Music and Downtown New York, 1950-1970
MUSC 125
Spring 2016 not offered
|
This course will explore the history, interconnections, and simultaneous flourishing of four distinct music communities that inhabited and shaped downtown New York during two particularly rich decades in American culture: Euro-American experimentalists; African American jazz-based avant-garde; blues and folk revivalists; and Lower East Side rock groups. Much of the course will be devoted to understanding their points of convergence and divergence, especially in conversation with broader currents of the time (e.g., the Civil Rights Movement and related notions of freedom, shifting youth subcultures, and avant-garde aesthetics). We will read about and listen to recordings of a wide variety of musicians, identify aesthetic and cultural trends, and study the local industry that supported them. Student research, interpretation, and writing will be stressed throughout the semester. |
|
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA MUSC |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
|
Fulfills a Requirement for: (MUSC) |
Major Readings:
Banes, Sally, GREENWICH VILLAGE 1963: AVANT-GARDE PERFORMANCE AND THE EFFERVESCENT BODY, 1993, Durham: Duke University Press
Van Ronk, Dave and Wald, Elijah, THE MAYOR OF MACDOUGAL STREET: A MEMOIR, 2005, Cambridge, MA: Da Capo
Beard, Rick and Cohen Berlowitz, Leslie, (eds.) GREENWICH VILLAGE: CULTURE AND COUNTERCULTURE, 1993, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press
Cantwell, Robert, WHEN WE WERE GOOD: THE FOLK REVIVAL, 1996, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Heylin, Clinton, FROM THE VELVETS TO THE VOIDOIDS: A PRE-PUNK HISTORY FOR A POST-PUNK WORLD, 1993, New York: Penguin
Jones, Leroi (aka Amiri Imamu Baraka), BLACK MUSIC, 1968, New York: William Morow
Saul, Scott, FREEDOM IS, FREEDOM AIN'T: JAZZ AND THE MAKING OF THE SIXTIES, 2003, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
|
Examinations and Assignments:
One paper on each of the four musical genres covered, for a total of four papers. |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
|
|