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
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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
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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
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October 4 |
NO CLASS
[My advice: begin the readings for class 6]
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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
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October 18 |
NO CLASS
R&F, Chapter 5, pp.42-85 R&F, Chapter 6 {65}
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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
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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
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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
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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”
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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
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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
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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)
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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)
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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.
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