Friday, June 19, 2015

Post-Rock, Subcultures and the End of Authenticity + Second Paper Prompt




Here is the prompt for your second short paper. Paper is due on Friday. Enjoy.

Assuming that at this point you should be on your way to completing the Garofalo textbook, here are the final reading for the session --readings in bold are required; readings in italics are highly recommended.


On Jamaican Music:
from Dick Hebdige, Cut'n'Mix here.

On 'co-optation':
Thomas Frank's "Commodify Your Dissent" here.

On Gender:
Simon Frith and Angela McRobbie, "Rock and Sexuality"
Simon Frith, "Afterthoughts"
Richard Dyer, "In Defense of Disco"
Find these articles here as a single PDF file --nb. skip the initial Sara Cohen article.



On 'sub-cultures':
Here are the Dick Hebdige chapters from Subculture: The Meaning of Style. Refer back to the Punk: Attitude film screening.


The Ramones, "Blitzkrieg Bop" Live in Rome, 1980



On sampling, mash-ups and the 'postmodern turn':
Andrew Goodwin, "Sample and Hold"
E Ann Kaplan, "A Postmodern Play of the Signifier?"
Negativland, "from Wired: Negativland Interviews U2's The Edge"

Also, to clarify (or further obscure) 'postmodernism' please help yourself --in case you have not encountered it in your other studies-- to Fredric Jameson's "Postmodernism and Consumer Society"

Friday, June 12, 2015

For Those About To Rock: Return of the Aura






Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart


"I mean, man, whither goest thou? Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?"
-Jack Kerouac

-Keightley, "Reconsidering Rock"


Here are a couple of articles to integrate Keightley's Reconsidering Rock article. The first Frith article is required; the second article is a highly recommended read. Enjoy the Lester Bangs reviews from Creem. Reebee Garofalo's article on Soul ("Popular Music and the Civil Rights Movement") is required.

Simon Frith - "Rock and Popular Culture"
Simon Frith - "The Magic The Can Set You Free": The Ideology of Folk and the Myth of the Rock Community
Paul Clarke - "'A Magic Science': Rock Music as a Recording Art"
Lester Bangs - Various Record Reviews from Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung
Reebee Garofalo - Popular Music and the Civil Rights Movement

Also, here is Andrew Chester's "For A Rock Aesthetic", Richard Merton's response, "Comments" and Chester's response to the response, "Second Thoughts on a Rock Aesthetic: The Band". It's all here at this link --the whole epochal exchange in one handy location.

Please read in 'Rocking Out' up to and including Chapter 8.


AC/DC, Let There Be Rock (1977) 
Reverend Bon tells you all about it. As you can see the 'aura' is back around Angus' head.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

The In-Between Years (or The Empire Strikes Back)




The Folk Revival:

The Kingston Trio - Tom Dooley
Pete Seeger - Turn Turn Turn!
Joan Baez - Silver Dagger
Bob Dylan - Masters of War
Lyrics here.

Surf & Hot Rod Combos:

The Beach Boys - Surfin USA

Dick Dale & The Del-Tones - Miserlou
Link Wray & His Ray Men - Rumble (Outtake)
The Stingers (Jack Cole) - Mustang

Uptown R&B from Motown/All songs by Holland-Dozier-Holland:

Martha & The Vandellas - Nowhere To Run
The Four Tops - Reach Out I'll Be There
The Supremes - You Can't Hurry Love
Marvin Gaye - How Sweet It Is

Girl Groups/Phil Spector Wall of Sound/Songs by Weill & Mann:

The Ronettes - Be My Baby
The Crystals - Then He Kissed Me
The Crystals - Da Doo Ron Ron

Cynthia Weill & Barry Mann songs NOT produced by Phil Spector:

Lesley Gore - It's My Party

The Wall of Sound in full-effect:

Ike & Tina Turner - River Deep, Mountain High

The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

Readings:
Keightley, "Reconsidering Rock"

nb. You will not be responsible for this reading for the midterm. We will discuss the issues and concepts raised in it after the exam. I do however urge you to read it as it offers a lot of points that would help your review of material that will actually be covered on the midterm.

In Garofalo you should read up to and including Chapter 6.



Thursday, June 4, 2015

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).
More Lindy Hoppers doing "The Big Apple" in 1939 at this link 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

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

Thursday, May 28, 2015

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





Robert Johnson - Love in Vain

Blind Willie Johnson, "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground"
"The most transcendent piece in all American music" (Ry Cooder)

Art & Folk




Text by Schiller here.


Text by Heine here.
Text by Eichendorff here.

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.







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.



Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Karima Gehnyei, aka Karima 2G Live and Direct at JCU


Lecture at JCU:
Karima Gehnyei  
Liberian-Italian rapper, singer, dancer and beatsmith
THURSDAY, JUNE 4 @6.30pm
John Cabot University - Aula Magna
Please bring photo ID

Karima’s fiery brand of social and political commentary delivered in Pidgin English is backed by beats that draw from a complex patchwork of musical elements, including electronica, reggae, hip-hop, bass, grime and afrobeat. This has led to the inevitable comparison between her and fellow artist/activist with a staunch anti-oppression stance, M.I.A.

Her debut album 2G, which stands for “Second Generation,” takes its name from the popular catchphrase used in the public discourse surrounding Italy’s exclusionary immigration policy, otherwise known as jus sanguinis. The album can best be described as a no-holds-barred indictment of Italian racism as well as a call for Africans on the continent and throughout the diaspora to remain connected to their roots. Following in the vein of her satirical take on Berlusconi’s sex party scandal, 2G‘s centerpiece track “Orangutan” is a synth-driven 8-bit tune which makes direct reference to Italian politician Roberto Calderoli‘s churlishly racist comparison of Italy’s first black minister Cécile Kyenge to an orangutan. Clocking in at just under 25 minutes, the ten-track LP also peppers vocal samples from Fela Kuti, The Last Poets and Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained.

Find her two videos below, targeting Italian politics and politicians: "Bunga Bunga" is aimed at Silvio Berlusconi and "Orangutan" is for racist Northern League MP Roberto Calderoli and the impunity with which he referred to Italy's Minister Cécile Kyenge.
Bonus, her latest Chicago juke/footwork influenced mixtape on Soundcloud.






Monday, May 25, 2015

Music Becomes A Thing





Readings Week 1&2:

in Garofalo, Rockin' Out:
-Introduction + Chapter 1: Tin Pan Alley

in Cambridge Companion:
-Introduction + Chronology
-Theberge, "'Plugged In': Technology & Popular Music"
-Frith, "The Popular Music Industry"
-Frith, "Pop Music"

-Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

from Frith & Goodwin (eds), On Record
-Adorno, "On Popular Music"
nb. You can find this essay together with "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" co-written with Max Horkheimer --an essay which if you have not read should definitely do so-- here.

from Even Eisenberg, The Recording Angel: Music Records and Culture from Aristotle to Zappa
-Eisenberg, Chapter 2: Music Becomes a Thing



Grimes, "Genesis" Live Session for KEXP

Welcome To Popular Music & Mass Culture Summer I 2015










Thursday, April 30, 2015

Media, Culture and Society Essay Question


Here is, as promised, the question for the longer essay you will find on the final exam.
Enjoy.

Also, dig cheery, happy Teddy Adorno, as he speak about popular music and protest.

Monday, April 20, 2015

What are you looking at?: Social Networking, Personal Info, Data Collection and Surveillance



Christian Fuchs, "Facebook: A Surveillance Threat to Privacy?"
Christian Fuchs, "Wikileaks: Can We Make Power Transparent?"

Mark Andrejevic, "We are all lab rats online"
Joshua Benton/Nieman Labs, "Facebook wants to be the new World Wide Web"

Julian Assange, "Google Is Not What It Seems"
Henry Giroux, "Selfie Culture at the Intersection of the Corporate and Surveillance State"


If you want background resources relating to the screening of Laura Poitras' Citizenfour here are the related chapters from Glen Greenwald's No Place To Hide:

Chapter 3: Collect It All
Chapter 4: The Harm of Surveillance
Chapter 5: The Fourth Estate



Find below the segment from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver which includes an interview with Edward Snowden which is both funny and unsettling: