R'n'R or Trasubstantiated 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

Audiences and Advertising

Ang, "The Nature of the Audience"
Gandy, "Tracking the Audience"

Kellner, "Advertising and Consumer Culture"

Eileen Meehan on how the media and the rating services blame the victims:
Meehan, Chapter 1: Why TV Is Not Our Fault
Meehan, Chapter 2: Why TV Is Not Our Fault

Article Compilation articles on audience assessment and its problems.

The PBS/Frontline Documentary THE PERSUADERS is here.

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

Emancipatory Uses of the Media

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE SCREENING OF I CENTO PASSI WILL BE ON MONDAY, FEB. 27 @8pm in GKG3

Here are the new readings:
Hans Magnus Enzensberger's "Constituents of a Theory of the Media" is one of the fundamental articles envisioning a new use for media technologies by political movements during the late '60s and '70s, emancipatory tools for political mobilization and social change. Use Marco Tullio Giordana's I Cento Passi and the story of Peppino Impastato and Radio AUT as a way to contextualize and visualize the historical moment in which Enzensberger is writing.

Something to think about in relation to the film is how Peppino Impastato's attempts at carving out a space for communication and direct political action (a public sphere within the confines of a small community dominated by organized crime) is dramatized in the film --from traditional political rallies to 'free radio', after navigating dadaist street theater, pamphleteering, film screenings and be-ins. Think specifically of the characteristics of RadioAut in relation to Enzensberger's article --programming, control, voice, 'mission', etc. Does the 'network' and the resultant digital media culture of today finally deliver on those expectations?

Enzensberger - Constituents of a Theory of the Media

Extra Readings on Old vs. New Media Conceptions:

Michael Crichton - Mediasaurus (1993)

Jack Schaefer - Reflections on Mediasaurus

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE SCREENING OF I CENTO PASSI WILL BE ON MONDAY, FEB. 27 @8pm in GKG3

Pop & R'n'B 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.

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

New Media: The Internet as Technology

Jeremy G. Butler, "The Internet and the World Wide Web"
P. David Marshall, "The Internet: The Multi-Media Accessible Universe and the User"
Bolter & Grusin, "The World Wide Web" (from Remediation)

Subcultures: Style, Agency and Resistance

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 as presented by you. Please finish the readings from Section III in the Reader as well.

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

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"

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
Could this be an example of folk today?

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.

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

New Media: Gaming

Pac-Man Skull

These are two articles on videogames and their history. Use them in conjunction with the screening of Game On: The Unauthorized History of Video Games screened in class.

Bolter & Grusin, "Computer Games" (from Remediation)
P. David Marshall, "Playing Game Cultures: Electronic Games"