Race, Ethnicity, and Popular Music
AFAM 248
Spring 2023 not offered
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This course explores race and ethnicity in the United States through sound and song. By studying diverse topics--from the Boston Tea Party, blackface minstrelsy, and the rise of Jim Crow, to Native Hawaiian influences on the Mississippi Delta blues, to the unexpected connection between elevator music and the Spanish American War--we will learn about the history of settler colonialism, anti-black racism, U.S. imperialism, global capitalism, and hetero-patriarchy. We will also remain attentive to music as a transgressive and revolutionary force, one that facilitates hybrid identities and movements that celebrate difference, offering alternate visions for what it means to be and sound free. Investigating primary sources will demonstrate how musical genres may act as reservoirs of shared history and collective identity. As Ronald Radano has argued, discussions about music can have tangible influences because debates about music are a proxy for larger social issues with real-life consequences. Can music make (or unmake) race? Can a song change the world? |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AFAM |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AFAM-MN)(AFAM) |
Major Readings:
Thomas Brothers, Louis Armstrong¿s New Orleans
Shana Redmond, Anthem: Social Movements and the Sound of Solidarity in the African Diaspora
Michael Denning, Noise Uprising: The Audiopolitics of a World Musical Revolution
John W Troutman, Kika Kila: How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed the Sound of Modern Music
Jeff Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation
Kiese Laymon, Long Division
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Examinations and Assignments:
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Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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