SYLLABUS
8/31: INTRODUCTION
9/2: Overview of
the recording industry in the U.S./Beginnings of recorded sound
• Millard, Introduction, chapters 1-2
• Recommended: Reebee Garofalo, “From Music Publishing
to MP3: Music and Industry in the Twentieth Century,” (on
e-reserve). Provides a succinct history of the music industry
in the U.S.
9/7: 1870s-1910s
• Millard, chapters 3, 4, 6
• Recommended: Lisa Gitelman, “Reading Music, Reading
Records, Reading Race: Musical Copyright and the U.S. Copyright
Act of 1909,” (on e-reserve).
Special Journal topic: brainstorm ideas for research project
9/9: Listening
Session: Early acoustic recordings, tin pan alley, and an overview
of early recording technologies
9/14: 1920s
• Millard, 5, 7
9/16: NO CLASS—Rosh Hashanah
9/21: 1930s
• Millard, 8-9, 13
Special Journal topic: describe research topic
9/23: Listening Session: 1920s and 1930s—“the jazz
age” and early electrical recordings, crooners, swing
9/28: Special topic: Folk,
Hillbilly, & “Race” music: Authenticity, Ethnomusicology,
and the Politics of Collecting
• J.M. Mancini, “’Messin’ with the Furniture
Man’: Early Country Music, Regional Culture, and the Search
for an Anthological Modernism,” (on e-reserve).
• Benjamin Filene, “’Our Singing Country’:
John and Alan Lomax, Leadbelly, and the Construction of an American
Past” (on e-reserve).
• Louis M. Kyriakoudes, “The Grand Ole Opry and the
Urban South,” (on e-reserve).
Must be signed up for discussion leading date by this
time.
9/30: Listening Session: Lomax prison and field recordings, The
Carter Family, Leadbelly, selections from The American Anthology
of Folk Music, “Outsider” music.
10/5: 1940s
• Millard, 10; also p. 285-295
• Theodor W. Adorno, “On Popular Music,” (on
e-reserve).
• Eric Porter, “’Dizzy Atmosphere’: The
Challenge of Bebop,” (on e-reserve).
Paper 1 due (no journal due this week).
10/7: Listening Session: 1930s-40s. Big band swing, Bebop, Louis
Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Soundies, Parker, Monk
10/12: 1950s
• Millard, 11-12
• Michael Coyle, “Hijacked Hits and Antic Authenticity:
Cover Songs, Race, and Postwar Marketing,” (on e-reserve).
• Between 10/12 and 10/19, please read Keith Negus, “Histories,”
(on e-reserve).
10/14: Listening session: R&B, rock and roll, and rockabilly.
10/19: 1960s
• Millard, p. 295-308 and chp. 16
• David Buxton, “Rock Music, The Star System, and
the Rise of Consumerism,” (on e-reserve).
• David Brackett, “The Politics and Practice of ‘Crossover’
in American Popular Music, 1963 to 1965,” (on e-reserve).
Research exercise due (no journal due this week).
10/21: Listening session: More rock and roll, the “British
Invasion,” psychedelia.
10/26: 1970s I : Disco and “The Death of Rock”
• Millard, p. 308-312 and chp. 15, 17
• Richard Dyer, “In Defense of Disco” (on e-reserve)
Special Journal topic: summarize your progress on your
research project
10/28: Listening Session: Progressive rock, disco, soul, sugary
8-track goodness.
11/2: 1970s II: Glam Rock,
and Punk
• Dick Hebdige, excerpt from Subculture: The Meaning of
Style (on e-reserve)
• Timothy Ferris, “David Bowie in America” (on
e-reserve)
• Tom Carson, “Rocket to Russia” (on e-reserve)
11/4: Listening Session: Roxy Music, David Bowie, T-Rex, the Sex
Pistols, the Clash, The Ramones, Iggy and the Stooges, X-Ray Specs,
The New York Dolls
11/9: Special topic: The
Evolution of Rap and Hip Hop
• Tricia Rose, excerpts from Black Noise: Rap Music and
Black Culture in Contemporary America (on e-reserve)
• Murray Forman, excerpts from The ‘Hood Comes First:
Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop (on e-reserve)
11/11: Listening Session: From Grandmaster Flash to Jay-Z.
11/16: 1980s: I Want My MTV
• Lawrence Grossberg, “The Politics of Youth Culture:
Some Observations on Rock and Roll in American Culture”
(on e-reserve).
• Andrew Goodwin, “From Anarchy to Chromakey: Developments
in Music Television,” (on e-reserve).
• Mark Fenster, “Country Music Video,” (on e-reserve).
Proposal due—bring 2 copies for peer feedback. (no
journal due this week).
11/18: Listening Session: New Wave and 80s power pop.
11/23: 1990s: Indie Rock, Grunge, Riot Grrls, and “Post-Punk”
• Tony Grajeda, “The ‘Feminization’ of
Rock,” (on e-reserve).
• Gayle Wald, “Just a Girl? Rock Music, Feminism,
and the Cultural Construction of Female Youth,” (on e-reserve).
• David Hesmondhalgh, “Post-Punk’s Attempt to
Democratise the Music Industry,” (on e-reserve).
Peer feedback due.
11/25: NO CLASS—THANKSGIVING.
11/30: Contemporary Music:
File-sharing, MP3s, Ipods, and the future of the industry.
• New York Times article, “Companies Not Liable for
Online Abuses” (on e-reserve).
• Visit the Recording Industry Association of America online,
particularly their pages on piracy, copyright law, and music &
the internet (including the downloading and webcasting FAQs):
http://www.riaa.com/issues/piracy/default.asp
http://www.riaa.com/issues/copyright/laws.asp
http://www.riaa.com/issues/music/default.asp
• Visit the Electronic Frontier Foundation online, particularly
their pages on file-sharing and the RIAA: http://www.eff.org/share/
and http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/riaa-v-thepeople.php
Please read the EFF’s mission statement and their media
releases regarding the RIAA lawsuits, as well as the “Form
of Doe” settlement agreement. Browse through some of the
documentation of lawsuits that the EFF has compiled.
First Draft of Paper Due. (no journal due).
12/2: Listening session:
1990s – present
12/7: Contemporary Music
Cont.: Satellite & Internet Radio, Music DVDs, Direct Marketing
• Phil Hardy, “Older Consumers and iTunes Offer a
Hope of Recovery for the Troubled US Recorded Music Market”
(on e-reserve).
• Steve Hemsley, “Teenage Clicks Record Companies
Are Finding E-Marketing and Direct Mail Far More Effective…”
(on e-reserve).
• Nat Ives, “Musicland Looks to the Internet”
(on e-reserve).
• Chris Nelson, “Trying to Sell CDs by Adding Extras,”
(on e-reserve).
• PR Newsire, “Interscope Records Bares All,”
(on e-reserve).
• Kenneth Li, “Homegrown Satellite Radio Software
Draws XM Fire” (on e-reserve).
• Browse articles archived on http://www.strathlachlan.com/satradio/
No journal due this week.
12/9: FINAL CLASS: Class compilation CD listening party, album
cover contest.
Music projects
due AT NOON on 12/13 (MON). Papers turned in without having previously
submitted proposals or first draft will not be accepted. Absolutely
no exceptions.
