Description: with an Emphasis on Rock, Pop, Rap, Disco, and Country in the US Since 1945, This Course Will Look Closely at Indiv

AMS 370 Key Works in American Popular Music Professor Randolph Lewis American Studies Dept. MW 10-11:30 BUR 436B 30620

Guitarist Link Wray

"A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom!" -- Little Richard

“Alabama's gotten me so upset / Tennessee made me lose my rest / And everybody knows about Mississippi goddam!” --Nina Simone

“I wouldn't live there if you paid me / I couldn't live like that, no siree! I couldn't do the things the way those people do.” -- David Byrne

Description: With an emphasis on rock, pop, rap, disco, and country in the US since 1945, this course will look closely at individual songs as a means to understand larger trends in US cultural history (including various Civil Rights movements, de-industrialization and economic dislocation, cultural polarization, anti-war movements and the backlash, etc.). Please note that this course is not primarily musicological in approach, but instead looks at popular song through the lens of cultural studies, sociology, and history. Many artists will be considered on a list that ranges across genres and even national boundaries. Not all are Americans, but all of these artists were important to particular moments and movements in recent American history. More than anything, we will be learning to listen closely and to think about music as a portal onto cultural landscapes.

Readings Five books (on Blondie, Tribe Called Quest, Devo, Celine Dion, and disco) are available at the coop. I will also post links for various online readings and videos. Please note that everything must be watched or read by class time on the day it’s listed.

Assignments (500 pts total) 100 pts = final paper (one entry - 8-10 pages - for a class project about seminal pop songs) 100 pts = music video (yes, you will create one) 50 pts = 5 pop quizzes on readings/viewings 150 pts = class participation 100 pts - presentation (of your music videos)

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COURSE SCHEDULE

8/28 Introduction The Ronettes’ Be My Baby the many functions of pop music

9/2 no class: Labor Day

9/4 Courtney Barnett’s Depreston: Learning to Listen

9/9 Link Ray’s Rumble: Dangerous Sounds

9/11 Music and Memoir Assignment: bring 100 words about one song from your life: why is it significant? What do your tastes reveal about you?

9/16 Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On Finish Celine Dion book for today (this is about the formation of musical

taste) Also ck out: http://www.wnyc.org/story/listening-unlistenable-outsider-music/ And this on Billy Joel

9/18 TBA

9/23 No class: e.c. album review assignment

9/25 No class: e.c. album review assignment

9/30 Nina Simone’s Strange Fruit: Music and Racial Justice In class https://utexas.kanopystreaming.com/video/strange-fruit-

1

10/2 Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues: Watch before class: https://utexas.kanopystreaming.com/video/dont-look-back

10/7 Jimi Hendrix’s Star Spangled Banner: Psychedelic Rock See this

10/9 CCR’s Fortunate Son: The Sound of Vietnam and Civil Rights Chapter TBA from Doug Bradley, We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War

10/14 David Bowie’s Young Americans (which is really about Philly soul)

10/16 Neil Young’s Hey Hey My My Listen to Sound Opinions podcast and NYT profile

10/23 Donna Summer’s I Feel Love: Disco in the 70s Alice Echol’s chapters TBA

10/25 Rush’s Spirit of the Radio: Understanding Prog Rock http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/19/the-persistence-of-prog-rock

10/28 Meet at Briscoe Center for tour of its new music exhibit!

10/30 Blondie’s Rapture: New Wave Blondie’s Parallel Lines book due today

11/6 MUSIC VIDEOS Watch Talking Heads’ Once in a Lifetime official video Please have ready to play in class whether on flashdrive or upload

11/8 MUSIC VIDEOS

11/13 Devo’s Whip It: We Are Not Men, We are Devo Devo book due today

11/15 Toby Keith’s Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue Patriotic Americana (or not?) from Merle Haggard and Toby Keith to The Dixie Chicks and Bruce

Springsteen

11/20 LCD Sound System’s Losing My Edge: The Rise of Electronic Music https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Losing_My_Edge

12/4 Tribe Called Quest’s Jazz Hip Hop, Sampling, and Cultural Commentary On your own: https://utexas.kanopystreaming.com/video/hip-hop

12/6 Share Final Project drafts

12/11 Conclusions