Protest and Pop Music First Year Seminar SAMPLE SYLLABUS THIS WILL NOT BE EXACTLY THE SAME Robert Bell Office: Bobet 115 Office Hours: MTW 9-10am [email protected] 865.3094 Brief Course Description: This course will look at the intersection of popular music and politics. From the earliest English ballads to today’s gangsta rap, protest music has played a central thematic role in popular culture. This class will explore the historical context of different time periods, songs and artists, and show how something apparently as benign as pop music actually expresses an underlying political dimension and identity. Texts: Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song , David Margolick [Ecco Press, 2001] Other readings TBD through Blackboard Goals and Learning Outcomes: Goal 1: Creative/Critical Thinking A: Define a problem B: Compile and assess evidence C: Build / refute arguments D: Draw evidence-based conclusions Goal 2: Effective Communication: Written Assignments & Oral Presentations A: Effectively present information B: Form conclusions based on pertinent information Goal 3: You and the Community A: Understand how the choices one makes work towards creating a community identity B: Help others understand how consummation relates to identity formation Requirements: 20 % Participation 5% Quizzes and homework 20% Blog 15% Paper 1—Protest Song in Praxis (The song as symptom) 15% Service Learning Project or Class Presentation 25% Final/Paper 2—Protest or just Pop? Participation —This class is discussion based; you will be required to participate actively in the class discussion and have read and/or listened to all the material assigned. Often you will be asked to do research before class and present that research to the class. Students not prepared to enter into the day’s discussion or who haven’t adequately prepared for the discussion may be counted as absent and asked to leave the classroom. (20%) Quizzes and homework—I will periodically give short quizzes on the reading and listening we are doing for class. (5%) Blog —At least once a week you will create a post where you look at a song, news article, tv news story, etc. that in some way deals with music/protest/politics/social movements and analyze what you have been exposed to and putting your own analytical spin of it. For instance, Michael Jackson dies—why not a story about “We are the World” or his ownership of the Beatles catalogue or how he is/is not a political figure? By the end of the semester I want a minimum of thirteen (13) blog entries. These blog entries must be substantive and well written, and, since it’s a blog, timely and entertaining (minimum 225 words). Also, throughout the semester you are to make substantive comments on the posts that your peers have made on their blogs. By the end of the semester I want you to have made at least 13 comments on eight separate blogs. Obviously, the more you contribute to your blog and your classmates’ blogs, the better your grade will be for this portion of the course. (20%) Paper 1 —You are to look at a song as a symptom of a social problem. How does the song reflect what is going on in society and what effect does/did the song have? How is that song a small part of a larger picture and what part does/did it actually play in the protest action? (15%) Service Learning Project —One of the most exciting parts of this class is its service learning component. Public schools in New Orleans have historically underperformed schools in the rest of the state and country. The social, political and economic consequences of these facts are unfortunate and documented on a daily basis in the news and academic press. We will be going into a public school and discussing with the class how music can make a difference in peoples’ lives. We will show the students how music has played an important in bringing to light the issues of people at various times (like we have done in class). Then we will help the students to come with their very own protest song, which they will perform for us in late November. (15%) [This is an optional project. If you elect not to participate in it, you must complete the next assignment.] Class Presentation —If you do not participate in the service learning project, you will create a class presentation and write an accompanying paper (5-6 pp.) on a song or artist (one we have not discussed in class) and contextualize and analyze the song/artist. What is the history of the song/artist? How was the song used/what types of song were/are performed? Was it an effective instrument of protest? Etc. You are expected to create a powerpoint demonstration to accompany your discussion that should last approximately 10-15 minutes. Make sure you can play the song for the class and provide lyrics if appropriate. (15%) Final/Paper 2—For your last paper, you will be looking at the power of music as a agent of social change. You will reference the work of several theorists in coming up with your own defense or attack on the concept of protest music. Essentially you will be answering the question, does pop music really have any power to affect social change. (20%) The Plan: Week 1: Introductions What is a Protest Song? “Songs of Persuasion and Their Entrepreneurs” —Denisoff (Sing a Song of Social Significance ) “Rock protest songs: so many and so few”—Weinstein ( Resisting Muse ) Service Learning Info (Fri. Sept 4) Week 2: What're you rebelling against , Johnny? The concept of ideology “Ideology”—Kavanagh (Critical Terms for Literary Study ) Blog Instruction (LI—Fri. 9/11) Week 3: Against Interpretation: How to Read Song “Suga Mama, Politicized”—Brooks (Best Music Writing 2007 ) “From L’Etranger to ‘Killing an Arab’”—Hisama ( Expression in Pop-Rock Music ) Week 4: Fear of Music: Philosophers and Philistines Plato and Aristotle, Augustine Censorship “Counter ‘Revolution’”—Lee (Village Voice 6/20-26, 2001) Sept. 25, Fri—Sojourner Truth Academy @ Loyola Week 5: Damn Right I’ve Got the Blues! Guest Lecture—Dr. Judith Hunt First Three Chapters of Blues People —Jones Week 6: Southern Trees bear Strange Fruit Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song, David Margolick “Strange Fruit” film Week 7: Social Movements “Social Movements and Democracy”—Eitzen & Stewart ( Solutions to Social Problems from the Bottom Up ) Piven and Cloward: Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail “On social movements and culture ”—Eyerman and Jamison ( Music and Social Movements ) A Timeline of 20 th Century Social Movements Week 8: The 60s: Tune In, Turn On, Rock Out! and the Curious Case of Bob Dylan Week 9: Fear of a Black Planet “Sampling Is (A) Creative or (B) Theft?”—Strauss ( Pop, Rock, Soul Reader ) “Hip Hop Madness: […] Rap is Our Music”—Allen ( Pop, Rock, Soul Reader ) “Making the Strong Survive: the Contours and Contradictions of Message Rap”—Allen, Jr. ( Droppin’ Science ) Week 10: Politician or Pop Star? “The pop star as politician: from Belafonte to Bono, from creativity to conscience”—Street ( The Resisting Muse ) Week 11: We are the World? Band-Aid; Live Aid; Farm Aid; Free Tibet; Live 8, etc. Rock the Vote section of “Fight the Power”—Waldman (We All Want to Change the World ) “Understanding Mega-Events: If We Are The World, Then How Do We Change It?”—Garofalo ( Rockin’ the Boat ) Class Presentations Week 12: Music against Music: Music in the Internet Age Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Beck, Jack White, etc. “Hey Rube!: Protest Song in the Digital Age (And the Rise of the Global Justice Movement”—Smith (Sing Out! (Fall 2004) Class Presentations Week 13: Assessment Day Class Presentations Week 14: Where are the Protest Songs? “Music; No Last Hurrah Yet for Political Rock”—Powers (NY Times 12.31.2000) “Rock & Roll: War on Protest”—Eliscu (Rolling Stone 5.1.2003) “Players: Chicago Underground Trio: Raw Protest”—Margasak (Down Beat 3.2004) “Simon Reynolds – Pop and Politics”—Bhattacharyya (socialistworker.co.uk 6.3.2007) “Crank the volume: Where are the new Marleys and Lennons?”—Bartlett (Salon.com 9.1.2004) Class Presentations Week 15: Does Pop have any Power? “On Popular Music”—Adorno (Essays on Music ) Selections from Noise —Attlai Possibly Deluze Class Presentations Please notice that this syllabus is not engraved in stone; you should consider it a malleable document, a general guideline for this semester. Items and dates may change. It is your responsibility to keep up with and make note of any changes that occur to the syllabus. Attendance and Class Participation : You have three “free” absences to be used for any reason you see fit (doctor’s appointments, emergencies, etc.). After you have missed three classes, your final grade will be reduced by 50% of a letter grade for each additional class missed. For example, if you earned a B in the class, but you missed five classes, your final grade for the semester will be a C. If you miss any classes, you are responsible for any assignments missed. Being absent from class does not absolve you from any deadline responsibilities. Be on time: if you are not in class when I call roll, this will count as an absence; however, you are still encouraged to attend. If you are sleeping, reading, or otherwise occupied with non-class assigned materials, you will be counted absent. Come to class prepared to participate. Coming unprepared and/or not participating is similar to having not shown up to class and will be counted as an absence at my discretion and will affect your grade in the class.