I conceive this course as an advanced introduction
to: 1.) bringing key concepts from critical theory to bear in making
sense of contemporary popular music and 2.) approaching popular music
from the vantage point of cultural studies–i.e., making sense of
popular music within the context of particular cultures, subcultures,
scenes, and styles.
2.
According to ethnomusicologist Kay Kaufman Shelemay,
writing at the beginning of her popular textbook introduction to
ethnomusicology, Soundscapes:
Exploring Music in a Changing World (2nd
Edition, New York: Norton, 2006), music can be defined as “the
purposeful organization of the quality, pitch, duration, and intensity
of sound” (4) and “as organized sound that is meaningful within a
specific place and time.” After positing these two broad
definitions of music, Shelemay continues, “we must understand what
sounds people select and how they define music.” In other words,
music becomes meaningful, taking on distinct form and exerting distinct
impact, within particular “soundscapes,” and it is situated in this
kind of context that music becomes available as a subject for critical
theoretical inquiry. A “soundscape” refers to the result of a
complex intersection among a broad array of shaping factors in
constituting a spatially and temporarily particular sonic
environment. A “musical soundscape,” therefore, involves an
interconnected array of elements that collectively result in a
purposeful organization of the quality, pitch, duration, and intensity
of sound such that this becomes meaningful to a specific group of
people at a specific place and time. The aforementioned shaping
elements operating to form a musical soundscape include all of the
following–and more:
1.) Physical characteristics of sound and of sound instruments
and technologies.
2.) The physiology and psychology of reception and response to
particular articulations of sound.
3.) Conventional (and non-conventional) forms, patterns, textures,
styles, means, and media for organizing, expressing, communicating, and
sharing sound.
4.) Economic, social, political, and historical characteristics
of the locally particular expanse of space and of the locally
particular duration of time in which the ‘musicking’ in question takes
place–as well as the economic, social, political, and historical
characteristics of this specific spatio-temporal location’s
interrelations with other times and other places. [‘Musicking’
refers to music as activity in multiple senses–e.g., actively making
music, actively responding to and relating to music, and actively
engaging with and making use of music.]
5.) Philosophical, including ethical and aesthetic, as well as
religious, spiritual, and other ideological frameworks directing how to
make sense of and respond to particular organizations and articulations
of sound at particular times and in particular spaces.
And
6.) Interconnections between specific articulations of organized sound
and a host of social functions and activities–including, for example,
signification, memory, dance, ritual, securing and re-securing of terms
of identity, structuring and restructuring of everyday life, marking
out the extraordinary or the unusual from the ordinary and the
everyday, and aiding and inspiring work and struggle for change.
In this course, “Critical Studies in
Contemporary Popular Music Cultures,” we seek to make sense of the
meaning, value, and significance of music in specific cultural
contexts. This means we here explore music as a powerful
dimension of specific cultures in two principal directions:
1.) First, as it is formed and constituted by conditions of
possibility and forces of generation operating from within–and
across–these cultures,
and
2.) Second, as it contributes substantially, in turn, a.) not only
toward determining the nature of the lived experience of conditions of
existence prevailing for those who participate within these cultures,
b.) but also toward maintaining, reproducing, reshaping, and
transforming the fundamental structures of these cultures.
In other words, we focus on making sense of what music means–and
does–for people as part of distinct cultures. And given the
inclusion of “popular” in the title of the course we are focusing, even
more precisely, on what music means when it exercises substantial
appeal–and becomes a highly significant dimension of life-experience,
as well as life-practice–for a broad array of people.
“Popular” directs us away from focus on music made by and for a narrow
caste who maintain highly advanced knowledge and training in elite and
restrictive forms and styles. It also directs us away from a
focus on music involving rigidly fixed divisions between musical
performance on the one hand and musical reception on the other
hand. In addition, “popular” means that we focus on music as
representation, expression and communication of (at least
prospectively) commonly shared interests, concerns, needs, desires,
hopes, and fears. And, following directly from the last point,
“popular” means we focus away from music as representation, expression,
and communication of interests, concerns, needs, desires, hopes, and
fears only shared by–and for that matter often only intelligible to–a
narrow social, intellectual, or artistic elite.
Beyond our focus on the “popular” this course also
focuses on the “contemporary,” and of course this is another difficult
term to pin down in any precise way, as it is even more obviously
elastic in its relativity than “popular.” Yet for those working
within the emerging field of popular music studies, “contemporary”
tends to mean one of four things: 1.) Post-World War II;
2.) From the 1960s onward, 3.) From the mid-1970s onward; and 4.)
From the beginnings of the ‘Rock Era’ onward. We will work with
all four of these conceptions of “contemporary” at various points in
this course, especially the last three.
At the same time, however, as editors Andy Bennett,
Barry Shank, and Jason Toynbee write in their “Introduction” to The
Popular Music Studies Reader (London: Routledge, 2006), popular
music
studies itself maintains a long pre-history, dating well before 1945,
and also frequently enough, especially as the field continues rapidly
to grow, engages with popular musics–and musickings–taking place in
many distant times at many different places across the globe.
With the emergence of rock music, and especially of a generation of
scholars who themselves came of age after rock had clearly established
itself as a globally dominant–and indeed economically, socially,
politically, and culturally overwhelming–force, contemporary popular
music studies began to emerge, at least in the UK and the US, in the
mid-1970s, in conjunction with the simultaneous emergence of cultural
studies, popular culture studies, and postmodern critical theory.
Moving forward thirty to thirty-five years later, as Bennett, Shank,
and Toynbee indicate, “popular music studies has now emerged as a
globally established and multi-disciplinary field,” encompassing the
work of scholars from all of the following academic areas and more:
musicology and ethnomusicology, anthropology, sociology, media and
cultural studies, politics, linguistics, history, and English.
And, not surprisingly therefore, the range of focuses of interest as
well as approaches toward these subjects operating across this field of
scholarship is widely heterogeneous. Popular music studies
engages with all of the following areas of interest–and more: the
economics and politics of the music industry, textual and discourse
analysis, audience and reception studies, studies of forms of musical
production and dissemination, music and performance, music venues and
fora, studies of music scenes, studies of music-making practices, music
and technology/music and technological development and innovation,
music-making practices and the law, music and (specific) subcultures or
(neo)tribes, music and diaspora, music and globalization, music and
hybridization, music in everyday life, music and other forms of media,
music and other forms of art, music and/as politics, music and/as
ideology, music of protest and resistance, music and social change,
music and race, music and ethnicity, music and nationality, music and
gender, music and sexuality, and music and class. In sum, this is
an exciting, still emergent field full of possibilities for you too to
contribute in innovative, influential, and compelling ways. I
don’t expect that anyone enrolled in this course necessarily maintains
any prior knowledge or experience working within the intellectual field
of popular music studies, but I do expect that all of you maintain
plenty of other knowledge and experience–including of popular music, as
listeners and performers and beyond–that means you are, each and every
one of you, well prepared to begin to work within this field, and to do
impressive work at that.
3.
We will begin the course, after an initial period of
introduction and orientation, by first reading and discussing
selections from Soundscapes:
Exploring Music in a Changing World that
introduce us to some basic concepts in music theory and ethnomusicology
concerned with ‘listening to music’: what is a soundscape?, the
materials of music, the study of local musics, and music’s meaning in
everyday life. From there we will turn to This is Your Brain on
Music, which will help us deepen our understanding of what is
music
from pitch to timbre as well as in terms of rhythm, loudness, and
harmony, while also exploring what makes for musical expertise, and why
people have responded so intensely and vitally to music, across the
entire scope of known human history. After that, working with
Cultures of Popular Music, we
will trace the rise of popular music in
the West from the early years of rock ‘n roll, through the 1960s and
the impact of the ‘counterculture’, through heavy metal, and on through
punk. Building on the last, we will next study how homocore (or
queer punk) developed both out of and in opposition to mainline punk,
including by considering how homocore engages with particular issues
of–and in fact serves as a means and medium–of glbt struggle for social
freedom, justice, and equality. After that, Popular Music in
Theory provides us a comprehensive introductory overview of
consensual
understandings and major divisions, within popular music studies
scholarship, over how to make sense of key concepts in the following
major areas: popular music audiences, popular music industries,
mediations and popular music, identities and popular music, histories
and popular music, geographies and popular music, and politics and
popular music. Then, after Popular
Music in Theory, we will
engage with Mat Callahan’s provocative critique of ‘The Trouble with
Music’ today, and follow that up with Wendy Fonarow’s likewise
provocative theorization of what ‘Indie’ means, especially for indie
audiences, particularly in a British context (yet with plenty of room
for extrapolating and reflecting back on connections with ‘indie
scenes’ here in the US). Next, we will engage the history of
popular musical forms and styles where the DJ has been pivotal, moving
from reggae through hip hop to disco to hi-energy to garage to house to
techno to acid house and to subsequent developments in electronic dance
music. Last up, before student project presentations, we will
turn to Sound Unbound, edited
by Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky that
Subliminal Kid, where we explore cutting edge thinking and creating in
the area of digital music and culture. Finally, over the course
of the last three weeks, students will present excerpts from their
final projects in progress to the rest of the class, where we can all
help out with constructive critique.
4.
As I expect has been the case for most if not all of
you as well, music has long occupied a central place in my life.
I experience music as exercising immense power:
1.) The power not only to express and communicate but also, and
ultimately much more than this, to literally embody our aspirations for
a better world and for a better relationship with the larger world,
with each other, and with ourselves.
2.) The power to reflect, to remember, to witness, to testify, to
recreate, to imagine, to fantasize, to question, to challenge, to
critique, to protest, to incite, and to inspire.
3.) The power to constitute a preeminent mode of collective knowing,
feeling, believing, and understanding.
4.) The power to serve as indispensable means and medium of experience
and engagement with life’s vitality.
5.) The power to help us grasp the essence of our being–in motion and
interconnection.
What’s more, as I experience it, music may not be capable, in and of
itself, of changing the world for the better (and then again it may be
so capable), but it certainly seems eminently capable of encouraging
us, inspiring us, and provoking us to work and struggle to do so.
And sometimes, music simply makes it possible to dream of better days,
to pick myself up and move on, or to feel emotions all the more
meaningfully (including, cathartically, the incredibly sad and the
brutally painful), providing what no other outlet allows me, and
thereby helping immensely in making life seem worthwhile in ways that
otherwise it does not. Perhaps my life has indeed been ‘saved by
rock ‘n roll’, and, perhaps the opportunity to work closely with music,
especially as a dj, has in turn ‘saved my life’ and given me the hope,
strength, and resilience to feel like it’s all ultimately worthwhile,
no matter what comes.
Whether you experience the power of music in any way
similar to what I do or not, I hope that you too will approach this
course as I do, as offering one opportunity to enrich our understanding
and appreciation for whatever we conceive this power to accomplish–and,
especially, for what music means and does for people as participants
within particular communities, societies, cultures, subcultures, and
scenes (as well as individually and in relation to diverse
micro-communities and to diverse styles and forms) past and present,
from across the globe.
TEXTS
The following books are available for purchase at
Crossroads Books, 301 South Barstow Street, Eau Claire, Wisconsin; all
eight are required:
1. Shelemay, Kay Kaufman. Soundscapes:
Exploring Music in a Changing World. Second Edition with
Recordings. New York: Norton, 2006.
2. Levitin, Daniel J. This Is Your Brain on
Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. New York:
Penguin/Plume,
2006.
3. Bennett, Andy. Cultures of Popular
Music. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press, 2001.
4. Negus, Keith. Popular Music in Theory: an
Introduction. Oxford: Polity/Blackwell, 1996.
5. Callahan, Mat. The Trouble with Music.
Oakland: AK Press, 2005.
6. Fonarow, Wendy. Empire of Dirt: the
Aesthetics and Rituals of British Indie Music. Middletown,
CT:
Wesleyan University Press, 2006.
7. Brewster, Bill and Frank Broughton. Last
Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey.
Revised
and Expanded, 2nd, Centenary Edition. London: Headline, 2006.
8. Miller, Paul D. (aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal
Kid), ed. Sound Unbound:
Sampling Digital Music and
Culture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008.
Crossroads Books is a locally owned and operated
bookstore in downtown Eau Claire. Steadily more instructors at
UWEC are supporting companies like Crossroads rather than local
branches of international chain stores (the UWEC campus bookstore is
owned and operated by Barnes and Noble). Crossroads is open
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 am to 5:30 pm; Thursday
from 10 am to 7 pm; and Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm. The
store’s phone number is 715-831-9788; their email contact address is
CustServ@CrossroadBookStore.com;
and their website, including
information about the store as well as a map and directions for how to
get there, is available at: http://www.crossroadbookstore.com/.
You need to obtain these books in time to use for class, as assigned in
the Schedule section of this syllabus (see below).
In addition, I am requiring one additional book as
well:
9. Ciminelli, David and Ken Knox. Homocore: The
Loud and Raucous Rise of Queer Rock. Los Angeles: Alyson,
2005.
Homocore is now out of print
and out of stock through its
publisher/distributor, but because this is a useful book that offers a
perspective on significant issues in contemporary popular music
cultures that is not readily accessible elsewhere, and because it is
relevant to the focus of our work together, I myself this past summer
bought 22 new and previously unused copies through a wide array of
dealers so that we would have copies to work with. I am asking
each of you to pay me $5 for a copy; I’m giving you all a significant
discount that way.
We will focus on only selections from almost all of
these books. But they offer a wealth of interesting and useful
information, analysis, commentary, and perspective that you can also
draw upon for work on your final projects, as well as for further
pursuit of critical studies in contemporary popular music studies
beyond the scope of this class, and this semester, alone. I am
impressed with all of these books; they offer an exciting range and a
simulating depth of compelling and provocative ideas. It was fun
for me to read through them all, and to select them among many other
possibilities. And I didn’t even mind the substantial amount of
investigation and negotiation that I did with publishers and
prospective distributors, in collaboration with Crossroads, to obtain
these books for you (but I think it is worth mentioning that it did
take plenty of work, as the publishing industry, especially the
non-profit, education-oriented publishing industry, is in difficult
economic straits at this point in the time, in the US and beyond, so
securing course books for university classes is becoming more of an
adventure all of the time).
I will supply copies of all additional reading
materials we will use over the course of the semester–along with
guides, outlines, notes, class activity sheets, and so on. I will
invite students to share from your knowledge, and experience, as we
address various topics, and come to grips with particular concepts,
including on occasion by playing some brief samples of music for us, as
you are interested, wish to do so, and are able to do so. I will
also supply copies of audio recordings corresponding to our readings,
and periodically I will post copies of these on Desire2Learn prior to
or after related class discussions, so that you can listen to, study,
and review these on your own time. Once again, however, I will
welcome students bringing copies of directly relevant and related
recordings to class from time to time, especially in areas where you
maintain particular knowledge and experience–or at least substantial
collections. You will all be sharing along these lines when you
present selections from your final projects in progress to the rest of
the class–and you will also be free as well to post materials related
to these projects, including to solicit further feedback from the rest
of the class on how you are doing, on our Desire2Learn electronic
classroom website.
SCHEDULE
Week One
W 9/2: Introduction and Orientation.
Week Two
W 9/9: What is a Soundscape? Sound: The Materials of Music.
Read
for Class, W 9/9: Soundscapes,
Introduction and
Chapter 1, xxvi-li and 1-47. Include Listening Guides 1-18,
Tracks 1-18 on corresponding audio CD1.
Week Three
M 9/14: Setting: The Study of Local Musics, and Significance: Music’s
Meaning in Everyday Life.
Read
for Class, M 9/14: Soundscapes,
Chapters 2-3,
48-167. Include Listening Guides 19-40, Tracks 19-40 on
corresponding audio CD1.
W 9/16: What is Music? From Pitch to Timbre, and Foot Tapping:
Discerning Rhythm, Loudness, and Harmony.
Read
for Class, W 9/16:This is
Your Brain on Music,
Chapters 1-2, 13-82.
Initial
Short Paper Assigned in Class, W 9/16.
Week Four
M 9/21: What Makes a Musician? Expertise Dissected, and The Music
Instinct: Evolution’s #1 Hit.
Read
for Class, M 9/21: This is
Your Brain on Music,
Chapter 7, 193-221, and Chapter 9, 247-267.
W 9/23: Post-War Youth and Rock ‘N’ Roll; Sixties Rock, Politics and
The Counter-Culture; and Heavy Metal.
Read
for Class, W 9/23:Cultures
of Popular Music,
Chapters 1-3, 7-57.
Initial
Short Paper Due by 12 noon, F 9/25, in my
English Department Mailbox, HHH 405.
Week Five
M 9/28: Punk and Punk Rock; Queercore.
Read
for Class, M 9/28: Cultures
of Popular Music,
Chapter 4, 58-73, and Homocore,
Chapters 1-5, 1-59.
W 9/30: Homocore Continued.
Read
for Class, W 9/30: Homocore,
Chapters 6-7,
60-71; Chapters 14-15, 106-124; Chapters 21-22, 155-167; and Chapter
26, 188-192.
Week Six
M 10/5: Audiences, and Industry.
Read
for Class, M 10/5: Popular
Music in Theory,
Chapters 1-2, 7-65.
Learning
and Contribution Reflection Paper #1
Assigned in Class, M 10/5.
W 10/7: Mediations, and Identities.
Read
for Class, W 10/7: Popular
Music in Theory,
Chapters 3-4, 66-135.
Week Seven
M 10/12: Histories, Geographies, and Politics.
Read
for Class, M 10/12: Popular
Music in Theory,
Chapters 5-7, 136-224.
W 10/14: Speaking of Music: Critics, Experts and the Education of
Audiences; Dirty Work: The Hidden World of Music Production.
Read
for Class, W 10/14: The
Trouble with Music,
Chapters 2-3, 21-65.
Week Eight
M 10/19: Out of Control: Music of Liberation and the Liberation of
Music; From Lyre to Lyric and Back: Words and Music; Nets, Webs, Chains
and Domains: Music and Ownership; and Conclusions and Solutions.
Read
for Class, M 10/19: The
Trouble with Music,
Chapters 7-9 and Conclusion, 133-238.
W 10/21: What is ‘Indie’?
Read
for Class, W 10/21: Empire of
Dirt, Chapter 1,
25-78.
Learning and
Contribution
Reflection Paper #1 Due by 12 noon, F 10/23, in my English Department
Mailbox, HHH 405.
Week Nine
M 10/26: The Zones of Participation.
Read
for Class, M 10/26: Empire of
Dirt, Chapter 2,
79-121.
W 10/28: Zone Three and the Music Industry, and Afterword: My Music is
Your Dirt.
Read
for Class, W 10/28:Empire of
Dirt, Chapter 3,
122-153, and Afterword, 242-249.
Week Ten
M 11/2: Introduction: You Should Be Dancing; Reggae: Wreck Up a
Version; Hip Hop Roots: Adventures on the Wheels of Steel; and Hip Hop:
Planet Rock.
Read
for Class, M 11/2: Last Night
a DJ Saved My
Life, Chapter 1, 12-27; Chapter 5, 116-131; and Chapters 9-10,
226-287.
W 11/4: Disco Roots: Love is the Message; Disco: She Works Hard for the
Money; Hi-Energy: So Many Men, So Little Time; and US Garage: I’ll Take
You to Paradise.
Read
for Class, W 11/4: Last Night
a DJ Saved My
Life, Chapters 6-8, 134-223, and Chapter 11, 290-310.
Week Eleven
M 11/9: House: Can You Feel It?; Techno: The Sound; Acid House: I’ve
Lost Control; UK Sounds: Keep on Moving; and Today: I Haven’t Stopped
Dancing Yet.
Read
for Class, M 11/9: Last Night
a DJ Saved My
Life, Chapters 12-13, 312-371; Chapters 15-16, 398-474; and
Chapter 20,
540-552.
Learning
and Contribution Reflection Paper #2
Assigned in Class, M 11/9.
W 11/11: An Introduction, or My (Ambiguous) Life with Technology; The
Ecstacy of Influence: a Plagiarism Music; Quantum Improvisation: The
Cybernetic Presence; The Musician as Thief: Digital Culture and
Copyright Law; and The World of Sound: A Division of Raymond Scott
Enterprises.
Read
for Class, W 11/11: Sound
Unbound, Chapter 1,
1-4; Chapter 4, 25-51; Chapter 11, 119-130; Chapter 13, 135-150; and
Chapter 18, 181-202.
Week Twelve
M 11/16: In Through the Out Door: Sampling and the Creative Act; ‘Roots
and Wires’ Remix: Polyrhythmic Tricks and the Black Electronic; South
Africa’s Rhythms of Resistance; On Improvisation, Temporality, and the
Embodied Experience; and Fear of a Muslim Planet: Hip Hop’s Hidden
History.
Read
for Class, M 11/16: Sound
Unbound, Chapter 2,
5-15; Chapter 5, 53-72; Chapter 20, 215-218; Chapter 26, 273-292; and
Chapter 29, 313-335.
W 11/18: The Future of Language; Un-Imagining Utopia; An Interview with
Alex Steinweiss; Three Pieces; What One Must Do: Comments and Asides on
Musical Philosophy; and Where Did the Music Go?
Read
for Class, W 11/18: Sound
Unbound, Chapter 3,
21-24; Chapter 7, 83-89; Chapter 23, 233-244; Chapter 30, 337-342;
Chapter 32, 353-359; and Chapter 36, 385-390.
Week Thirteen
M 11/23: Student Project Presentations.
W 11/25: Student Project Presentations.
Learning
and Contribution Reflection Paper #2 Due in
Class, W 11/25.
Week Fourteen
M 11/30: Student Project Presentations.
W 12/2: Student Project Presentations.
Week Fifteen
M 12/7: Student Project Presentations.
W 12/9: Student Project Presentations.
* Wednesday 12/16: Final Projects
are Due by 12 noon in my English Department mailbox, HHH 405 *
** THIS SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE **
ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCT OF CLASS
SESSIONS
As a 400/600 level seminar, we will engage with
course material by way of collective discussion, following a variety of
formats, including, prospectively, a number of creative activities–and
it’s important, as this is a 400/600 level seminar, that we hear from
everyone on a regular basis, not just when working in small
groups. I do not plan to present, let alone lecture, all that
often at any considerable length, as that’s not what an advanced
undergraduate (and graduate) level seminar is all about. But I
will direct the course of our discussion at all times. In
addition, our class meets for one hour and fifty minutes twice a week
because we are focused on music, and we need the time to listen to
music in class; we will listen to a significant amount of music in just
about every class period we meet. Over the last three weeks we
meet, you will be each presenting excerpts of work in progress on your
individual final projects and the rest of the class will offer you
critiques to help you as you develop, revise, and refine your work on
those same projects.
GOALS OF THE BACCALAUREATE
These are the five most important, official goals
all UWEC undergraduate courses are designed to help you meet:
1. Knowledge of Human Culture and the Natural World
2. Creative and Critical Thinking
3. Effective Communication
4. Individual and Social Responsibility
5. Respect for Diversity Among People
These goals require your striving
to meet them. Striving means
learning actively and deliberately, completing assignments in a
thorough and timely fashion, participating in class discussion, and
making connections between what we do while meeting in class and what
you do when engaged outside of the classroom.
ON INTELLECTUAL RESPONSIBILITY,
CURRICULAR INTEGRITY, AND ACADEMIC
FREEDOM
The university is not a completely "safe space"
entirely separate from the rest of the "real world" where you can
expect to be sheltered from encountering anything and everything you
might ever find disagreeable or objectionable. After all,
disturbing positions and practices exist extensively outside of the
classroom as well as in what we read, see, hear, and otherwise confront
in and for class; what we confront in class is symptomatic of positions
and practices that operate beyond the confines of the classroom, the
course, and the university. You are here at the university
because you are now ready to engage with difficult, challenging, and
even disturbing positions and practices–and to make your own
contribution toward dealing seriously with them. Therefore, if
ever and whenever you find any text or topic upsetting, you maintain
the ethical responsibility, as a university student, not simply to try
to hide from but rather to engage with it in an intellectually serious,
responsible, mature adult way. On occasion you will encounter
ideas that you may find troubling, in this UWEC course and in almost
all others as well; within the UWEC English Department we grant no
right of exemption from engaging with these ideas and offer no support
for complaining (to any higher administrative authority) about their
inclusion. After all, great works of art–including many great
works of literature–are often created with the deliberate aim of
disturbing, even shocking, many people who will encounter these; often
the intent here is to provoke strong response, as well as thought–and
action–that goes beyond what has become familiar, conventional,
commonsensical, and, especially, merely “safe.”
Students should understand, moreover, that a
professor differs from a high school teacher in many respects, but one
key difference is that we maintain a principal professional, ethical
responsibility forthrightly to represent the most advanced knowledges
in our fields of expertise and to proceed from there to work toward
their further development and dissemination. (A professor is not
merely a ‘teacher of other people’s ideas’, and a professor maintains
many more responsibilities beyond teaching his or her
classes.) In short, professors must create, advocate for,
and profess these knowledges; you should expect that your professors
may from time to time take controversial positions on difficult and
challenging issues, refusing the pretense of disinterested
neutrality. To do anything less than assume this responsibility
would be to shirk our professorial responsibility and to render
ourselves unworthy of maintaining our professorial positions.
GENERAL EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENTS
I expect students in this course to strive to become
sincerely interested in learning about the subject matter of this
course, and to be consistently intellectually serious as well as
academically diligent in their pursuit of this learning. I expect
students to strive to bring actively and extensively to bear–in your
writing and in your contribution to class discussion–insights you gain
through your engagement with the texts and topics addressed as part of
this course, and I expect you to strive at the same time to relate
these texts and topics as closely and as fully as possible to subjects
of genuine interest and concern in your own lives, past and
present. And I expect you to let me know right away when and if
you have any questions or problems about any aspect of how you are
doing in and with the course, so that I can do whatever I possibly can
to help answer these questions and solve these problems.
As this is a 400/600 level seminar, I also expect
students will be prepared to take greater initiative than would be the
case with a lower-level and non-seminar format class. This
means actively sharing the responsibility, consistently, for
explaining, and indeed even for teaching the rest of the class (and
that certainly includes teaching me–I look forward to learning from,
and with, you). As students participating in an advanced level
seminar I also expect that you will engage in extensive dialogue,
exchange, and other forms of collaborative–indeed collective–work as a
member of this class. As you do so you need to work together with
me, and with your classmates, in a
consistently helpful and respectful
manner, and to make sure that you always are able clearly to
distinguish critique of positions
represented by fellow members of the
class (and, for that matter, by various theorists, critics,
journalists, historians, and musicians we will engage) from criticism
of persons. You may, from time to time, disagree with
takes on
various issues represented by your fellow classmates, by me, by writers
we will read, and by musicians we will listen to and study, but you
should aim to do so in a serious, thoughtful, and respectful manner,
trying as best possible always first to understand where the other is
coming from, how so and why so, in advancing this take, and to grasp
what this other’s position indeed means in his or her own terms, as he
or she understands it, in order effectively actually to argue versus
and critique this position, rather than simply to reject, denounce, or
oppose it.
One final point about this being a 400/600 level
seminar: it should be, and it will
be, more demanding than 100, 200,
and 300 level courses, especially than GE courses. You
will have
to do a substantial quantity of often challenging reading, and likewise
do a substantial quantity of rigorous writing. It’s important
that you keep up as we proceed, and, if possible, work ahead (at least
read ahead, and work ahead on your final project if and when it is
possible to do so). Everyone enrolled in this class is
entirely
qualified to do very well in it, but if you don’t put in a consistent,
conscientious effort, you may not. I am sharing this advice in
order to be helpful to you, as sometimes students are unaware of the
high expectations we, English faculty, maintain for performance at this
level; course level really does mean even more here than it does at the
100, 200, or 300 levels.
SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE
GRADE
General Criteria: Evaluation of
Student Performance
In evaluating all work done for this course, I will
take account of how carefully, seriously, intelligently,
enthusiastically, and imaginatively students engage with the concepts,
issues, positions, and arguments addressed in the course and
represented by the texts we read and listen to, by me, and by each
other.
Attendance
This course cannot contribute effectively to
students' learning if students do not attend class. What happens
in class is an indispensable part of this course. Therefore, the
following attendance policy will apply for students enrolled in this
section of English 484, except for
students who must miss an extended
period of the semester due to an emergency for which they arrange an
officially authorized absence
from class (in the latter case, we will
work together to make arrangements to help you make up for what you
miss):
1.) Students who exceed a maximum of two
unexcused
absences will suffer a penalty of a loss of one full letter
grade for
each additional unexcused absence. An unexcused absence is one
where you offer no reasonable excuse for missing, but choose this to be
a day that you miss class.
2.) Students should provide me with written
confirmation of a debilitating injury or illness, or of any other
serious individual or family emergency, for the excusing of any further
absences beyond the maximum of two unexcused absences.
3.) In addition to the maximum of two unexcused
absences, students may miss a maximum of three
excused absences without
suffering a grade penalty. Six total absences will result in a
loss of two full letter grades. Students who miss more than
six classes total should withdraw from the course and enroll again in a
subsequent semester; otherwise they will most likely receive a grade of
F.
* Note well I am required to keep attendance records, and will do so,
even if I don’t necessarily do so in an overtly attention-grabbing way,
such as calling roll, or having people sign in every class period. *
** Students are
also expected to arrive for class on time and to stay
through the very end of class. If you don’t do so, you
won’t be
counted as attending class. In addition, you need to be awake,
alert, and attentive while in class; this means you can’t expect to
sleep or rest in class. Again, if you do so, this will count as
an absence from class. And the same is true of doing other school
work in class or attending to other–personal– matters irrelevant to
what we are focusing on at that point in time in class (e.g., you
should avoid text-messaging, or web-searching, or facebooking, or
playing games on your cell phone, or checking out youtube while in
class–just to mention a few common temptations). **
*** In addition, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT IN THIS CLASS THAT YOU COME TO
CLASS HAVING DONE THE READING REQUIRED OF YOU PRIOR TO CLASS. The
quality of your own learning, and that of the rest of your classmates
depends upon you taking this seriously and carrying it out
conscientiously. ***
Initial Paper
To give you an early chance to try out initial ideas
about some of the issues we will engage this semester, as well as to
give me an early sense of where you are coming from in terms of the
kind and level of your preparation to deal with these issues, I’m
including an early assignment asking you to write a short critical
analysis of a contemporary popular song of your choice. This
early paper will, in addition, give me the chance to give you some
initial feedback, including on how you are doing grade-wise. I
will give you a more precise explanation of what I would like you to do
with the specific assignment itself, but you should note well that I
will ask you to reflect on the music beyond the lyrics with this
assignment, and to do so as you are best able. This is not meant
as a particularly difficult assignment, by any means, and I hope that
you will find it enjoyable as well as otherwise rewarding to
pursue. Your grade on this initial short paper will be worth 10%
of the overall course grade. And although I will not
mandate a
page or word target or limit, as a very rough guide you may think of
this as a 6-8 double-space page (or 1500 to 2000 word) average-length
paper.
Learning and Contribution/Learning and
Contribution Reflection Papers
My foremost aim in teaching this course is to help
you to learn something of significance and value. I will judge
you to a significant degree on what you learn, how–and how hard–you
strive to learn, and on how–along with how well–you contribute to the
learning for the rest of the class.
Class participation represents an important
opportunity to learn, not just a place in which to demonstrate what you
have learned. By raising questions, testing and trying out ideas,
taking risks and making mistakes, you learn a great deal–and help
others learn a great deal as well. You learn through talking, not
just talk to show what you have learned. Don't hesitate to speak
forth in class if you have anything at all to throw into the mix.
At the same time, quality of participation is
much more important than quantity, although a sufficient quantity is
indispensable to insure quality. Still, I want to emphasize here
that I perceive talking for talking’s sake–especially talking which
pulls us off on far-fetched tangents, which remains disconnected from
and disengaged with the reading and the rest of the class, or which
effectively silences others–to be negative participation. Quality
class participation does not, moreover, involve merely asking questions
of me and responding to my questions; quality class participation
requires you to work to advance a serious and substantial discussion
with your peers about the texts and topics subject to discussion.
Contribution to the class certainly can extend far
beyond mere speaking in class: it may include a variety of ways in
which you can bring to bear your insights to help yourself as well as
the rest of us gain from the experience of this course.
Excellent writing in and for class is also a valuable way to contribute
to class. At the same time, listening carefully, respectfully,
and thoughtfully in class discussions is yet another important means of
contribution–as is taking time to meet and talk with me outside of
class. In fact, meeting and talking with me outside of class can
be an excellent way to contribute–as well as to show me how seriously
interested in and engaged with the course material you are.
Each of the two learning
and contribution reflection
papers will offer you an opportunity to engage with ideas we
have just
been working with. Paper one will ask you to engage with ideas
from Soundscapes, This is Your Brain on Music, Cultures of Popular
Music, Homocore, and Popular Music in Theory.
Paper two will ask
you to engage with ideas from The
Trouble with Music, Empire of
Dirt,
Last Night a DJ Saved MY Life,
and Sound Unbound. I
will ask you
questions that will require you to draw directly upon (including
directly cite) and to directly grapple with positions, concepts, and
arguments articulated in each of the five books I just mentioned for
paper number one, and in each of the four books I mentioned in paper
number two. In fact, the more thoroughly, thoughtfully–and, of
course, accurately–you able to do so, the better you will do on
these papers. So once again, doing the reading for this
course–all of it, and in a timely way–is crucial. In addition,
with each learning and contribution reflection paper, I will ask you to
briefly assess how, along with how well, you have been contributing to
your own learning and to that of your classmates in the preceding
approximately six weeks of the semester.
These papers provide you the occasion not only to
show me your learning, but also to advance this, as you most often
learn a great deal about something by writing about it. In
addition, these papers provide you the means to demonstrate your
critical self-reflexivity, the hallmark of a liberal arts
education. As you are assessing your own contribution, you may
include thoughts in reaction to issues raised in class discussion that
you did not have the opportunity or did not feel comfortable enough to
share in class; these additional reflections can help me get a better
sense of what you have been thinking about and how you have been
responding to class discussions, as well as to the readings. I
will take all of that into account in determining your learning and
contribution grades.
I will provide you specific directions in the
assignments I give you for each of these papers. I estimate, as a
rough average, you should aim here for an approximate average of 10 to
12 double-spaced typed pages in length (or 2000 to 2500 words) for each
learning and contribution reflection paper. The grade in response
to these papers will be worth 25% of the overall course grade in each
case, for a combined total worth 50% of the overall course
grade.
Final Project
Each student will present her or his work
researching and critically analyzing a specific contemporary popular
music culture, subculture, period, scene, genre, style, or form of her
or his own choice as a final–individual—project, to the class; these
presentations will take place through a series of stages in the last
three weeks of class sessions prior to the final exam week, allowing
for useful feedback and constructive criticism from the rest of the
class. Students will determine the focus of their final projects
in consultation with me. You will make use of concepts from
readings for this course–and, potentially as well, of other concepts
from critical theory, cultural studies, and further readings in popular
music studies scholarship. What you focus on may well be
suggested by readings and discussions from earlier in the semester,
while the books we will be working with contain abundant material that
we will not be directly addressing in class, or only briefly, which you
can certainly turn to, and expand upon, in this final project (doing so
will be most welcome). Whatever you choose, try to make it as
narrow, precise, concrete, and specific as possible; try to make it
something you genuinely are highly interested in–and perhaps already
highly knowledgeable about; and try to make it something you think you
can do a compelling job making sense of in intellectually serious
terms. I will be happy to work with you throughout the process of
working on this project, and in fact I encourage you to seek my
assistance as you proceed. Relatively early in the semester I
will ask you to turn in a prospectus for your project describing what
specific music culture, subculture, period, scene, genre, style, of
form you propose to focus on, how, and why, so that I can give you
suggestions and recommendations for how best to proceed with this
focus. What’s more, by identifying this as a final project I am
inviting you to incorporate audio, visual, audio-visual, and/or
performative components into this work as you are able and
interested–and as you think would help make it all the more effective
and compelling–although, no matter what you do, each final project will
include a significant, formal, written component..
You will have the opportunity to present this
project in process, in several stages of development, before turning in
a final version for a grade. This way you will be able to receive
constructive criticism from me and the rest of your classmates. I
will distribute further information, instructions, suggestions, and
recommendations as the semester proceeds–first for the final project
prospectus, and second for the final project itself.
Your grade on the final project will be worth 40% of
the overall course grade. And yet once more, although I
will not
mandate a page or word target or limit, as a very rough guide you may
think of this as a 18-20 page double-space (or 4500 to 5000 word)
average-length paper.
General Formatting Requirements: Papers
All papers should be typed, double-space, on single
sides of standard white letter-sized (8" X 11") typewriter, computer
printer, or photographic paper. You may use any standard font you
wish but your print size must remain between 10 and 12 points.
Pages should be numbered, and your name should be at the top of the
first page. The pages of your paper must be stapled together and
you are responsible for doing so; I do not bring staplers to
class. You are also responsible for proofreading your paper
before you turn it in; if you catch any typographical errors, you
should neatly cross these out and write your corrections on top of
these with a pen (but not a pencil). I will expect you,
furthermore, to observe the rules and conventions of Standard Written
English to the very best of your ability in writing these papers,
including MLA format for citation and documentation of sources for the
argument and research paper.
Plagiarism and Academic Honesty
Plagiarism, cheating, and other forms of academic
dishonesty are serious offenses. They not only undermine the goal
of learning but also are exploitative of the work of others.
Dishonesty in written work as part of this course will result in a
failing grade. In addition, dishonesty may result in further
disciplinary action on the part of the University administration;
dishonesty can ultimately lead to expulsion from the University.
Also, if you directly echo someone else’s thoughts as articulated in
the course of class discussion you should add the last name, followed
by the letters CD (for class discussion), followed by the date, in a
parenthetical citation right after the end of the sentence, viz:
(Nowlan, CD, 9/19/09).
Late Papers
Late papers (and late final projects) will lose 1/3
of a letter grade per day late unless you have made arrangements ahead
of the time with me to turn in these papers late due to a serious
personal or family problem. Alternately, if you provide a
reasonable explanation why you are late (again, due to a serious
personal or family problem) shortly after the paper is due, you won’t
suffer any grade penalty. It is best to talk with me directly
about this, and to make sure to do so within a week’s time of the due
date at the absolute latest. I do understand that at times real
problems come up for all of us, no matter what we might intend or
prefer.
Capstone and Graduate Students
Any undergraduate student doing her or his capstone
project as part of this course will prepare a more ambitious,
higher-level, individual final project than expected of the rest of the
undergraduate students enrolled in the class; details will be explained
with the assignment. Capstone students will also respond to
somewhat different assignments for learning and contribution reflection
papers #1 and #2. Capstone students should be especially sure to
seek out my assistance and to keep me informed as you work on your
final project.
Graduate students will also prepare more ambitious,
higher-level, individual final projects than expected of non-capstone
undergraduate students enrolled in the class; again, details will be
explained with the assignment. And once again as well, graduate
students will also respond to somewhat different assignments for
learning and contribution reflection papers #1 and #2. Graduate
students too are especially encouraged to seek out my assistance and to
keep me informed as you work on your final project.
CONFERENCES/EXTRA HELP
I encourage you to meet with me in conference during
office hours or at another mutually convenient time to discuss any
issue of interest or concern related to what we are doing in this
course. Learning that takes place in conferences can be equally
as important, and at times even more important, than what takes place
in class. Please do not hesitate to meet with me during office
hours or to ask for an appointment at any time you think this might be
helpful; making myself available for conferences with you outside of
class is part of my responsibility as your teacher. Moreover, I
always sincerely do welcome getting to know and work with my students
outside as well as inside of class. I am ready to do whatever I
can to help you in your understanding of issues addressed in
discussions and readings, as well as to help you in your writing for
and participation in this course. And, definitely, you should
consult with me as you are working on your final project, and I’ll be
glad to give you whatever help I can, including as you proceed through
successive stages in the process of preparing, developing, and revising
that project. I want to make sure that I do all that I can to
help you succeed in this course and I want to help you, as far as I
can, to gain as much out of it as possible through your participation
in and work for it. You may also feel free to write me via
e-mail, and to call me–or leave a message for me on the answering
machine–at my office. Keep in mind–“my office hours” are
for you, and I would rather
talk with you during my office hours than
do anything else, so please do not worry about “disturbing” me in
coming to talk with me. These office hours are time that I
have set aside to meet, talk, and work with you. And also, even
though I’ve only designated three regular office hours a week, I can
arrange to meet you at other times as well, if and when you need or
would like to do so.
* Any student who has a disability and is in need of
classroom accommodations, please contact both the instructor and the
Services for Students with Disabilities Office, Old Library 2136; for
more information on the services the latter office provides you, check
out their webpage: http://www.uwec.edu/ssd/index.htm *
CONCLUSION
In the interest of accountability–me to you–I am
here providing you weblinks: 1.) to my statement of philosophy as a
college teacher: http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/philosophy.htm
and 2.) to
my autobiographical profile:
http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/PROFILE_.htm. You are also
welcome
to check out 3.) my myspace page,
http://www.myspace.com/insurgentseanmurphy,
and to look me up 4.)
on facebook, http://www.facebook.com,
where I just started a page this
past summer under ‘Bob Nowlan’. [If you are interested in
becoming myspace or facebook friends, feel free to contact me about
that.] In addition, you can find 5.) my professional vita (the
academic equivalent of a resume) at:
http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/VITA.htm.
I encourage you to check
these sites out; it is useful for you to know who your teacher is, what
he’s about, and where he’s coming from–and I like to be very open,
honest, and forthright with you about all of that. I look forward
to a great semester working together with you!