ì¥_ G Faculty Memberrmccoy202005-11-15T22:52:00Z2006-08-31T15:03:00Z2006-08-31T15:03:00Z116439367 78211098911.8026Course: English 150: Rock 'n' Roll Cultures, Mon. and Wed. 11.45 am – 1 pm, 403 Luther Bonney HallInstructor: Dr. Shelton WaldrepOffice: 321 Luther Bonney HallHours: Wed. 4-5 pm by contacting waldrep@maine.edu[fewer assignments? 8 total, or 7. redo order of assignments. More inclass exercises and/or discussion prompts.]Description: Though many of us regularly discuss our favorite CDs or why we prefer one musical group—or musical sub-genre—to another, few of us have actually studied the critical work that has been done on the study of popular music—analysis that has been on-going in disparate fields. This course will attempt to bring together some of this work in order to provide critical tools for understanding what we talk about when we talk about rock music. We will combine an overview of the music itself—from Robert Johnson to the present—with an examination of the criticism of rock music. Subjects to be covered will include identity, value, and performance. Texts: DeCurtis, Anthony, and James Henke, eds. The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll. New York: Random, 1992.Photocopies of essays, chapters, excerpts, lyrics, and liner notes. Longer essays and chapters will be placed on reserve at the Glickman Library and will also be available to download as electronic documents via URSUS. Shorter essays, track lists, lyrics, etc., will be passed out in class. In addition to the reading material, students are required to listen to music provided by the instructor prior to the day of discussion. A copy of each disc will also be available at Glickman Library for listening purposes. This material will be supplemented by musical recordings and videotaped performances that I will bring to class.Reserve:The following essays are on two-hour reserve at the Glickman Library in Portland:T. Adorno, "On Popular Music." Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader. Ed. and Intrd. John Storey. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1994. 202-14.Roland Barthes, "The Grain of the Voice." Music/Image/Text. Trans. Stephen Heath. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977. 179-89.Allan Bloom, “Music.” The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987. 68-81. Iain Chambers."Among the Fragments." The Bowie Companion. Ed. Elizabeth Thomson and David Gutman. London: Macmillan, 1993. 67-76.John Fiske. “Madonna.” Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. Ed. David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford, 1993. 156-175.Simon Frith. "Making Sense of Video: Pop into the Nineties." Music for Pleasure: Essays in the Sociology of Pop. New York: Routledge, 1988. 205-225.Simon Frith, “Rock Roots” and “Rock and Mass Culture.” Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure, and the Politics of Rock 'n' Roll. New York: Pantheon, 1981. 12-57.Bernard Gendron. "Theodor Adorno Meets the Cadillacs." Studies in Entertainment. Ed. Tania Modleski. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986. 18-36.Theodore Gracyk. “Jungle Rhythms and the Big Beat.” Rhythm and Noise: An Aesthetics of Rock. Durham: Duke UP, 1996. 125-147.Dick Hebdige. “Subculture: The Meaning of Style.” Ed. Ken Gelder and Sarah Thornton. The Subcultures Reader. New York: Routledge, 1997. 130-42.J. Hoberman. "What's Art Got to Do with It?" Vulgar Modernism: Writing on Movies and Other Media. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1991. 149-57.Greil Marcus. “Robert Johnson: 1938” and “Presliad.” Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music. New York: Dutton, 1975. 21-40, 137-205.Carter Ratcliff. "David Bowie's Survival." Artforum 21.5 (January 1983): 39-45Tricia Rose, “Prophets of Rage: Rap Music and the Politics of Black Cultural Expression.” Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover: Wesleyan UP, 1994. Ellen Willis. “Dylan.” Beginning to See the Light: Sex, Hope, and Rock-and-Roll. Hanover: Wesleyan UP, 1992. 3-25.Requirements: A series of short (2-3 p) papers written over the course of the semester and based upon specific assignments that will prepare you for the final project, which will be a discography, bibliography, and review modeled on those in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock (RSIH). Active participation will also figure into the final course grade. Grade breakdown: eight short assignments: 10% each = 80%; five-page paper (final review) = 20%. See also note concerning attendance below.Policies:All major assignments will receive a letter grade. Letter grades will be computed as follows: A = 95; A- = 92; B+ = 88; B = 85; B- = 82; C+ = 78; C = 75; C- = 72, etc. Late papers will be accepted by permission only. If accepted, one-half of a letter grade will be subtracted per day for each day of the week that the paper is late. Attendance in class is expected. If you miss more than the equivalent of one week’s worth of classes—for whatever reason—your final course grade will suffer. If you miss more than one-third of the scheduled classes for this course, you will receive a grade of “F” for the final course grade.Please do not be excessively tardy; do not eat in class; do not leave and enter the room during class except during scheduled breaks.Schedule:September 7: Introduction to the class; syllabi distributed; some confessions made.12: Pre-1950s: The Roots of Rock; CD no. 1. Willis, “Robert Johnson” (photocopy on reserve); RSIH, pp. 2-16; Simon Frith, from Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure, and the Politics of Rock 'n' Roll (photocopy on reserve).14: Cont.19: The 1950s: Rock Takes Off; CD no. 1 cont.; first assignment due (writing a journalistic rock review); RSIH, pp. 17-36, 52-66, 85-91; Marcus, “Presliad” (photocopy on reserve).21: Cont.26: Allan Bloom, from The Closing of the American Mind (photocopy on reserve); in-class writing exercise; second assignment due (on Marcus’ “Presliad”).28: Theodor Adorno, "On Popular Music" (photocopy on reserve); Bernard Gendron, "Theodor Adorno Meets the Cadillacs" (photocopy on reserve); Theodore Gracyk, “Jungle Rhythms and the Big Beat” (photocopy on reserve); RSIH, pp. 92-101, 153-157; 189-191.October 3: The British Invasion and the US Response: The 1960s: CD no. 2; RSIH, pp. 192-198, 209-251.5: Cont.; third assignment due (critique of Bloom).10: Autumn Break.12: Are You Experienced?: The 1960s Continued; CD no. 3; Willis, “Dylan” (photocopy on reserve); RSIH, pp. 299-308, 324-338; 348-356, 370-387, 391-394, 412-418.17: Cont.; fourth assignment due (analysis of a song). 19: Cont.24: The Seventies and the Emergence of Genre; CDs no. 4 and 5; Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars; Roland Barthes, "The Grain of the Voice"; Iain Chambers, "Among the Fragments" (photocopy on reserve); Carter Ratcliff, "David Bowie's Survival" (photocopy on reserve); RSIH, pp. 480-499, 532-537.26: Cont.; fifth assignment due (comparison/contrast of songs).31: Cont. November 2: Cont.7: Punk and after; CD no. 6; sixth assignment due (on articles in RSIH); Dick Hebdige, from Subculture (photocopy on reserve); RSIH, pp. 549-560, 594-625.9: Cont.14: The 1980s and Music Video: J. Hoberman, “What’s Art Got to do with It?” (photocopy on reserve); Frith, “Making Sense of Video” (photocopy on reserve); selection of music videos (Bowie, Madonna, New Order, Eninem, et al.); RSIH, pp. 626-631, 640-647, 656-662.16: John Fiske, “Madonna” (photocopy on reserve).21: Cont.; seventh assignment due (on genres).23: Thanksgiving Break.28: 1990s and beyond; CDs no. 7 and 8; eighth assignment (analysis of a music video); RSIH, pp. 672-681.30: Cont.December 5: Rap and its Beginnings; CD no. 9; Tricia Rose, from Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Music in Contemporary America; RSIH, pp. 682-689.7: Cont.12: Later Rap; CD no. 10. 14: Cont.Final exam day: final paper due (discography; bibliography; review).Selected Bibliography:Carr, Roy, and Charles Shaar Murray. David Bowie: The Illustrated Record. New York: Avon, 1981.---. Urban Rhythms: Pop Music and Popular Culture. London: Macmillan, 1985.Curtis, Jim. Rock Eras: Interpretations of Music and Society, 1954-1984. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State U Popular P, 1987.Debord, Guy. Society of the Spectacle. Detroit: Black and Rose, 1983 (1967).Frith, Simon. Music for Pleasure: Essays in the Sociology of Pop. New York: Routledge, 1988.---. "Only Dancing." Mother Jones 8.7 (August 1983): 16-22.---. Performing Rites. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1997.Frith, Simon, and Andrew Goodwin, eds. On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word. New York: Pantheon, 1990.Frith, Simon, and Howard Horne. "The Rock Bohemians." Art into Pop. New York: Methuen, 1987. 71-122.Gill, John. Queer Noises: Male and Female Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century Music. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1995. .Goodwin, Andrew. Dancing in the Distraction Factory: Music, Television, and Popular Culture. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1992.Greenberg, Clement. "Avant-Garde and Kitsch." Partisan Review 1 (1939): 34-49.Hoberman, J. Vulgar Modernism: Writing on Movies and Other Media. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1991. Hoberman, J., and Jonathan Rosenbaum. Midnight Movies. New York: Harper, 1983.Horkheimer, Max, and Theodor W. Adorno. "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception." Dialectic of Enlightenment. Trans. John Cumming. New York: Continuum, 1972 (1944). 120-67.Marcus, Greil. Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard UP.McClary, Susan. "This Is Not a Story My People Tell: Musical Time and Space According to Laurie Anderson." Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, Sexuality. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1991.McRobbie, Angela. "Settling Accounts with Subcultures: A Feminist Critique." Ed. Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin. On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word. New York: Pantheon, 1990. 66-80.McRobbie, Angela, ed. Zoot Suits and Second-Hand Dresses. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1988.Mellers, Wilfrid. "Still Hunky Dory, After All These Years." The Bowie Companion. Ed. Elizabeth Thomson and David Gutman. London: Macmillan, 1993. 51-59Mowitt, John. "Performance Theory as the Work of Laurie Anderson." Discourse 12.2 (Spring/Summer 1990): 48-65.Murray, Charles Shaar. Shots from the Hip. New York: Penguin, 1991.Noland, Carrie Jaurès. "Rimbaud and Patti Smith: Style as Social Deviance." Critical Inquiry 21 (Spring 1995): 581-610.Pitt, Kenneth. David Bowie: The Pitt Report. London: Design Music, 1983.Ross, Andrew, and Tricia Rose, eds. Microphone Friends: Youth Music and Youth Culture. New York: Routledge, 1994.Sontag, Susan. Against Interpretation and Other Essays. New York: Dell, 1964.Willis, Paul. "Music and Symbolic Creativity." Common Culture: Symbolic Work at Play in the Everyday Cultures of the Young. Boulder: Westview, 1990. 59-83.