Music and Downtown New York
MUSC 275
Spring 2024 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
AFAM 265 |
This course will explore the history and flourishing of four distinct music communities that inhabited and shaped downtown New York City during two especially rich decades (the 1950s and 60s): urban blues and folk revivalists; an African American jazz-based avant-garde; Euro-American experimentalists; and Lower East Side rock groups. These four vanguard musical movements--at the heart of major cultural shifts at the time, with reverberations and legacies that remain relevant up to the present day--are an essential part of U.S. history. We will uncover their points of convergence and divergence, especially in conversation with broader contemporaneous currents, including the Civil Rights Movement and related notions of freedom, shifting youth cultures, music and politics, and avant-garde aesthetics. Drawing from primary sources, we will read about and discuss recordings of a wide variety of musicians, view a broad cross-section of film, identify aesthetic and cultural trends, and study the local industry that supported them. A key theme will be the importance of a place. Projects throughout the semester can include written papers, recordings, artwork, culture mapping, or other creative endeavors somehow related to each of the four topics. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA MUSC |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AMST)(MUSC) |
Major Readings:
Charry, Eric, FOUR CULTURAL VANGUARDS: MUSIC AND DOWNTOWN NEW YORK, 1950s-60s (unpublished manuscript)
Various articles and chapters, including:
Dylan, Bob, CHRONICLES, VOL. 1, 2004, New York: Simon and Schuster
Kelley, Robin D. G., THELONIOUS MONK: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL, 2009, New York: Free Press
Szwed, John, SPACE IS THE PLACE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SUN RA, 1998, New York: Da Capo
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Examinations and Assignments:
One project on each of the four musical genres covered, for a total of four. Projects can be a paper (5-7 pages) or any other creative endeavor in the spirit of the topic, including any time or place. Weekly responses to the readings. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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