Course Outline of Record Los Medanos College 2700 East Leland Road Pittsburg CA 94565 (925) 439-2181
Course Title: Popular Music in American Culture Subject Area/Course Number: MUSIC-012
New Course OR Existing Course
Instructor(s)/Author(s): Michael Zilber
Subject Area/Course No.: MUSIC-012 Units: 3 Course Name/Title: Popular Music in American Culture Discipline(s): Music
Pre-Requisite(s): none Co-Requisite(s): none
Advisories: Eligibility for ENGL-100
Catalog Description:
A multicultural study of the evolution of America musical styles, including blues, salsa, samba, rock, jazz, pop, rhythm and blues and country and folks, with emphasis on the African American, Euro-American, Latin American origins of these contemporary styles and their historical contexts.
Schedule Description:
A multicultural study of the evolution of American musical styles, including blues, salsa, samba, rock, jazz, pop, rhythm and blues and country and folk, with emphasis on the African American, Euro-American, Latin American origins of these contemporary styles and their historical contexts. Class activities will include field trips to Jazz, Blues or Salsa nightclubs and in-class performances by guest artists.
Hours/Mode of Instruction: Lecture 54 Lab Composition Activity Total Hours 54 (Total for course)
Credit Credit Degree Applicable (DA) Grading Pass/No Pass (P/NP) Repeatability 0 Credit Non-Degree (NDA) Letter (LR) 1 (If Non-Credit desired, contact Dean.) Student Choice (SC) 2 3
Please apply for:
Last date of Assessment: _SP2010______Cohort #: ___2_
Please apply for:
LMC General Education Requirement(s): Arts and Humanities
Transfer to: CSU UC IGETC Area 3B____ CSU GE Area_C1_ C-ID Number ______
Course is Baccalaureate Level: Yes No
Page 1 of 9 Course Outline of Record Los Medanos College 2700 East Leland Road Pittsburg CA 94565 (925) 439-2181
Course Title: Popular Music in American Culture Subject Area/Course Number: MUSIC-012
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Dean/Sr. Dean Date
Curriculum Committee Chair Date
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CCCCD Approval Date (Board or Chancellor's Office) Date
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STAND ALONE COURSE: YES NO
FOR OFFICE OF INSTRUCTION ONLY. DO NOT WRITE IN THE SECTION BELOW. Begin in Semester ______Catalog year 20____/20_____ Class Max: ______Dept. Code/Name:______T.O.P.s Code: ______Crossover course 1/ 2: ______ESL Class: ____Yes / No______DSPS Class: ____Yes / No_____ Coop Work Exp: ___Yes / No_____ Class Code A Liberal Arts & Sciences SAM Code A Apprenticeship Remediation Level B Basic Skills B Developmental Preparatory B Advanced Occupational NBS Not Basic Skills C Adult/Secondary Basic Education C Clearly Occupational D Personal Development/Survival D Possibly Occupational E For Substantially Handicapped E* Non-Occupational F Parenting/Family Support F Transfer, Non-Occupational G Community/Civic Development *Additional criteria needed H General and Cultural 1 One level below transfer I Career/Technical Education 2 Two levels below transfer J Workforce Preparation Enhanced 3 Three levels below transfer K Other non-credit enhanced Not eligible for enhanced
Course approved by Curriculum Committee as Baccalaureate Level: _Yes / No_
LMC GE or Competency Requirement Approved by the Curriculum Committee: ______
Page 2 of 9 Course Outline of Record Los Medanos College 2700 East Leland Road Pittsburg CA 94565 (925) 439-2181
Course Title: Popular Music in American Culture Subject Area/Course Number: MUSIC-012
Institutional Student Learning Outcomes
General Education SLOs (Recommended by GE Committee) At the completion of the LMC general education program, a student will: 1. Read critically and communicate effectively as a writer and speaker. 2. Understand connections among disciplines and apply interdisciplinary approaches to problem solving. 3. Think critically and creatively 4. Consider the ethical implications inherent in knowledge, decision-making and action. 5. Possess a worldview informed by diverse social, multicultural and global perspectives.
None of the Above
Program-Level Student Learning Outcomes (PSLOs) Music Major
1. Understand and be able to apply the fundamentals of music theory, aural, and have a working knowledge of harmonic progression, musical forms and structures.
2. Have knowledge and understanding of the historical development of music, its historical periods, genres, instrumentation and composers, within their cultural context.
3. Have practical knowledge of performance practice in their particular ensemble performing styles.
4. Have proficiency of solo repertoire and technical studies in their major instrumental or vocal area of study.
5. Be competent with music technology in its various forms for composition, teaching, and professional pursuits.
6. Be able to work independently on varieties of musical problems by combining their capabilities in performance, aural, verbal and visual analysis, composition, repertoire, knowledge, and music history. 7. Have writing skills with the ability to independently utilize research tools and resources (library, internet, etc.)
Course-Level Student Learning Outcomes (CSLOs):
At the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Read critically and communicate effectively as a writer and speaker in comparing diverse cultural strands in American Popular Musical Styles. (PSLO 7) (GESLO 1) 2. Analyze and explain how the intrinsic connection of cultural, political, economic, historical and artistic movements has shaped American Popular Musics. (PSLO 2) (GESLO 2) 3. Think critically and creatively about the vast stylistic genres and subgenres that make up American Popular Music (PSLO 6) (GESLO 3) 4. Critique and judge the ethics in how Popular Music is distributed and consumed in today’s society and what the implications are for future generations of musicians and audiences. (PSLO 2) (GESLO 4) 5. Describe and discern the diverse and related multicultural musical styles that make up American Popular Music. (PSLO 2) (GESLO 5)
Page 3 of 9 Course Outline of Record Los Medanos College 2700 East Leland Road Pittsburg CA 94565 (925) 439-2181
Course Title: Popular Music in American Culture Subject Area/Course Number: MUSIC-012
Assessments:
CSLO 1:
Term Paper: In the term paper students are asked to write about and orally present different cultural strands and how they shape the music and musicians being researched. This allows the student to write and orally communicate in an effective manner about the role of contrasting cultures in the development of Popular Music Genres.
Discussion Topics: In discussion topics, students are asked to explore how different cultural strands have shaped the music and musicians being studied. A possible discussion topic might be “Proposition: Since rappers neither sing, write melody or harmony nor play an instrument, rappers are better viewed as poets reciting to a hip hop beat or loop than as musicians.
Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Use facts to back up your point of view, not just emotion, write a cogent, well-reasoned college-level paragraph on the subject and be prepared to discuss.”
This allows the student to communicate succinctly about art forms and their classification as well as to examine how their assumptions about a genre of music and how it developed may be very different than the reality of the matter.
Final: Finals include an essay question asking the student to describe the cultural influences that made up early jazz. This allows the student to demonstrate their ability to write clearly under a time constraint about the role of different cultures in making up the music being explored.
CSLO 2:
Tests: Test questions ask students to look at the evolution of popular music and how it has been influenced, from historical and cultural perspectives. A possible question would ask the student the following: Choose the letter that best represents the statement below. ______Disco was an identifiable musical expression of which of the following groups of people? a. The unemployed English kids. b. The upper-class American affluent. c. The MTV generation. d. The gay community. e. The transplanted Jamaicans of the Bronx. This helps students understand the cultural and socio-economic forces that shaped this genre of music.
Term Paper: In the term paper students are asked to research and write about cultural, political, economic, historical environments that gave rise to the artist and artistic movement. This allows the student, from a historical, cultural, economic and political perspective to analyze how these factors shaped the artist and his/her artistic movement.
Discussion Topics: In discussion topics, students are asked to examine how extra-musical forces interrelate and influence music. For example, a possible topic would be the appropriateness of artists taking a political stance in favor of an issue or a candidate and how that would affect the audience’s perception of the artist and the issue/candidate. This allows students to see the interconnectedness among music and other disciplines.
Final: Finals questions ask students to look at the evolution of popular music and how it has been influenced, from historical and cultural perspectives. A possible question would ask the student the following: Rastafarianism is a religion often associated with which musical style? a. Reggae b. Funk c. Disco d. Funk-pop. This allows students to see the interconnectedness among music and other disciplines.
CSLO 3:
CD Review: In the CD Review, students are asked to put the specific musical style and approach of the artist(s) into a larger context of its subgenre and genre, as well as other genres that may have affected the artist. For example, a possible review would examine how Miles Davis’ seminal record Bitches Brew created the subgenre of
Page 4 of 9 Course Outline of Record Los Medanos College 2700 East Leland Road Pittsburg CA 94565 (925) 439-2181
Course Title: Popular Music in American Culture Subject Area/Course Number: MUSIC-012 jazz-fusion, drawing on jazz, funk and rock genres for inspiration. This allows the student to understand the cross- pollination that is a hallmark of American Popular Musics.
Term Paper: In the term paper students are asked to research and write about what genres, subgenres and specific artists influenced the artist being studied. This allows the student analyze and explain how these genres influenced the artist and his/her artistic movement.
Discussion Topics: In discussion topics, students are asked to examine how various genres and subgenres of music influence and are drawn from each other. A possible topic might be an examination of how the Latin-Rock of Carlos Santana was a drawn from and became a melding of Afro-Cuban, SF Rock and Roll and the 60s precursors of smooth jazz. This allows the student to see how various musical genres can be combined to create a new artistic movement.
CSLO 4:
Discussion Topics: In discussion topics, students are asked to explore the ethical issues in how music is distributed, marketed and consumed, and what the implications are for the musicians making the music and the audience consuming it. A possible topic could be “Almost all of you share burned Cds and MP3s, and some of you do so illegally, and I want you to discuss the implications of this for those who make the music. How will musicians be compensated fairly for their work, if no one is paying for it?” In this way, students can see how a seemingly “victimless” act of file-sharing can have massive effects on the world of recorded music.
Final: The Final will include an essay component where the student will be asked to make a case for or against file- sharing. This allows the student to tease out and justify his/her stance on the ethics of file-sharing, in light of its effect on the livelihood of musicians.
CSLO 5: Tests: Test questions ask students to the different musical strands that make up various forms of popular music. A possible question would ask the student the following: What are the three cultural/musical sources of popular music in America? A. Western European classical music, Anglo-American folk music, and African rhythm. B. Western European rhythms, Anglo-American use of the vernacular, and African instruments. C. Western European vernacular speech, Anglo-American folk instruments, and African blues. D. Minstrelsy, spirituals, and ragtime. This helps students understand the cultural and socio-economic forces that shaped this genre of music. This allows the student to properly identify the three main musical progenitors of Popular Music
Concert Reports: In assigned concert reports, students must review at least 3 live concerts of contrasting musical styles. In the guidelines, they are required to do research on the group and genre for each concert they review, and to describe the musical genre and subgenre that makes up the musical style of the artist/group they have heard. This enables the student to explore and understand in depth at least three distinct genres that make up the American Popular Music landscape.
Final: Finals questions ask students to be able to properly identify the elements that make up each genre and subgenre of the music studied during the semester. A possible question would ask the student the following: Both blues and jazz come from the same sources, but each has certain characteristics that differentiate one from the other. Generally speaking, which of the following is true?
A. Blues is predominantly vocal music whereas jazz is predominantly instrumental music. B. Blues is based on the African-American experience in America whereas jazz is based on the Caucasian experience. C. The instrument most identified with blues is the acoustic guitar, whereas the instrument most identified with jazz is the electric guitar. D. Jazz focuses more on the backbeat than does Blues
This allows the student to understand the subtle distinctions that make up each style of popular music.
Page 5 of 9 Course Outline of Record Los Medanos College 2700 East Leland Road Pittsburg CA 94565 (925) 439-2181
Course Title: Popular Music in American Culture Subject Area/Course Number: MUSIC-012
Method of Evaluation/Grading:
A level student work is characterized by: tests work that scored between 90 and 100%; term papers that are written clearly, and have followed all of the 5 required areas of research, are grammatically correct, with proper citations and formatting, and can identify, compare and analyze a minimum of 4 cultural, historical, political or socio- economic influences, and can accurately identify the genres and sub-genres for the artist(s) and musical genre researched; oral presentations that are effectively organized and presented, including visual and aural aids, that distills the essence of their written term paper; CD reviews that follow all of the required guidelines, are grammatically correct, with proper citations and formatting, effectively address the historical, ontological and musical elements that led to the recording, as well as persuasively conveying the listener’s psychological response to the music at hand; Concert reports that are grammatically correct, with proper citations and formatting, follow all of the required areas of research and experiential description and review a minimum of three distinct musical genres; Written and class participation in 90% of the assigned discussion topics for the semester.
C level student work is characterized by: tests work that scored between 70-79%; term papers that have a maximum of ten grammatical and formatting errors, and have followed 3 of the 5 required areas of research and have included citations, and can identify, compare and analyze a minimum of 2 cultural, historical, political or socio- economic influences, and can accurately identify the genres for the artist(s) and musical genre researched; oral presentations that are effectively organized and presented, including at least one visual or aural aid, that touches on at least 70% of the topics in their research paper; CD reviews that follow at least 3 of the 5 required guidelines, papers that have a maximum of ten grammatical and formatting errors, address two of the historical, ontological and musical elements that led to the recording, as well as adequately conveying the listener’s psychological response to the music at hand; Concert reports papers that have a maximum of ten grammatical and formatting errors, follow 3 of the 4 required areas of research and experiential description and review a minimum of two distinct musical genres; Written and class participation in 70% of the assigned discussion topics for the semester.
Possible Grading Structure:
Tests: 20% Term Paper/Oral Presentation: 20% CD Review: 10% Discussion Topics: 15% Concert Reports: 15% Final: 20%
Weighting of CSLOs 1: 15% 2: 25% 3: 25% 4: 10% 5: 25%
A = 90-100% B = 80-89% C = 70=79% D = 50=69% F = 0-49%
Course Content:
All topics are associated with assigned reading, listening and discussion. These topics will be addressed through chapter readings, homework assignments, listening assignments, research projects, concert reports, CD reviews, group presentation, in-class demonstrations, videos, class discussion, term papers and tests/finals, including an essay component on the finals. The course content will be drawn from the following:
ELEMENTS IN AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC
Page 6 of 9 Course Outline of Record Los Medanos College 2700 East Leland Road Pittsburg CA 94565 (925) 439-2181
Course Title: Popular Music in American Culture Subject Area/Course Number: MUSIC-012
Identify the elements and identities that comprised the major evolutionary building blocks of American popular music in the 19th century, particularly Anglo-American, African-American and Spanish/Latin-American folk influences.
POPULAR MUSIC IN 19TH CENTURY Discuss and explore popular music in the 19th and early 20th century with particular scrutiny on the sheet music parlor piano phenomenon begun and promulgated by Stephen Foster and contemporaries, minstrel shows and Appalachian trail celtic folk music aural traditions, as well as the municipal band marches as exemplified by Sousa and others.
EMERGENCE OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSIC IN 19TH CENTURY Examine the emergence of African-American music as a major influence in 19th and early 20th century popular music, first as translated by Foster and Gottschalk and the ersatz cakewalk movement and the caricatured “blackface minstrel” genre, and then through such groups as the Fisk jubilee singers and brilliant early African- American composers such as Joplin.
BEGINNING OF MODERN ERA IN POPULAR MUSIC Study how, beginning in the early 20th century, the modern era in popular music begins, partly prompted by the emigration of African-Americans from the deep rural South to major cities, partly by the development of reproductive media such as the phonograph and player piano, partly by the cross-pollination of Euro, African and Latin-American influences in such major seaports as New Orleans and New York, and partly by the development of American musical theater, transformed from its operetta roots in Gilbert and Sullivan, mixed with the syncopation of ragtime and the semi-controlled anarchy of vaudeville.
JAZZ FROM 1900-1930 Explore how, at the same time, the most important purely American musical form, known as jazz, began and was incubated in the hot house of New Orleans, particularly in the genius of African-American musicians such as Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver and, perhaps most importantly, his protégé, the seminal virtuoso Louis Armstrong, who followed Oliver in a mass exodus to Chicago. Concurrently, Euro-American jazz musicians of great influence in Chicago, such as Bix Beiderbecke, Bud Freeman, and others, were developing a contemporaneous but “sweeter” version of this new and exhilarating music. By the late 20s, the center of jazz had moved to New York, where Armstrong was joined by such luminaries as Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson and Coleman Hawkins in creating a new style of music that literally became fundamental to the DNA of American popular music from Broadway to Blues to Soul.
MUSICAL THEATER Examine the development of musical theater in the 20s and 30s, led by primarily Jewish-American composers such as the Gershwins, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers and Irving Berlin. Drawing on folk, classical, vaudeville and jazz elements, the Broadway musical again created a new and vibrant hybrid of theater and song that captivated audiences for 50 years, always adapting to and transforming the latest musical currents.
THE SWING ERA In the 1930s, jazz, or a dancified version, became the most popular music in the country. Musicians such as Armstrong, Ellington, Count Basie, Henderson, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller swept the nation with an infectious, swing-based dance music that filled halls around the nation with dancers and listeners. We will examine how, just as with rock and roll 25 years later, a music that was mainly originated with African-American culture, was appropriated and, in the case of Miller, sanitized for mass consumption by white audiences. As well, we will study how Benny Goodman and Armstrong both led integrated bands, even in the deep South, and insisted that audiences be integrated for their performances as well.
THE RISE OF THE CROONERS Out of the big band swing era, the era of crooners took primacy. Such artists as Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Bing Crosby, originally, just a part of the band, took on increasing popularity to the point where they eclipsed the bands they were singing with and became iconic entertainers on their own, even as the big bands faced economic ruin due to the unfeasibility of touring a 19-20 piece organization in the difficult times of World War 2. Sinatra became the first teen idol in Pop music, drawing adoring throngs of teenagers, the fabled “bobby- soxers”, in the first of many generational musical splits between parents and their children.
Page 7 of 9 Course Outline of Record Los Medanos College 2700 East Leland Road Pittsburg CA 94565 (925) 439-2181
Course Title: Popular Music in American Culture Subject Area/Course Number: MUSIC-012
EARLY FOLK, BLUES AND COUNTRY Folk music during the early 20th century through the mid-20s operated on two separate but similar tracks: Black folk music came to be known as the blues, with itinerant Southern musicians traveling from town to town with guitar in hand, promulgating the earthy and protean form known as the blues. Concurrently, Southern and Appalachian white folk musicians were transforming folks songs passed down for generations into a recognizable idiom which came to be known as country. By the 1920s, staggeringly talented Black folk/blues musicians such as Charlie Patton and Son House, and equally precocious white folk/country musicians like Jimmy Rodgers and the Carter family were immensely popular through their recordings and live radio broadcasts.
THE THREE WAVES OF LATIN MUSIC Students will explore the three successive waves of “Latin” musical revolutions in this country and how they shaped and intersected with other popular musical streams. The first wave was popularized in the 1920s and 1930s by such artists as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, spreading the dance crazes known as the Tango, the Beguine and the Rhumba, complete with “exotic” Latin instruments such as the maraca and the clave. This wave had sanitized and simplified rhythms for American feet to follow. The next wave, in the late 1940s, melded bebop jazz, Afro- Cuban and New York Puerto Rican rhythms, most brilliantly combined by Tito Puente, the Juliard-educated Timbalero, who offered the uncompromising version of this new music, and the more neutered, easily accessible version offered up by Perez Prado. The final wave, known inaccurately by the media-coined phrase salsa, draws explicitly on the complex Afro-Cuban rhythms of the Island nation and its African roots, as well as the urgency and electricity of modern jazz and rock influences. Such groups as Irakere, Eddie Palmieri and Ruben Blades are listened to, discussed and analyzed.
R&B, SOUL AND ROCK AND ROLL The class will study the development of rhythm and blues, soul and early rock and roll (rock and roll being a term used by Duke Ellington among others, in a different context earlier on), and how they all share a legacy and birthplace in blues, swing, country and gospel music. Rhythm and Blues’ prime progenitor is Muddy Waters with the Chicago Chess records phenomenon, as well as Big Mama Thornton and Big Joe Turner. All three had hit “race” records of theirs recorded and rerecorded by Elvis Presley and Bill Haley and the Comets to become what we now know as early rock and roll. Presley, in particular, synthesized country, gospel and R&B to create a sound which we now identify as seminal rock and roll. Ray Charles and Sam Cooke took the urgent rhythmic suggestiveness of R&B and combined it with the fervent gospel vocalizing of the Black church to create a secular gospel sound which scandalized and entranced the African-American community. Artists such as Little Richard and Chuck Berry drew on such unlikely sources as country and jazz to leaven their early rock and roll experiments, leading some wags to observe that rock and roll was R&B sped up and mainly played by young white musicians.
MODERN JAZZ 1945-1975 Jazz broke decisively with dance-based music in the mid-1940s, with the sped up, complex, virtuosic, challenging and ground-breaking instrumental music known as bebop, developed by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk and others. We will follow the development of this music over the next 35 years, as it ebbed and flowed in popularity, through cool, hardbop, free, soul jazz and fusion, focusing on the innovative genius of John Coltrane, Miles Davis and their peers and associates. Almost all significant jazz musicians and music during this period came through the Miles Davis band with the exception of the Ornette Coleman movement, so it is quite clear to see the development of what many view as America’s most important contribution to world culture by following Miles and his disciples over this period.
1964-1980: YOU SAY YOU WANT A (MUSICAL) REVOLUTION? The period from 1964-1980, bookended by the arrival the Beatles in the US and the tragic murder of John Lennon in 1980 is, as are all of these topics, worthy of a semester-length course in itself. We will trace the dizzying transformation of American music during this period, starting with the Beatles’ appearances on Ed Sullivan, only 2 and a half months after the nation was traumatized by the assassination of its young and charismatic president. The Beatles, with their daring musical innovations, androgynous appearance and irreverent demeanor are still without parallel in terms of popular music dominance, occupying the top 5 spots on the billboard top 100 for months on end, pioneering at least 4 different pop movements that spawned endless imitators such as The Byrds, the Kinks, Cream and even, to a large extent, the Rolling Stones, a group of very young British rebels who were, ironically, mainly recycling blues clichés developed ten years before by Muddy Waters and company in Chicago. Other movements and musicians examined during this period will include Bob Dylan, breaking decisively with folk to create electric folk-rock; James Brown, tapping into a mix of funk, soul rock and black power which led inexorably Page 8 of 9 Course Outline of Record Los Medanos College 2700 East Leland Road Pittsburg CA 94565 (925) 439-2181
Course Title: Popular Music in American Culture Subject Area/Course Number: MUSIC-012 to Pfunk and Prince; the singer-songwriter movement personified by Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon and James Taylor; the glam brit-pop androgyny movement of David Bowie and the New York Dolls, the explosion of disco as a major flamboyant dance-driven craze(spawned by a collision of the sexual revolution, drug culture, gay culture and a homogenized and simplified version of soul and funk), the powerful reaction against disco by the British punk movement led by The Sex Pistols and the Clash; the brilliant mix of jazz, soul and pop developed by Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell and Earth, Wind and Fire, these are just a few of the areas available for exploration.
HIP HOP FROM THE SUGAR HILL GANG TO HYPHY The class will examine and be able to understand the genesis of and development hip-hop, perhaps the music with which most young people are most familiar. We will follow the genre from its birth in the streets of the South Bronx and break-dancing in the late 1970s through the first major rap stars, the Sugar Hill gang to the first social message rappers, Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel, through the joining of heavy metal with rap in the collaboration of Run DMC and Aerosmith, to the appearance of the “hardcore” gangsta rappers such as NWA, and the politicized black power rappers Public Enemy, the parallel development of such lighter fare more comical rappers as MC Hammer and the Beastie Boys, the feuds and tragic outcome of the East Coast/West Coast war that resulted in the violent deaths of major artists Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, to the splintered regional movements such as Hyphy and the Memphis sound that have fragmented the rap movement today.
Instructional Methods: Lecture Lab Activity Problem-based Learning/Case Studies Collaborative Learning/Peer Review Demonstration/Modeling Role-Playing Discussion Computer Assisted Instruction Other (explain) Guided listening to recorded and live performance
Textbooks: Popular Music in America, The Beat Goes On, Michael Campbell, 2013 Ebook version with bundled coursemate, 2013
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