Blacksound: Recording Black Performance from the Phonograph to the Cassette
AMST 232
Spring 2027
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
THEA 230 |
This course surveys how sound technologies from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth century -- such as the phonograph, radio, vinyl record, and cassette player -- have contributed to the circulation and commodification of global Black sonic invention. Hands-on engagement with these technologies will be a critical component of our in-class sessions. Readings in Black feminist thought, sound studies, and media history will anchor our interactive activities and discussions. Black cultural production like Ryan Coogler's film Sinners (2025) chart popular culture's vampiric relationship to Black performance. Concurrently, Black Studies scholarship like musicologist Matthew D. Morrison's theorization of "blacksound" (2024) delineates how such co-optation and extraction are rooted in blackface minstrelsy and slavery. Building on these artistic and scholarly projects, this course traces how slavery and its afterlives underwrite and haunt innovations in sound technology. The question at the heart of this class is: under anti-Blackness, what is truly "new" about new media? |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AMST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Sample Readings Thomas A. Edison, ¿The Phonograph and Its Future¿ (1878) Farah Jasmine Griffin, ¿When Malindy Sings: A Meditation on Black Women¿s Vocality¿ (2004)
Julian Henrique, Sonic Bodies: Reggae Sound Systems, Performance Techniques, and Ways of Knowing (2011) Alexander Weheliye and Katherine McKittrick, ¿808s and Heartbreak¿ (2023) Matthew D. Morrison, Blacksound: Making Race and Popular Music in the United States (2024)
Sample Songs, Recorded Performances, and Films
Fisk Jubilee Singers, ¿Swing Low, Sweet Chariot¿ (1908)
Marian Anderson, The Lincoln Memorial Concert (1939)
Jean-Jacques Beineix¿s French thriller Diva (1981)
Whitney Houston¿s ¿I Wanna Dance with Somebody¿ (1987)
Sonic Street Technologies, Rockers Sound Station: Tales of the Kingston Dub Club (2022)
Recording of Ella Fitzgerald and Louie Armstrong¿s ¿Dream a Little Dream of Me¿ in Stranger Things¿ Season 4 (2022)
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Examinations and Assignments:
In-class activities with sound technologies, mid-semester essay, presentation, final essay |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course will be taught by incoming faculty member Naima Adams. |
Instructor(s): STAFF
Times: .M.W... 10:50AM-12:10PM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 4 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: 15 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 1 | JR non-major: 1 | SO: 3 | FR: 2 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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