Rock'n'Roll, or Transubstantiated R'n'B?

Elvis Presley - That's All Right, Mama + Blue Moon of Kentucky
Bill Haley & The Comets - Crazy Man Crazy
Fats Domino - Ain't That A Shame + Blueberry Hill
Little Richard - Tutti Frutti
Chuck Berry - Almost Grown + Little Queenie
Bo Diddley - Pretty Thing
The Chords - Sh-Boom
Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers - Why Do Fools Fall In Love

Pop Music Paper #1

As promised find the assignment by clicking here. (LINK IS FIXED)



Eddie Kirk, "The Grunt" (Fortune 7", 1958)

The Merchants of Cool

Pop'n'RnB Clips

Independent Labels

Big Joe Turner, "Shake, Rattle and Roll"

Patti Page - How Much Is That Doggie In The Window



Les Paul & Mary Ford, "How High The Moon"; multi-track demonstration on TV



Ruth Brown, "He Treats Your Daughter Mean"

Whitey's Lindy Hoppers: Something Wild

This is the Lindy Hop, the Jitterbug, the Suzie-Q. The clip is an excerpt from H.C. Potter's Helzapoppin' (1941). The Lindy Hoppers doing "The Big Apple" in 1939 are here. Enjoy.
In this clip the dancing starts at the 2:15 mark.



from Jonathan Demme's Something Wild; The Feelies play David Bowies's "Fame" and Jeff Daniels dances with his eye on the 'Other' for cues.

Subcultures I

In the Cultural Resistance Reader read the short chapters in Section IV on "Subcultures and Primitive Rebels" --we will be discussing the subcultures profiled there as case studies in class.

Extra Reading: Dick Hebdige from Subculture: The Meaning of Style

Chapter 6 : Subculture: The Unnatural Break
Chapter 7 : Style as Intentional Communication
Chapter 8 : Style as Homology

Effects, Vulnerability, Reception I

Gandy, "Tracking the Audience"

Ang, "The Nature of the Audience"

Williams, "Effects? What Effects?"

Nussbaum, "What Would Tina Fey Do For A SoyJoy?"

R'n'B is on the Indies

Big Joe Turner - Shake, Rattle and Roll
Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog
Rufus Thomas - Bear Cat
Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - That's All Right
Jackie Brenston & His Delta Kings (aka Ike Turner) - Rocket 88
Junior Parker - Mystery Train
Little Walter - Dead Presidents

Post-War Hillbillies: Western Swing, Honky Tonk and Bluegrass

Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys - Take Me Back To Tulsa
Hank Williams - Hey Goodlookin' + Lovesick Blues
Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys - Muleskinner Blues + Blue Moon Of Kentucky

The Sound Begins: Popular Music Readings II

in Garofalo:

-Chapter 2: Blues and Country Music: Mass Media and the Construction of Race

-Chapter 3: “Good Rockin’ Tonight”: The Rise of Rhythm and Blues

Charlie Gillet from The Sound of the City, "The Sound Begins"
Nelson George from The Death of Rhythm and Blues, "Dark Voices in the Night"

TV Is Not Our Fault...

Eileen Meehan on how the media and the rating services blame the victims + some random articles on audience assessment and its problems...

Meehan Chapter 1
Meehan Chapter 2
Article Compilation

Towards A Third Cinema

Of all African film directors, Sembene is the first to confer value to images."
--Med Hondo

Fernando Solanas & Octavio Getino, Towards a Third Cinema
Med Hondo, What is Cinema for us?

If you are interested in reading a brief outline of the life, ideas and struggles of Ousmane Sembene: OUSMANE SEMBENE: THE LIFE OF A REVOLUTIONARY ARTIST

Pre-War Specialties

Doc Boggs - Sugar Baby
Jimmie Rodgers - Mule Skinner Blues
The Carter Family - Wildwood Flower
Jimmie Rodgers & The Carter Family - Blue Yodel
Skip James - Devil Got My Woman
Robert Johnson - Love in Vain

Folk From Around The World

from North Vietnam: A Brao Song
from the Mississippi Delta: Blind Willie Johnson - Dark Was The Night
from the Mississippi Delta: Alan Lomax Collection - Arwhoolie (Cornfield Holler)
from Ireland: The Dubliners - Home Boys Home
from Democratic Republic of Congo: Konono No. 1 - Ditshe Tshiekutala

from India: Ravi Shankar - Dhun
But this is not 'folk music' as we defined it, rather it is an example of the 'high' in a different cultural and social context.

Art Music

Beethoven - Symphony N.9 d-moll Op. 125 (extract)
Text by Schiller here.

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2 "Moonlight"
Chopin - Nocturne b-moll Op. 9 No. 1

Schumann - Dichterliebe, Opus 48, "A Poet's Love"
Text by Heine here.
Schumann - Liderkreis, Op. 39, "Intermezzo"
Text by Eichendorff here.

Schubert - An Silvia (D891 1826)
Text by Shakespeare here.

The virtuoso instrumentalist and composer as superstar: Franz Liszt.

Good interview on WNYC's Soundcheck with Tim Blanning author of The Triumph of Music, a 'social history' of musicians in the west and how they went from being considered merely servants to being 'stars'. This is an excellent example of metacontextual musical knowledge. Required listening.

Download entire interview mp3 here. Stream interview.