
Rage Against the Machine,Take the Power Back
Public Enemy, Fight the Power
Aretha Franklin, Respect
The Redskins,Kick Over the Statues
Leon Rosselson, Stand Up for Judas
Billy Bragg, Waiting for the Great Leap Forward
The Crystals, Uptown
Bruce Springsteen, Factory
The Clash, Let’s Go Crazy
Little Steven, I am a Patriot

Recommended:
Denisoff and Levine, Brainwashing or background noise?
Robinson & Hirsch, Teenage response to rock and roll protest songs
R&F, Chapter 7, pp. 25-40
Marcus, A new awakening
Frith, The voice
Dunaway, Talking Union 

November 8 Artist's Relations with Movements and Governments

Bibliography for final paper due
R&F, Chapter 7, pp. 1-25, 40-57
Wolfe, Dylan's sellout of the Left
van Elderen, Pop and government policy in the Netherlands
Gray, Rate the records
Simmons, The effects of censorship on attitudes toward popular music {70}          
Leon Rosselson, Sing a Song to Please Us
Bob Dylan, Positively Fourth Street
Ani DiFranco, Little Plastic Castle 

Recommended:
Street, Politics and Popular Culture, chapters 5 & 6
Negus, Politics

November 15 The Music Industry and Popular Music

Negus, Industry 
George, Crossover: The death of rhythm & blues
Peterson, Market and moralist censors of a black art form
Goodwin & Gore, World Beat and the cultural imperialism debate
Miller & Skipper, Sounds of black protest in avant-garde jazz
Kirschner, The Lalapalooziation of American youth {90}
Paul Simon, Gumboots
Tennessee Ernie Ford, Sixteen Tons
The Animals, We Gotta Get Out of This Place  
Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
Destiny’s Child, Bills Bills Bills

Recommended:
Mooney, Popular music since the 1920s
Peterson & Berger, Three eras in the manufacture of popular music lyrics
Garofalo, How autonomous is relative?
Frith, Toward an aesthetic of pop music
Wallis & Malm, Patterns of change
DiMaggio et al, Country music: Ballad of the silent majority
Pratt, Rock ‘n’ roll: Sexuality and expressive rebellion
Shevory, Bleached resistance
Love, “On piracy and music”

November 22 Case Studies: Labor/Proletarian; Civil Rights/Black Liberation

Outline for final paper due
ASHP, Labor wars
Brazier, The IWW's little red song book
Reuss, Communist “folk” culture and the popular front
ASHP, The sit-in movement
Appleton, Singing in the streets of Raleigh, 1963
Powledge, A willingness to suffer {89}
Pete Seeger, 8 Hour Day
Almanac Singers, Hold the Fort
Almanac Singers, Casey Jones                                                                           Lifeline, Bread and Roses
Cahill, Ross & Oye, The Preacher and the Slave
Almanac Singers, Union Train
Almanac Singers, Which Side are You On?
Almanac Singers, Solidarity Forever
Joe Glazer & Bill Friedland, Our Line’s Been Changed Again
Joe Glazer & Bill Friedland, In Old Moscow
Will Geer/Woody Guthrie,Grand Coulee Dam
Paul Robeson, Ballad for American
Paul Robeson, Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel
Robert Johnson, Stones in My Passway
Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit
Max Roach, Freedom Day
Odetta, Hold On
Fannie Lou Hamer, Go Tell it On the Mountain
Jackson Rally, Oh Freedom
Freedom Singers, Turn Me Round
Sam Cooke, A Change is Gonna Come
James Brown,  Say it Loud
[again]
The Temptations, Ball of Confusion
Gil Scott-Heron, The Revolution Will Not be Televised

Recommended:          

Klein, Talkin' union
Reuss, The folklore legacy… American Communist Movement
E&J 3
Smith, Joe Hill's songs
Powledge, Segregation is broken
E&J 4
GAR 14 (Garofalo)
Pratt, The spirituals, gospel, and resistance
Kofsky: Revolution in Black music
Kofsky, The new Black radicalism
Jones, The changing same

November 29 Case Studies: New Left; Women's Movement

E&J 5
Gitlin, Everybody get together {85}
Lader, The women's movement
GAR 15 (Lont)
Bob Dylan, Blowing in the Wind
Bob Dylan, Ballad of a Thin Man
The Fugs, Skin Flower
Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On
Jefferson Airplane, Wooden Ships
Red Shadow, Ass with the Class
The Who, Won’t Get Fooled Again
Country Joe & The Fish, I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag
Peggy Seeger, Housewife’s Lament
Holly Near, Started Out Fine
Meg Christian, The Leaping Lesbians
Cris Williamson, Sweet Woman
Aretha Franklin, Respect
[again]
Fanny, Butter Boy
2 Nice Girls, Looking Out
Indigo Girls, Dead Man’s Hill
Bessie Smith, Aggravatin’ Papa
Queen Latifah, U.N.I.T.Y.
Salt-N-Pepa, Ain’t Nuthin’ But a She Thing
TLC, No Scrubs

Recommended:

ASHP, The road to Vietnam
Hinkle, A social history of the hippies
Gottlieb & Wald, Smells like teen spirit
Rose, Bad sistas {78}
Clawson, “Not just the girl singer”: Women and voice in rock bands
Meade, The degradation of women
Petersen, An investigation into women-identified music in the U.S.
Ellison, Freedom is a lonely word
Pratt, Women’s voices, images, and silences
Udovitch, Mothers of invention

December 6 Case Studies: Rightist Movements; Other Countrie

Warren, The Nazi use of music as an instrument of social control
Ward, Lunsdord and Massa, Sounds of violence
Southern Poverty Law Center, Money, music and the doctor
Schell, Red, hot and rebellious
Matta, The “New Song”… in Latin America
GAR 5 (Wicke)
GAR 7 (Brace & Friedlander)
GAR 10 (Lewis)
GAR 13 (Vila)   {90}
Skrewdriver, Win or Die
Skrewdriver, White Power
Skrewdriver, When the Boat Comes In
100% Americans Orchestra, That’s Why I’m a Klansman
Unknown, The South Will Rise Again
Mikis Theodorakis, To Yelasto Pedi
Cui Jian, I Have Nothing
Thomas Mapfumo, Butsu Mutandarika
Thomas Mapfumo, Trouble in the Communal Lands
Bob Marley, Them Belly Full
Bob Marley, Rebel Music

Recommended:
Hamm, American Skinhead excerpts
Denselow, Rebel music
Denselow, Goodbye to the 60s
GAR 6 (Szemere)
E&J 6
GAR 8 (Lee)
GAR 9 (Breen)

December 13 Current Music, Future Movements

Rose, “Fear of a Black Planet”: Rap music and Black cultural politics… Chang/Reeves/Reynolds, Reports from the 2004 Hip Hop convention
Light, Ice-T: The Rolling Stone Interview
Kelley, Straight from underground
Samuels, The rap on rap
Tsitsos, Rules of rebellion
E&J 7
Pratt, Political possibilities of popular music {86}

Recommended:

Rose, Rhythmic repetition, industrial forces, and Black practice
Laing, One Chord Wonders excerpts
Frank, Alternative to what?
GAR 2 (Ullestad)

Assignments

1)  A paper on "Do Lyrics Matter?"  DUE: Monday 11/1 (the day we discuss whether lyrics matter, so don’t be late). 

            Pick five songs you think your friends are familiar with.  Figure out what the lyrics to each mean (as best you can).  Ask five friends 1) to recall as much of the lyrics as they can, and after that; 2)  to tell you what they think each song means.  (If they’re truly stumped remembering, you may jar their memory by reciting, singing, or playing one or two lines from the song.)

            Analyzing their answers then makes up the bulk of your paper.  What we want to know is: how do audience members arrive at their understanding of the meaning of a song, and what role do lyrics play in that process?  Don't reproduce the data (“Joe said this, Mary said that, Billy didn’t know that song,” etc.); summarize it in meaningful ways.  For example (and these are just examples):

·        how “accurate” were they?

·        is there a pattern to who was or wasn’t accurate?

·        which lyrics do people generally get? Is there a pattern by song?

·        what does their accuracy or lack of accuracy mean in terms of the role of music in social movements and social change? 

            Two tips: I've found it doesn't make sense to require complete knowledge of every lyric to say that someone "knows the lyrics."  It's better to think in terms of tendencies.  And don’t include someone who is unfamiliar with a given song as “not knowing” the lyrics.  What we want to know is whether those who are familiar with a song get part or all of their understanding of the song’s meaning from the lyrics.

            Make sure: a) your conclusions come from your data, not from your preconceived ideas; b) you look at different kinds of factors that might explain accuracy or lack of accuracy--factors in the music, factors in the audience, factors tied to the reception of the music, etc.; c) you comment on the readings for that day and incorporate them where relevant in your paper.  Please include the lyrics to the songs you picked as an appendix to the paper. 

2)   Final paper:  Explore how the work of an artist or group has been affected by a social movement; or how a particular social movement has used or been affected by music; or how your political life and/or the lives of people you know have been affected by music; or any other topic that seems relevant to the course, with my approval.  Please note a series of preparation deadlines you must meet (but are welcome to beat):

            9/27    A paragraph or two describing what you’d like to write your final paper about.  This may be changed if necessary over the next month, but it’s in your interest to be working on the same topic throughout the semester.

            10/25   Reconfirmation of your topic, or description of a substitute topic.

            11/8            Bibliography for your final paper.

            11/22             An outline of your paper.

            Final drafts due in the Sociology office by noon on Thursday, December 18.