Course syllabus

 

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ANTHRO 217: Rhythm, Blues and Rock - 

Race, Commerce and Power in Popular Music

SEMESTER 2, 2018

15 points

 
Course Convenor: 

Professor Greg Booth - g.booth@auckland.ac.nz

Daniel Hernandez - d.hernandez@auckland.ac.nz 

Teachers:  Greg Booth and Daniel Hernandez

 

Course delivery format:

2 + 1 hours of lecture and workshop per week

(Timetable and room details can be viewed on Student Services Online)

 Summary of Course Description:              

This course examines the interactions between race/ethnicity and commerce in the history of popular music in the US. The concept of race is problematic at best and interacts with ethnicity and culture. Race here is understood to mean only the differences in physical appearance between human beings. Compared to behaviour, cognition, music, food, dress and so on, race is the most consistently visible, if least meaningful aspect of humanity. That visibility however—the ways that humans have reacted to it, the ways that industry and commerce have reacted to those reactions and the ways that power (both political and economic) has been based on racial difference—has had a complex, long-lasting, and often insidious impact on the history of popular music broadly, and on the lives of individual musicians and listeners. Gender (on its own and interacting with race) has also played a major role in the construction of popular music styles and identities; it will be a secondary focus of our explorations.

 We explore the origins of and development of popular music in the US during the eras of the shellac and the vinyl discs, from roughly 1900 through 1965. In these years, the American music industry worked out the foundation principles that drove the sale of recorded music globally throughout the 20th Century and that continue to have an impact on our consumption of recorded music in the 21st Century. In doing so, the music industry incorporated the established cultural understandings and power dynamics of race (and gender) into the fabric of their industry.

 Course outcomes:

 In order to pass this course you will need to acquire a clear understanding of the basic trends in African-American popular music, culture and the popular music industry from 1930-1965. This includes:

  • A familiarity with the songs, artists and labels identified in lectures
  • Basic information about artists, the styles, genres and (in some cases) songs with which they are associated
  • The ways race, gender and generational identity are represented
  • Fundamentals of the popular music industry and media in the United States and that industry’s role in the production/mediation/commodification of culture
  • Developments in technology and economics that interacted with musical and industrial issues
  • The development of “youth culture” in social and industrial terms

You must demonstrate your understandings in clearly structured and well-presented writing, using standard academic English.

Assessment Summary:

  1. Individual report on the impact of American popular music and race/ethnicity in the lives of your parents a/o grandparents                                                                                         =  8%
  2. Group report on a song assigned from the current BB 100 , including stylistic analysis, historical context and the racial/gendered implications of artist identity and musical style (and visual content) = 28%
  3. Three in-class quizzes (3*8%) = 24%
  4. Two-hour Exam = 40%

Weekly Topics:

 

Lecture Schedule:

Lecture 1   Introduction to the Course, the Music Industry and R ‘n B

 Lecture 2    Blues  Pt 1

 Lecture 3    Blues Pt 1 Recorded Lecture

 Lecture 4    Jazz, Swing and Boogie Recorded Lecture

 Lecture 5    The Vocal Groups (Doo-Wop et al) Pt 1 Recorded Lecture

 Lecture 6    The Vocal Groups (Doo-Wop et al) Pt 2 Recorded Lecture

 Lecture 7    R’nB Pt 1 Recorded Lecture

 Lecture 8    R ‘n B Pt 2 Recorded Lecture

 Lecture 9    Rock ‘n Roll Recorded Lecture

 Lecture 10 “Rock ‘n Roll” Recorded Lecture

 Lecture 11  Soul Recorded Lecture

 Lecture 12  Continuity and Change – Blues in the 1960s

Prescribed Texts:

There is no text for the course. The readings (as of last offering, it’s a long list) are listed here.

 Recommended Texts:

  • Charles Hamm. 1995. Genre, Performance, and Ideology in the Early Songs of Irving Berlin (Chapter 19). In, Putting popular music in its place, pp. 370-380.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 0052147198. [ANTHRO 217]
  • Patrick Wikstrom. 2009. Excerpts from: Introduction – Music in the Cloud and Chap. 2 Inside the Music Industry. The Music Industry. Polity Press. [Course Builder]

 

  • Simon Frith. 1996. Rhythm: Race, Sex, and the Body (Chapter 6). In, Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music, pp. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. ISBN: 0674661958. 781. [ANTHRO 217]
  • Timothy Dowd. 2003. Structural Power and the Construction of Markets: The Case of Rhythm and Blues. In, Comparative Studies of Culture and Power, p. 147-201. Oxford: Elsevier. ISBN: 0762308850. GL: 303.3 E58 [ANTHRO 217]

 

  • Jon Michael Spencer. 1991. The Diminishing Rural Residue of Folklore in City and Urban Blues, Chicago 1915-1950. Black Music Research Journal 12(1), pp25-41. 1992. [JSTOR]
  • Robert Springer. 2007. Folklore, commercialism and exploitation: copyright in the blues. Popular Music, 26/1, pp. 33-46. ISSN: 0261-1430. [ANTHRO 217]

 

  • Mark Katz. 2010. Capturing Jazz. In, Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music 80-93. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN: 978052026105. [ANTHRO 217]
  • Elijah Wald. 2009. The Record, the Song and the Radio (Chapter 7). In How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll, pp 84-96. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0-19-534154-6. [ANTHRO 217]

                                                              

  • Willie R. Collins. 1998. California Rhythm and Blues Recordings, 1942-1972: A Diversity of Styles (Chapter 6). In, California Soul: Music of African Americans in the West, pp, 213-243. Los Angeles: University of California. ISBN: 0520206274. [ANTHRO 217]
  • Cheryl L. Keyes. The Aesthetic Significance of African American Sound Culture and Its Impact on American Popular Music Style and Industry. The World of Music 45(3), pp. 105-129. [JSTOR]

 

  • Brian Ward. 1998. “I hear you knocking . . .”: from r&B to rock and roll (Chapter 1). In, Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, black consciousness and race relations, pp. 19-55. London: UCL Press. ISBN: 185728139x. [ANTHRO 217]
  • Nelson George. Dark Voices in the Night (1930-1950) (Chapter 2). In, The Death of rhythm & blues, pp. 15-58. London: Penguin Books. ISBN: 0142004081. [ANTHRO 217]

 

  • Philip Ennis. 1992. The Early Crossovers (Chapter 7). In, The Seventh Stream: The Emergence of Rock ‘n Roll in American Popular Music, pp. 192-228. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University. ISBN: 0819552380. [ANTHRO 217]
  • Ralph Eastman. 1989. Central Avenue Blues: The Making of Los Angeles Rhythm and Blues, 1942-1947. Black Music Research Journal, Vol. 9/1, pp. 19-33.

[JSTOR:   http://www.jstor.org/stable/779431]

 

  • Reebee Garofalo. 2002. Crossing Over: From Black Rhythm & Blues to White Rock ‘n’ Roll. In, R&B – Rhythm and Business: The Political Economy of Black Music, pp. 112-137. New York: Akashic Books. ISBN: 1888451262. GL: 338.44780973 K29. [ANTHRO 217]
  • Donald J. Mabry. 1990. The Rise and Fall of Ace Records: A Case Study in the Independent Record Business, The Business History Review, Vol. 64, No. 3, pp. 411-450.

[JSTOR:   http://www.jstor.org/stable/3115735]

 Workload and deadlines for submission of coursework:           

The University of Auckland's expectation is that students spend 10 hours per week on a 15-point course, including time in class and personal study. Students should manage their academic workload and other commitments accordingly. Deadlines for coursework are set by course convenors and will be advertised in course material. You should submit your work on time. In extreme circumstances, such as illness, you may seek an extension but you may be required to provide supporting information before the assignment is due. Late assignments without a pre-approved extension may be penalised by loss of marks – check course information for details.

Course summary:

Date Details Due