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COURSE SYLLABUS


INDEX
September

Sept. Calendar

October

Oct. Calendar

November

Nov. Calendar

December

Dec. Calendar


In a few days, you will be able to print out a complete copy of the syllabus, by executing a download of a PDF version of the syllabus. (*See Bottom.)

COURSE SYLLABUS FOR MHM 408/508,
MUSIC, POLITICS, AND POPULAR CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES

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Unit I: Culturing Ideology

 

September

Tuesday, September 8
Session 1: The Star-Spangled Banner: Defining America and Americans
Discussion Topic: Popular culture, politics, plus course requirements
Reading: Negus, Introduction
Listening: Tape 1a (LRC 8099)
Task: Trip to Listening Lab to view course Web site and do worksheet

Paper One

"Music in My Life"
(2 [and only two] intelligent pages)

Discuss a particular piece of music that holds a special position in your life or at least did at one time. In addition to the sound and lyrics (if applicable) and any background knowledge that informs your listening, examine why this song became important to you. This paper may be more personal than scholarly. You can take any approach to the paper that you want. Because freedom is sometimes more frightening than an itemized task, I like to provide a list of questions to get you thinking: What does the song mean to you and why? What role does this song play in your life? When do you use it and how? In what context did you first listen to this song? Do you remember when you first heard it? Do you feel differently about this song now? Please note that these questions are merely starting points, you can go in other directions. I do NOT want a paper that gives brief answers to the series of questions above. Your paper should have a single focus and make a strong statement. Note: Please turn in a cassette tape of your song/piece with your assignment. These tapes will be used in our discussion in class #3.

Due class #2; September 10

Thursday, September 10 Paper 1 due
Session 2: School Spirits: Music for the University of Michigan
Reading: none
Listening: Tape 2b (LRC 8100)
Task: Visit to Carillon? Visit computer lab to preview listening and register

Tuesday, September 15 Peer Paper Comment 1 due
Session 3: Discussion of Short Paper #1: "Music in My Life"
Reading: CP1: "Towards a Functional Aesthetic of Popular Music" (17 pp.) skim beginning, read pp. 140ff.
Listening: finish 1a and 2b

Discussion Exercise A

Analysis exercise: listen carefully to any two versions of the Star-Spangled Banner from tape 1a. Make an annotated sheet of lyrics and a graphical representation of each, adding as much detail to these descriptions as possible. Finally write a few sentences concerning the effect, if any, of your analyses upon the way you hear or interpret the song?

Thursday, September 17 Discussion Exercise A due
Session 4: Strategies for Listening and Analysis
Reading: CP2: "On a Lesbian Relationship with Music: a serious attempt not to think straight"
(14 pp.)
Listening: none

Discussion Exercise B

Stop by any one of the record stores in Ann Arbor (new or used) and notice how the store is organized, that is, what category labels are used to bring customer and product together. Are there any special ways of displaying merchandise? Make a quick sketch of the store and the groupings in which music has been organized. Be sure to tell the manager or another employee that you're working on a class assignment&endash;not trying to steal their sales secrets. Based upon the evidence you have gathered, do you think that the American commercial music industry forms a musical democracy? Why or why not?

Tuesday, September 22 Discussion Exercise B due
Session 5: Music of the Spheres
Reading: none
Listening: Tape 1b (LRC#8099)
Tasks: An archeology of categories


Paper Two

Analysis: The 12-bar Blues
(2 intelligent pages plus graph)

Write an analysis of either "Dead Man Blues" (ex. 1) by Jelly Roll Morton or "Bloomdido" (ex. 5) by Charlie Parker (see Tape 2a: LRC #8100). Both tunes are based upon the twelve-bar blues form described in class #4. Answer each of the listening questions posed in class: who is playing, what is the function of each, what are the events, what is the form? Finally discuss the way the composer has used the 12-bar blues format. What might be the advantages of this form for such a composition? Do not write on both tunes; you do not have enough room.

Due Class #6; Tuesday, September 24

Thursday, September 24 Paper Two due
Session 6: Negotiating the Spheres: Jazz and the Politics of Crossover
Reading: none
Listening: Tape 2a (LRC #8100)
Task: fill out group project worksheets
Tuesday, September 29 Listening journals due; Quiz 1

 

Session 7: Jigsaw Day: Questionnaire Project Brainstorming Session
Reading: CPAppendix: Questionnaire examples
Listening: none
Task: Project Groups Assigned

 

 

October

 

Unit II: The Politics of Identity

 

Paper Three

"Identifying Music"
(3 intelligent pages)

Summarize the stereotypical expectations society presents individuals of your (pick one) race, class, age, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity, religion or any other community of identity in one or two paragraphs. If possible focus on just one of these assumptions about this group. You should be a member of whichever community you write about. I expect gender to be the most common topic, but you can choose anything. Because it's more predictable, I'll give specific instructions for a gender analysis here. If you choose another topic, please come speak with me about it. If you give me a short paragraph introducing your topic and approach, I can be more helpful, but a conversation about the same is okay. Reading chapter 4 of Negus will help you.

Gendering Music: Begin with a simplistic binary concept of women vs. men. You may want to add race and ethnicity to the mix: i.e., social expectations for women may be different if one is white, black, Latina, Jewish, young, a parent, gay, etc. Next find a song that tells a story about a character of this same gender. Listen to Tape 3 [gender] (4 is about [race and ethnicity]) if you are having trouble finding a song. You may also choose an MTV video. This gendered character may or may not be similar to you on a detail level, but they should be of the same gender. Does the song perpetuate the gendered stereotypes you have identified or resist them? Give at least 2 examples from both the song's text and its musical rhetoric. As a listener, do you feel liberated or trapped by the song's gender concepts? In your conclusion, you might speculate about how this song and the stereotypes it engages with function in your own life.

Please turn in a cassette or video copy of the song you have analyzed. To aid my incorporation of your paper into class discussion, please make sure your title clearly identifies the community about which you will be writing.

Due Class #8 (October 1)

Thursday, October 1 Paper 3 due
Session 8: Imagining America
Reading: Negus 4: "Identities"
Listening: none
Task: Mid-course evaluation with CRLT discussant

 

Discussion Exercise C

Go to any record store and examine cover art for markers of race. How is race represented? (Find at least 3 ways.) What kinds of music seem to feature race as a selling point or as a marker of authenticity? What kinds of music appear to minimize race?

Tuesday, October 6 Disc. Ex. C and Peer Comment 3 due
Session 9: The Renaissance of "Harlem"
Reading: finish Negus 4
Listening: Tape 4a (LRC#8102 )

Thursday, October 8 Questionnaire drafts due & presented
Session 10: Native American Music
Reading: "Geographies" in Negus, Popular Music in Theory
Listening: Tape 9a (LRC#8163)

Saturday, October 10
Optional trip to Motown Museum in Detroit
Car pool from Music School parking lot, meet at 10:15 a.m. Return by 1 p.m. (or later if you join me for lunch in Greektown).

Discussion Exercise D

Watch MTV, MTV2, VH1, BMT or CMT for a few minutes and make a list of the ways in which women and men are depicted on screen. Are they objects of desire or instruments of power? Does this representation change from one video to the next? Does it make a difference to your perception if it is a male vocalist/narrator or a female one?

Tuesday, October 13 Discussion Exercise D due
Session 11: "The US Male," or "Me So Horny"
Reading: Negus 5, "Histories" (a.k.a. His-stories)
Listening: Tape 3a (LRC #8101)

Thursday, October 15: Recital proposal and group progress report due
Session 12: The "Material Girl," or The Madonna Revolution
Reading: CP3: "Rock and Sexuality" (17 pp.)
Listening: Tape 3b (LRC #8101)

Tuesday, October 20 Quiz 2 and listening journal due
Session 13: America: It's Not Just an Issue of Black and White
Reading: CP4: "Diversity" (17)
Listening: Tape 4b (LRC #8102)

Thursday, October 22
Session 14: Music on the WWW
Class to meet at Macintosh Training Room (Media Union: on second floor of library&endash;enter through the doors across from the carillon and go through the security sensors and up the stairs&endash;then head straight back and the room will be on your right).

Tuesday, October 27 Questionnaire projects and Peer Group Evaluations due
Session 15: Questionnaire Study Presentations

 

Thursday, October 29
No Class Meeting
Recommended item: start paper #4

 

November

Discussion Exercise E

Find a song in use during the current election. Ideally, it would be a campaign song performed at rallies or conventions, but you may also use music that accompanies political advertising on television or radio. Identify the style and content of the song. In what genre category might it be placed? What type of image does this music create? Does it influence your opinion of this candidate in any way?

Tuesday, November 3 Discussion Exercise E due
Session 16: Music to Vote By
Reading: Negus 7, "Politics"
Listening: Tape 9b (LRC8163)

 

Unit III: Music and Emotion

 

Paper Four

Is this Love (Hate/Anger/Grief/etc.)?
(2&emdash;4 intelligent pages)

One of Simon Frith's claims is that music makes emotions available to the listener. Analyze a love song (or any other song about or apparently about emotion) by transcribing the lyrics and describing the plot of the song. How does the song define love/etc.? For a paper about a love song, the following questions might serve as starting points for your discussion: What is the relationship between the protagonists like? Is it equal or unbalanced? Who does the talking during the song? What do the participants in the story get from the relationship? What do they put in? How does the image of love portrayed here affect the listener's view on relationships? (You might want to review Frith's ideas about music and emotion in the coursepack.) Please submit a cassette recording of your song with your paper. If you'd like, you may choose to write on any other emotion or emotionally-charged subject expressed through popular music: anger, depression, jealousy, mourning, despair, violence. Beware of the way in which composers sometimes use emotion and personal narratives on a symbolic level to make a political/social argument.

Due Class #17; Thursday, November 5

Thursday, November 5 Paper 4 and recital program info due
Session 17: Group Debriefing & Interactive Exhibit Project Brainstorming
Keywords: none
Reading: none
Listening: none

 

Tuesday, November 10 Peer Paper Comments due
Session 18: Music and Emotion
Reading: none
Listening: LRC #8103 Tape V/Side A

 

Wednesday, November 11
Optional Class Recital, 8 p.m. @ School of Music, room tba.

 

Thursday, November 12 Group project idea reports
Session 19: Music and Violence: Rap and Metal
Reading: CP5: Two "Profiles" and "A Heavy Metal Concert" (22)
Listening: Tape 5b (LRC #8103)

 

Unit IV: The Business of Music

 

Tuesday, November 17 Listening journal due and Quiz 3
Session 20: Rockonomics
Reading: none
Listening: Tape 6a (LRC #8104)

 

Paper Five

"An Ethnography of the American Concert Ritual"
(2&emdash;4 intelligent pages)

You are an ethnologist studying American culture. Analyze a concert ritual in the sacred, popular, classical, or folk music sphere by attending a concert and keeping a detailed research log. Who has attended the concert? Is there a concentration of people from any particular ethnic group or class? What can you find out from talking with / interviewing others in the audience? Note the dress and behavior of the audience in particular detail as well as the sales and advertising opportunities that are inserted into the concert experience. How much did you pay for your ticket? Did you or others spend any additional money? Who benefits monetarily from the concert (remember to look past the band and record companies to local businesses and the employees of the hall itself)?

Due class #21; Thursday, November 19

Thursday, November 19 Paper 5 due
Session 21: The Culture Industry
Reading: Negus 2, "Industry"
Listening: none
Tasks: panel discussion with industry reps.

 

Discussion Exercise F

Watch MTV for 30 minutes and analyze its content. Did you see music videos, commentary, or a themed show? Did you notice any of the themes of this course coming through: Gender, Economics, Sensuality, etc? If you saw music videos, what was the connection between music and image? Do you understand the lyrics better when heard against these images? Do the images obscure and trivialize the words/music? What kind of commercials are shown? If you did not see music videos, what relationship does the show you did see have to music or the supposed audience of MTV?

Tuesday, November 24 Disc. Ex. F and Peer Paper Comment 4
Session 22: Audiences and Auditoriums
Reading: Negus 1, "Audiences"
Listening: none

 

Thursday, November 26
No Class Meeting / Thanksgiving Break

 

December

Tuesday, December 1 Group progress reports due
Session 23: World? Music / Resisting America
Reading: CP6: "Popular Musics and Globalization" (30 pp.)
Listening: Tape 7a (LRC #8115)

Thursday, December 3
Session 24: Censorship: Mock Trial
Reading: none
Listening: Tape 7b (LRC #8115)

 

Unit V: Interactive Exhibits

 

Tuesday, December 8 Exhibit project and project log due
Session 25: Group Project Presentations

 

 

2-Page Course Evaluation

As I find the traditional course evaluation to be useful, but not specific enough, I am offering a percentage point of extra credit to students who write a brief prose evaluation of the course. You can organize your discussion in anyway you wish. One possibility would be to discuss strengths, weaknesses, and suggestions for improvement. Another is to write an essay entitled "If I Taught This Course..." The amount of extra credit awarded has nothing to do with your opinion of the course, rather I'm looking for thoughtful analysis and suggestions. Next fall's students will greatly appreciate your efforts.

Thursday, December 10 Journal, Quiz 4, and Course Evaluation due
Session 26: Course Wrap-Up

 

Final Exam

There will be no final exam for this class.


Note: If you are having trouble downloading, viewing, or printing the PDF version of this document, or do not know what a PDF file is, go to the Adobe Acrobat download site. If you need more information, email me: claguem@umich.edu.
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