Music and American Idenity 4219-SD0095
The course will also explore how music reflects broader historical, political, and social transformations in the United States, including issues of race, class, gender, and regional identity. Students will analyze selected songs, lyrics, performances, and music videos as cultural texts that both shape and challenge dominant narratives of “Americanness.” Particular attention will be paid to the relationship between popular music and social movements, as well as to the ways in which marginalized voices have used music as a form of resistance and self-expression, and how their cultural production has been often appropriated by the mainstream. By engaging with both musical works and critical scholarship, students will develop interdisciplinary skills in cultural studies analysis. The course encourages students to think critically about the role of popular culture in the construction of national myths and collective memory in the United States.
Modules:
Introduction
Blues
Jazz
Country
Folk/protest song
Rock
Alternative/metal
Mainstream pop/rap
Course coordinators
Type of course
Mode
Learning outcomes
After finishing the course, the student:
1. KNOWLEDGE
- has knowledge of the major genres of American music and their historical development
- recognizes key themes, stylistic features, and cultural contexts of selected music genres and artists
- is aware of the ideological, social, and cultural functions of music in the construction of American identity
2. SKILLS
- is able to formulate critical arguments concerning musical texts, performances, and pop-cultural phenomena
- can interpret and contextualize source texts from various time periods concerning the United States using basic tools from cultural studies and music studies
- is able to apply selected theoretical and cultural studies approaches in the analysis of music and its social and cultural significance
3. SOCIAL COMPETENCES
- is aware of the cultural and social relevance of American popular music
- is able to organize and present research findings in clear written and oral forms using appropriate academic terminology
- participates in group work and joint projects successfully
Assessment criteria
A lot of emphasis will be placed on students’ active engagement with the material both in the classroom and outside of it.
Active class participation - 30%
Three Kampus responses to the material - 30%
Final project (includes both creative and critical elements) - 40%
Bibliography
Carr, Daphne. “The Becoming.” Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine (33 ⅓). Continuum 2011. (METAL/ALTERNATIVE)
Clough, Edward. 2021. “Introduction: Cultures of Protest in American Music.” Comparative American Studies An International Journal 18 (3): 275–80. doi:10.1080/14775700.2021.2021004. (FOLK/PROTEST)
Coulter, B.H. “"Singing from the Heart": Notions of gendered authenticity in pop music.” Hawkins, S., (ed.) The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music and Gender. Routledge 2017, pp. 267-280. (POP)
Davis, Angela Y. “Strange Fruit.” Music and Social Consciousness.’ Blues Legacies and Black Feminisms, pp. 181-199. (BLUES)
Fox, Aaron A. “White Trash Alchemies of the Abject Sublime. Country as “Bad” Music.” Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate. Christopher J. Washburne, Maiken Derno (eds.), Copyright 2004, pp. 29-46. (COUNTRY)
Gammage, Marquita. ‘Pop Culture Without Culture: Examining the Public Backlash to Beyoncé’s Super Bowl 50 Performance’. Journal of Black Studies, vol. 48, no. 8, 2017, pp. 715–31. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26574534. (POP)
Hochhauser, Sharon. “THE MARKETING OF ANGLO-IDENTITY IN THE NORTH AMERICAN HATECORE METAL INDUSTRY.” In Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music around the World, edited by JEREMY WALLACH, HARRIS M. BERGER, and PAUL D. GREENE. Duke University Press, 2011. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1220q3v.9. (METAL/ALTERNATIVE)
Horn, David. “The Identity of Jazz.” The Cambridge Companion to Jazz. Mervyn Cooke, David Horn (eds.). Cambridge University Press 2002. (JAZZ)
Hamilton, Jack. Just around midnight : rock and roll and the racial imagination. University of Harvard 2016, excerpts (TBA). (ROCK)
Keyes, Cheryl L. “Empowering Self, Making Choices, Creating Spaces: Black Female Identity via Rap Music Performance.” That's the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Murray Forman & Mark Anthony Neal (eds.) Routledge 2004, pp. 265-276. (RAP)
Lusane, Clarence. “Rap, Race, and Politics.” That's the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Murray Forman & Mark Anthony Neal (eds.) Routledge 2004, pp. 351-362. (RAP)
Mitchell, Gillian A. M. ‘Visions of Diversity: Cultural Pluralism and the Nation in the Folk Music Revival Movement of the United States and Canada, 1958-65’. Journal of American Studies, vol. 40, no. 3, 2006, pp. 593–614. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27557862. (FOLK/PROTEST)
Neal, Jocelyn R. ‘Top Ten: Country Music Stars’. Southern Cultures, vol. 15, no. 3, 2009, pp. 70–74. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26214224. (COUNTRY)
Oliver, Paul, et. al. Yonder Comes The Blues. The Evolution of a Genre. Cambridge University Press, 1970, excerpts (TBA). (BLUES)
Reynolds, Simon, Joy Press. The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion and Rock 'N' Roll. Serpent's Tail 1995, excerpts (TBA). (ROCK)
Strong, Catherine. Grunge: Music and Memory. Routledge 2011, excerpts (TBA) (METAL/ALTERNATIVE)
Readings are subject to change.