American Popular Music Culture

general courses

Elective course. This lecture provides a historical overview of American popular music from the mid-19th century till now. Popular music is treated as an extension of traditions present in popular literature and vernacular culture, a social commentary, part of the entertainment industry (cinema) and an area in which technological inventions affect the production and reception of popular culture. There are two parts of the course: a historical overview and an interpretation of contemporary developments in popular music and culture. A sample of music genres covered herein: vaudeville, jazz, swing, rock’n’roll, hip-hop, heavy metal, country and Americana.

Classroom

This lecture provides a historical overview of American popular music from the mid-19th century till now. Popular music is treated as an extension of traditions present in popular literature and vernacular culture, a social commentary, part of the entertainment industry (cinema) and an area in which technological inventions affect the production and reception of popular culture. There are two parts of the course: a historical overview and an interpretation of contemporary developments in popular music and culture. A sample of music genres covered herein: vaudeville, jazz, swing, rock’n’roll, hip-hop, heavy metal, country and Americana.

This lecture combines a historical reconstruction of developments in popular culture with an analysis and interpretation of its products, its discoursive component is accompanied with audial materials (recorded music), audiovisual ones (clips of fiction and documentary films, video clips, recorded live perfomances).

1. Music tradition: sources of American popular music

Larry Starr, Christopher Waterman, Chapter 1 Streams of Tradition: The Sources of Popular Music, w: American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3, 5th ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford 2017.

2. The status of popular music at the beginning of the 20th century

Starr, Waterman, Chapter 2 Popular Music: 19th and Early 20th Centuries.

3. Original American popular music: jazz and swing

Starr, Waterman, Chapter 3 Popular Jazz and Swing: America's Original Art Form.

Brown, Lee B. Can American Popular Vocal Music Escape the Legacy of Blackface Minstrelsy?, „Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism” 2013, vol. 71, iss. 1, 91-100.

4. Tin Pan Alley standards

Starr, Waterman, Chapter 4, Tin Pan Alley: Creating 'Music Standards'.

Ulf Lindberg, Popular modernism? The ‘urban’ style of interwar Tin Pan Alley, „Popular Music” 2003, vol. 22, iss. 03, s. 283 – 298.

5. Southern music

Starr, Waterman, Chapter 5, Early Music of the American South: 'Race Records' and 'Hillbilly Music'.

6. Swing Music

Starr, Waterman, Chapter 6, „In the Mood”: The Swing Era, 1939-1945

7. Postwar music

Starr, Waterman, Chapter 7, „Choo Choo Ch' Boogie”: The Postwar Era, 1946-1954.

Michael Stewart Foley, A Politics of Empathy: Johnny Cash, the Vietnam War, and the ‘Walking Contradiction’ Myth Dismantled, „Popular Music and Society” 2014, vol. 37, iss. 3, s. 338–359.

8. Rock’n’roll revolution: a voice of the generation

Starr, Waterman, Chapter 8, Rock'n'roll: A Generation's Identity.

Paul Linden, Race, Hegemony, and the Birth of Rock & Roll, „Journal of the Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association” 2012, vol. 12, iss. 1, s. 43-67.

9. Music technology

Starr, Waterman, Chapter 13, The 1980s: Digital Technology, MTV, and the Popular Mainstream.

10. The voice of the inner-city ghetto: hip-hop and Afro-American vernacular

Starr, Waterman, Chapter 14, „Smells like Teen Spirit”: Hip-Hop, Alternative Music, and the Entertainment Business.

Mich Nyawalo, From “Badman” to “Gangsta”: Double Consciousness and Authenticity, from African-American Folklore to Hip Hop, „Popular Music and Society” 2013, vol. 36, no. 4, s. 460–475.

11. The rock 1980s and 1990s

Titus Hjelm, Keith Kahn-Harris, Mark LeVine, Heavy metal as controversy and counterculture, „Popular Music History” 2011, vol. 6, iss. 1/2, s. 5-18.

Kathleen Pirrie Adams, No two houses of the holy: Creating cultural heritage in Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses, „Popular Music History” 2015, vol. 10 iss. 2, s. 113-137.

12. American Idol and TV talent shows

Katherine Meizel, Making the Dream a Reality (Show): The Celebration of Failure in American Idol, „Popular Music and Society” 2009, vol. 32, no. 4, s. 475–488.

Junhow Wei, “I’m the Next American Idol”: Cooling Out, Accounts, and Perseverance at Reality Talent Show Auditions, „Symbolic Interaction” 2016, vol. 39, iss. 1, s. 3–25.

13. Remix culture and covers

Richard Shusterman, Rap Remix: Pragmatism, Postmodernism, and Other Issues in the House, „Critical Inquiry” 1995, 22 (1), s. 150-158.

Michael Rings, Doing It TheirWay: Rock Covers, Genre, and Appreciation, „The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism” 2013, vol. 71, no. 1, Special Issue: Song, Songs, And Singing, s. 55-63.

14. Music on the Internet, musicians online

Hiesun Cecilia Suhr, Understanding the Hegemonic Struggle between Mainstream vs. Independent Forces: The Music Industry and Musicians in the Age of Social Media, „International Journal of Technology, Knowledge & Society” 2011, vol. 7, iss. 6, s. 123-136.

Jeremy Wade Morris, Artists as Entrepreneurs, Fans as Workers, „Popular Music and Society” 2014 vol. 37, no. 3, s. 273–290.

Adams, Kathleen Pirrie. No two houses of the holy: Creating cultural heritage in Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses, „Popular Music History” 2015, vol. 10 iss. 2, s. 113-137.

Brown, Lee B. Can American Popular Vocal Music Escape the Legacy of Blackface Minstrelsy?, „Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism” 2013, vol. 71, iss. 1, 91-100.

Foley, Michael Stewart. A Politics of Empathy: Johnny Cash, the Vietnam War, and the ‘Walking Contradiction’ Myth Dismantled, „Popular Music and Society” 2014, vol. 37, iss. 3, s. 338–359.

Hjelm, Titus, Keith Kahn-Harris, Mark LeVine, Heavy metal as controversy and counterculture, „Popular Music History” 2011, vol. 6, iss. 1/2, s. 5-18.

Lindberg, Ulf. Popular modernism? The ‘urban’ style of interwar Tin Pan Alley, „Popular Music” 2003, vol. 22, iss. 03, s. 283 – 298.

Linden, Paul. Race, Hegemony, and the Birth of Rock & Roll, „Journal of the Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association” 2012, vol. 12, iss. 1, s. 43-67.

Meizel, Katherine. Making the Dream a Reality (Show): The Celebration of Failure in American Idol, „Popular Music and Society” 2009, vol. 32, no. 4, s. 475–488.

Morris, Jeremy Wade. Artists as Entrepreneurs, Fans as Workers, „Popular Music and Society” 2014 vol. 37, no. 3, s. 273–290.

Nyawalo, Mich. From “Badman” to “Gangsta”: Double Consciousness and Authenticity, from African-American Folklore to Hip Hop, „Popular Music and Society” 2013, vol. 36, no. 4, s. 460–475.

Rings, Michael. Doing It TheirWay: Rock Covers, Genre, and Appreciation, „The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism” 2013, vol. 71, no. 1, Special Issue: Song, Songs, And Singing, s. 55-63.

Shusterman, Richard. Rap Remix: Pragmatism, Postmodernism, and Other Issues in the House, „Critical Inquiry” 1995, 22 (1), s. 150-158.

Starr, Larry, Christopher Waterman, American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3, 5th ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford 2017.

Suhr, Hiesun Cecilia. Understanding the Hegemonic Struggle between Mainstream vs. Independent Forces: The Music Industry and Musicians in the Age of Social Media, „International Journal of Technology, Knowledge & Society” 2011, vol. 7, iss. 6, s. 123-136.

Wei, Junhow. “I’m the Next American Idol”: Cooling Out, Accounts, and Perseverance at Reality Talent Show Auditions, „Symbolic Interaction” 2016, vol. 39, iss. 1, s. 3–25.

Knowledge:

• has an ordered, in-depth knowledge about popular music as a form of popular culture, within the scope of cultural, social and literary studies (K_W04, S_W04)

• knows and understands advanced methods of analysis, interpretation, assessment of popular culture in cultural, social and literary studies (K_W07)

• has basic knowledge about popular culture institutions in the United States and knows contemporary cultural life (K_W10)

Skills:

• knows how to search, analize, assess, choose and integrate information from a variety of sources and formulate critical judgement within cultural, social and literary studies (K_U01)

• knows how to integrate knowledge from different disciplines and its application in the analysis of culture (K_U04)

• can critically analize and interpret pouplar culture texts, applying original methods, based on cultural, social and literary studies, in order to arrive at their meaning, social impact, and position in historical-cultural process (K_U05)

• knows how to formulate critical opinions on cultural texts on the basis of cultural, social and literary studies as well as their experience and the ability to present critical discourse in different forms and media (K_U07)

Social skills:

• correctly identifies and solves problems in intercultural communication within popular culture, based on cultural differences described by cultural, social and literary studies (K_K04)

• is an active user of popular culture of the studied linguistic area and Poland, aware of the holistic and dynamic character of culture (K_K06)

The final grade is based on the basis of a written test, veryfying knowledge about cultural phenomena touched upon in class, especially the interpretative skills regarding an analysis of a given song as a music-text hybrid.

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