Syllabus—US Popular Music

History
surveying the hits, cultural history style.
US Popular Music History

Northwestern University, Winter Quarter 2017

Professor Michael J. Kramer, History and American Studies
Description
This course examines the historical significance of popular music in the United States
from the late nineteenth century to the present. No musical training is necessary to
enroll in the course, however we will think about how to analyze music as a dynamic
historical force, examining it not only as text, but also in its embedded contexts: the
cultural, social, political, and economic dimensions of genres ranging from Tin Pan
Alley to blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, country, folk, soul, rock, disco, hip-hop, and
classical music. Working toward a set of overarching themes, we will explore popular
music as an art form, a business, a medium for shaping identity and making meaning,
an entity encompassing both conflict and consensus, a local, national, and global
phenomenon, and a key area in the life of Americans. Students are expected to attend
lectures, discussion sections, and complete all reading, listening, and viewing
assignments. There will be three essay assignments in the course, with draft
assignments leading up to each one.
Books
 David Hadju, Love For Sale: Pop Music in America (New York: Farrar,
Straus, Giroux, 2016), ISBN-13: 978-0374170530
 David Brackett, The Pop, Rock, and Soul Reader: Histories and Debates,
3rd edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013). ISBN:
9780199811700. **Note: be sure to purchase the proper edition.**
 Additional readings, listenings, viewings on Canvas.

WEE
K 01  Introduction

READING
 Hadju, “Introduction,” Love For Sale (hereafter LFS), 3-12
 Larry Waterman and Christopher Starr, “Themes and
Streams of American Popular Music,” American Popular
Music (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 5-44
 George Lipsitz, “The Long Fetch of History; or, Why Music
Matters,” in Footsteps in the Dark: The Hidden Histories of
Popular Music (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
2007), vixx-xxv
 Michael J. Kramer, “The Multitrack Model: Cultural History
and the Interdisciplinary Study of Popular Music,” in Music
and History: Bridging the Disciplines, edited by Jeffrey H.
Jackson and Stanley C. Pelkey (University Press of
Mississippi, 2005), 220-255
LISTENING
 “I Got Rhythm” (George and Ira Gerswhin, written for Girl
Crazy musical, 1930)
o Ella Fitzgerald, “I Got Rhythm” (1959); Duke
Ellington Orchestra, “Cotton Tail” (1940);
 Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie,
“Anthropology” (1945); Ethel Merman, “I Got
Rhythm” (1956); Thelonius Monk, “Rhythm-a-
Ning” (1957); Sonny Rollins, “Oleo” (1954);
Various studio musicians, “(Meet) The
Flintstones” (1961)
 “Yesterday” (Written by Paul McCartney, listed as Lennon-
McCartney, 1965)
o The Beatles (1965); The Supremes (1966); Count
Basie (1966); Ray Charles (1968); Dandy
Livingstone (1968); Frank Sinatra (1969); Elvis
Presley (1970); Marvin Gaye (1970); Joan Baez
(1967, released 1970); Bob Dylan and George
Harrison (1970); Boys II Men (1994); John
Lennon (Parody, 1974)
 Hadju
o Tommy James and the Shondells, “Hanky
Panky” (1966)
o The Capitols, “Cool Jerk” (1966, possibly
performed by the Funk Brothers, house band for
Motown)
o James & Bobby Purify, “I’m Your Puppet”
(1966)
o Brad Mehldau, “Paranoid Android” (2002, jazz
cover of Radiohead song originally released in
1997)
o Bill Frisell, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”
(1999, jazz cover of song written by Hank
Williams, with Ron Carter, bass, and Paul
Motion, drums)
o The Bad Plus, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (2001,
jazz cover of Nirvana song originally released in
1991)
o The Chordblenders, “I’m From New Jersey”
(1961, written by Red Mascara)
o Donovan, “Epistle to Dippy” (1966)
o The Rolling Stones, “Let’s Spend the Night
Together” (1967)
o Billy Murray, “You’re a Grand Old Flag” written
by George M. Cohan for 1906 musical, George
 Washington, Jr.)
o Peter, Paul, and Mary, “I Dig Rock and Roll
Music” (1967)
 Waterman/Starr
o Jean Ritchie, “Barbary Allen” (1960, traditional)
o Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers, “Soldier’s
Joy” (1929)
o Tommy Jarrell, “Soldier’s Joy” (early 1980s)
o Dink Roberts, “Coo Coo” (1974)
o Lightning Washington and Fellow Convicts,
“Long John” (1934)
o Mississippi John Hurt, “Stagolee” (1965,
originally recorded by Hurt in 1928)
o Carlos Gardel, “La Cumparsita” (1928)
o Francisco Canaro y Quintero Pirincho, “La
Cumparsita” (1951)
o Grupo Afrocuba de Matanzas, “Enigue Nigue”
(1998)
o Mariachi Vargas De Tecalitln, “Son De La
Negra” (1959)
 Lipsitz
o The Isley Brothers, “Footsteps in the Dark”
(1977), “It’s Your Thing” (1969); “Fight the
Power” (1975)
o Ice Cube, “It Was a Good Day” (1992)
o Curtis Mayfield, “Pusherman” (1972)
o King Sunny Ade “Ja Funmi” (1982)
o Alash Ensemble, “The Raindeer Herder’s Song”
(2011)
o Gary US Bonds, “A Quarter to Three” (1960)
o Dion and the Belmonts, “The Wanderer” (1961)
o Parliament Funkadelic, “Flashlight” (1977)
o KC and the Sunshine Band, “Blow Your
Whistle” (1974), “Sound Your Funky Horn”
(1974)
o Zeke Carey and the Flamingos, “I Only Have
Eyes for You” (1959)
o 2 Live Crew, “Me So Horny” (1989)
o Baha Men, “Who Let the Dogs Out?” (2000)
o Dr. John, “Iko Iko” (1972)
 o Earl Palmer’s Beat, 1956-1964 (Youtube
compilations), https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=dH8dh4r1Vug,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=8QD9otryiXU,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=uVt2oA33RP4,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-
gQ3TwumfdA
 “All Along the Watchtower” (Written by Bob Dylan, 1967)
o Bob Dylan (1967), Jimi Hendrix Experience
(1967), Bobby Womack (1973), Brothers and
Sisters Gospel Choir (1971), Bob Dylan and the
Band (1974), Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead
(1987), U2 (1988), Indigo Girls (1991), Bob
Dylan (Unplugged, 1994), Dave Matthews Band
(1997), David West, Pickin’ On Jimi Hendrix: A
Bluegrass Tribute (1999), Neil Young (2000),
Bryan Ferry (2007), Eddie Vedder and the
Million Dollar Bashers (2008)
 Bonus
o Rae Sremmurd featuring Gucci Mane, “Black
Beatles” (2017, produced by Mike Will Made It
(Michael Len Williams II))
o The Beatles, “Day Tripper” (1965)
o OutKast, “Hey Ya!” (2003, written and produced
by André 3000)

Th
01/05 Introduction — The Multitrack Model: Approaching Popular Music

WEE
K 02 PRE-1900

READING
 W.E.B. Dubois, “Of Our Spiritual Striving” in The Souls of
Black Folk (Chicago: AC McClurg & Co., 1903),
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/dubois/ch01.html
 Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones, “Blues People and the Classic
Blues” from Blues People: The Negro Experience in White
America and the Music that Developed from It, in
 Brackett, The Pop, Rock, Soul Reader, Part 1, Section 6
(hereafter PRSR)
 WT Lhamon, “Dancing for Eels at Catherine Market,”
in Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to
Hip Hop (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998),
1-55
 Jody Rosen, “The 2013 VMAs Were Dominated by Miley’s
Minstrel Show,” Vulture, 26 August 2013,
http://www.vulture.com/2013/08/jody-rosen-miley-cyrus-
vmas-minstrel.html
 Brittney Cooper, “The first rule of blackface: It’s not hard to
understand, everyone,” Salon, 29 October 2013,
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/29/the_first_rule_of_blackfac
e_its_not_hard_to_understand_everyone/
 Tressie McMillan Cottom, “When Your (Brown) Body is a
(White) Wonderland,” tressiemc, 27 August 2013,
http://tressiemc.com/2013/08/27/when-your-brown-body-is-
a-white-wonderland/
LISTENING
Thomas Hampson, “Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair”

(1994, written by Stephen Foster in 1854)
 Joan Morris and William Bolcom, “After the Ball” (1976,
written by Charles K. Harris in 1891)
 Peter DiSante and others, “De Boatmen’s Dance” (1998,
credited to Dan Emmett of the Virginia Minstrels, 1843)
 Peter DiSante and others, “Stop Dat Knocking” (1998,
Written by A. F. Winnemore, 1847, often performed by
Christy’s Minstrels)
 New Sandy Minstrels, “Old Dan Tucker” (1843, written by
Dan Emmett, recorded 1998)
 Fisk Jubilee Singers, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” (1909)
VIEWING
 Stephen Foster, dir. Randall MacLowry (2006)
 Bamboozled, dir. Spike Lee (2001)

Tu The Empire of Sentimentalism: In the Parlor with Stephen Foster, In the

01/10 Street with John Philip Sousa

Th The Minstrel Show’s Many Masks: The Vexing Legacy of the Racial
01/12 Masquerade
WEE
K 03 Circa 1900-1930

READING
 Hadju, LFS, Ch. 1-Ch. 3, 13-61
 David Suisman, “When Songs Became a Business,”
in Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American
Music (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009), 18-55
 Larry Waterman and Christopher Starr, “Tin Pan Alley Song
Form”-“What Makes a Song a Standard,” American Popular
Music, 106-121
 Brackett, PRSR
o 1. Irving Berlin in Tin Pan Alley, Charles
Hamm, “Irving Berlin and the Crucible of God”
o 2. Technology, the Dawn of Modern Popular
Music, and the “King of Jazz,” Paul Whiteman
and Mary Margaret McBride, “On Wax”
o 3. Big Band Swing Music: Race and Power in
the Music Business, Marvin Freedman, “Black
Music’s on Top; White Jazz Stagnant”
o Irving Kolodin, “The Dance Band Business: A
Study in Black and White”
LISTENING
 Hadju
o Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville, “Au Clair de
la Lune” (1860)
o Clarice Mayne, “I Was a Good Little Girl Until I
Met You” (1914, written by James W. Tate and
Clifford Harris)
o Gwendoline Brogden, “I’ll Make a Man of You”
(1914, written by Arthur Wimperis and Herman
Finck)
o Al Jolson, “Who Paid the Rent for Mrs. Rip Van
Winckle” (1930, written by Fred Fischer and
Alfred Bryan in 1914)
o Bert Williams, “The Darktown Poker Club”
(1914, written by Williams,  Will H. Vodery ,
and Jean Havez)
o Bert Williams, “Nobody” (1906, written by Bert
Williams and Alex Rogers)
 o Albert H. Campbell and Irving Gillette [i.e.
Henry Burr], “On the Shores of Italy” (1914)
o Billy Murray, “In Siam” (1915)
o Enrico Caruso, “Celeste Aria” from Aida (1911)
o “Whispering” (written by John Schonberger,
Richard Coburn (Frank Reginald DeLong), and
Vincent Rose, 1920): Paul Whiteman and His
Orchestra (1920); Benny Goodman Quartet
(1936); Tommy Dorsey And His Sentimentalists
with Frank Sinatra and The Pied Pipers (1940);
Dizzy Gillespie, “Groovin’ High” (1945); Lena
Horne (1946); Harry Belafonte (1949); Miles
Davis Sextet (1951); Bing Crosby (1957); Les
Paul and Mary Ford (1951); Chet Atkins (1961);
The Beatles (1969)
o Duke Ellington, “I Can’t Give You Anything But
Love” (1928, written by Jimmy McHugh and
Dorothy Fields); “East St. Louis Toodle-oo”
(1927, written by Ellington and Bubber
Miley); “Take the ‘A’ Train” (1941, arranged by
Billy Strayhorn, lyrics later added by Joya
Sherrill, often sung by Ellington trumpeter Ray
Nance, compare to Bing Crosby, “Exactly Like
You”)
o Cab Calloway, “Minnie the Moocher’s Wedding
Day” (1932, written by Harold Arlen and Ted
Koehler)
o Ethel Waters, “Stormy Weather” (1933, written
by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler); Lena Horne,
“Stormy Weather” (1941); Billie Holiday,
“Stormy Weather” (1952)
o Bruce Springsteen, “Jungleland” (1975)
o Labelle, “Lady Marmalade” (1974, written by
Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan)
o Earth, Wind, and Fire, “Shining Star” (1975,
written by Maurice White, Larry Dunn and
Philip Bailey)
 Additional listening
o Dick Hyman, “Maple Leaf Rag” (2011, written
by Scott Joplin in 1899)
 o James Reese Europe, “Castle House Rag” (1914)
o Original Dixieland Band, “Tiger Rag” (1917)
o Creole Jazz Band, “Dipper Mouth Blues” (1923)
o Louis Armstrong, “West End Blues” (1928)
o Al Jolson, “April Showers” (1921)
o Gene Austin, “My Blue Heaven” (1927)
o Ben Selvin, “Blue Skies” (1927, written by
Irving Berlin for musical Betsy, by Richard
Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, 1926)
o Josephine Baker, “Blue Skies” (1927)
o Kate Smith, “Swingin’ in a Hammock” (1930)
o Bing Crosby, “Beautiful Dreamer” (1940, written
by Stephen Foster, 1864);
o Bing Crosby, “Beautiful Dreamer” (1940, written
by Stephen Foster, 1864); “Exactly Like You”
(1944, written by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy
Fields, compare to Duke Ellington, “Take the ‘A’
Train”)
o Paul Whiteman, “Rhapsody in Blue” (1924,
written by George Gershwin)
VIEWING
 Jazz, dir. Ken Burns (2000), Episodes 1-3

Tu
01/17 Standardization: Tin Pan Alley and the Culture Industry

Th
01/19 Syncopatin’ Modernity: From Ragtime to Jazz In “The Jazz Age”

Fr
01/20 Discussion sections

Mo
01/23,
midni
ght Assignment 01 Outline. Upload to Canvas

WEE
K 04

READING
  Hadju, LFS, Ch. 4-5, 63-100
 Adam Gussow, “Racial Violence, ‘Primitive’ Music, and the
Blues Entrepreneur: W. C. Handy’s Mississippi
Problem,” Southern Cultures 8, 3 (Fall 2002), 56-77
 W.C. Handy, “Mississippi Mud,” in Father of the Blues, ed.
Arna Bontemps (New York: Macmillan Company, 1941), 71-
88
 Joel Dinerstein, “Introduction: Bodies and Machines,”
in Swinging the Machine: Modernity, Technology, and
African American Culture Between the World
Wars (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2004), 3-
28
 Brackett, PRSR:
o 5. Hillbilly and Race Music, Crichton, “Thar’s
Gold in Them Hillbillies”
o Reread 6. Blues People and the Classic Blues,
LeRoi Jones, from Blues People: The Negro
Experience in White America and the Music that
Developed from It
o 7. The Empress of the Blues, Nat Shapiro and
Nat Hentoff, from Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya: The
Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It
o 8. At the Crossroads with Son House, Jerry
Gilbert, “Son House: Living King of Delta
 Michael J. Kramer, “Tunesmithing History: Tin Pan Alley
Imitation for Historical Inquiry,” Culture Rover, 12
November 2015,
https://www.michaeljkramer.net/tunesmithing-history/
LISTENING
 Hadju
o Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan, “Always”
(1957, written by Irving Berlin, 1925)
o Ina Ray Hutton and her Melodears, “Doin’ the
Susie Q” (1936)
o Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra featuring
Frank Sinatra with The Pied Pipers, “I’ll Never
Smile Again” (1940, written by Ruth Lowe,
pianist for Ina Ray Hutton, 1939)
o Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra featuring the
Sentimentalists, “On the Sunny Side of the
 Street” (1945, written by Jimmy McHugh and
Dorothy Fields in 1930, arranged by Sy Oliver,
the Sentimentalists were also known as the Clark
Sisters)
o Rudy Vallee, “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries”
(1931)
o Bing Crosby, “Sierra Sue” (1940); “Ol’ Man
River” (1928, with Paul Whiteman Orchestra,
featuring Bix Beiderbecke on cornet, written by
Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II for
musical Showtime, 1927)
o Mitchell Ayres and His Fashions in Music,
“Make Believe Island” (1940)
o Will Bradley Orchestra, “Beat Me, Daddy, Eight
to the Bar” (1940, compare to Andrews Sisters,
“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” 1941, both songs
written by Don Raye and Hughie Prince and to
Glenn Miller Orchestra, “In the Mood,” 1940,
arranged by Joe Garland and Andy Razaf based
on “Tar Paper Stomp” by Wingy Manone, 1930)
o The Capitols, “Cool Jerk” (1966, possibly
performed by the Funk Brothers, house band for
Motown)
o Adele, “Hello” (2015)
o Robert Wilcox, “The Jolly Cowboy” (1960,
published in John Lomax’s Cowboy Songs and
Other Frontier Ballads, 1910); Rowdy Wright,
“I’m a Jolly Cowboy” (1937)
o Billy Murray, “In the Land of the Buffalo”
(1907, written by Egbert Van Alstyne and Harry
Williams)
o Tex Ritter, “You Two-Timed Me One Time Too
Often” (1945, written by Jenny Lou Carson);
“Rye Whiskey” (1949)
o Carter Family, “Mid the Green Fields of
Virginia” (1932, written by Charles K. Harris);
“Little Old Log Cabin By the Sea” (1927,
recorded as “Little Old Log Cabin In the Lane”
by Fiddlin’ John Carson, 1923, and originally
written in 1887 by William Shakespeare Hays as
 “De Old Log Cabin”); “You Are My Flower”
(1938, written by Maybelle Carter based on
magazine poem with melody from Mexican song
heard on radio); “Single Girl, Married Girl”
(1927, also on Harry Smith’s Anthology of
American Folk Music, released by Folkways
Records, 1952)
o Blind Lemon Jefferson, “See That My Grave Is
Kept Clean” (1927, also on Harry
Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music,
released by Folkways Records, 1952)
o Ernst Phipps and His Holiness Singers, “Shine
on Me” (1927, originally released on Bluebird,
also on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American
Folk Music, released by Folkways Records,
1952)
o Uncle Dave Macon, “Way Down the Old Plank
Road” (1926, also on Harry Smith’s Anthology
of American Folk Music, released by Folkways
Records, 1952)
o Ken Maynard, “The Lone Star Trail” (1930, also
on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk
Music, released by Folkways Records, 1952)
o Jimmie Rodgers, “Blue Yodel No. 2 (My Lovin’
Gal, Lucille)” (1928); “Blue Yodel No. 9
(Standin’ on the Corner)” (1931, with Louis
Armstrong on trumpet and Lil Hardin Armstrong
on piano)
o Bing Crosby, Sons of the Pioneers, Louie Prima,
and others, “I’m an Old Cowhand from the Rio
Grande” (1936, from film Rhythm on the Range,
written by Johnny Mercer)
o Gene Autry, “Back in the Saddle Again” (1939);
“I’m an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande”
(1941, from the film Back in the Saddle, with
Mary Lee, written by Johnny Mercer)
o Sons of the Pioneers (including Leonard Slye aka
Roy Rogers), “Cool Water” (1947); “Riders in
the Sky” (1948)
o Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, “Happy Trails”
 (1952)
 Additional listening
o Bessie Smith, “St Louis Blues” (1925, with
Louis Armstrong, written by W.C. Handy)
o Mamie Smith’s Jazz Hounds (no relation to
Bessie Smith), “Crazy Blues” (1920)
o Blind Lemon Jefferson, “That Black Snake
Moan” (1927)
o Charley Patton, “Tom Rushen Blues” (1929)
o Robert Johnson, “Cross Road Blues” (1936)
o Don Azpiazu, “El Manisero (The Peanut
Vendor)” (1930)
o Carter Family, “Foggy Mountain Top” (1927); ”
“I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes” (1929)
o Golden Gate Quartet, “The Sun Didn’t Shine”
(1941)
o Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton, “New Orleans
Blues (written ca. 1902, recorded by Alan Lomax
at Library of Congress, 1938)
o Fletcher Henderson, “Wrappin’ It Up” (1934)
o Duke Ellington & His Orchestra, “Caravan”
(1937)
o Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra, “Rhythm Is Our
Business” (1935)
o Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, “Taking a
Chance on Love” (1940, with Helen Forrest on
vocals, arranged by Fletcher Henderson, written
by Vernon Duke, John Latouche and Ted Fetter
for the Broadway musical Cabin in the Sky)
o Benny Goodman Trio, “Tiger Rag” (with Teddy
Wilson, piano; Gene Krupa, drums, 1936)
o Benny Goodman Quartet (with Teddy Wilson,
piano, Lionel Hampton, vibraphone, and Gene
Krupa, drums, 1937)
o Benny Goodman Sextet (with Charlie Christian,
guitar; Lionel Hampton, vibraphone; Fletcher
Henderson, piano; Artie Bernstein, bass; Nick
Fatool, drums), “Red Room,” 1939)
o Count Basie Orchestra, “One O’Clock Jump”
(1937)
 o Glenn Miller and his Orch., “In the Mood”
(1940, arranged by Joe Garland and Andy Razaf
based on “Tar Paper Stomp” by Wingy Manone,
1930)
o Charlie Parker, “A Night in Tunisia” (1946, with
Miles Davis, trumpet, written as “Interlude” by
Dizzy Gillespie, 1941-2)
o Charlie Parker, “Koko” (1946, with Miles Davis
or Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet, Dizzy Gillespie or
Argonne Thornton (Sadik Hakim), piano, Curley
Russell, bass, Max Roach, drums, based on
chord changes of based upon the chord changes
of Ray Noble’s “Cherokee,” 1938).
o Dizzy Gillespie and His All-Stars (including
Charlie Parker, alto saxophone), “Salt Peanuts”
(1945, written by Dizzy Gillespie, with Kenny
Clarke and possibly Charlie Parker, 1942)
o Dizzy Gillespie, “Manteca” (1947, cowritten by
Dizzy Gillespie, Chano Pozo and Gil Fuller)
VIEWING
 Jazz, dir. Ken Burns (2000), Episodes 5-8

Tu Anti-Standardization: Race Records, Hillbilly Music, and the Emergence

01/24 of Niche Markets

Th
01/26 A New Deal: Swingin’ the Machine in the 1930s

Fri
01/27 Discussion sections

Mo
01/30,
midni
ght. Assignment 01. Upload to Canvas

WEE
K 05 1940s-1950s

READING
 Hadju, Ch. 6, 101-121
  Jerma Jackson, “With Her Spirituals in Swing: Sister Rosetta
Tharpe, Gospel, and Popular Culture,” in Singing in My
Soul: Black Gospel Music in a Secular Age (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 2004), 77-102
  PRSR:
o 10. Jumpin’ the Blues with Louis Jordan, Down
Beat, “Bands Dug by the Beat: Louis Jordan”,
Arnold Shaw, from Honkers and Shouters: The
Golden Years of Rhythm and Blues
o 13. Country Music as Folk Music, Country
Music as Novelty, Billboard, “American Folk
Tunes: Cowboy and Hillbilly Tunes and
Tunesters”; Newsweek, “Corn of Plenty”
o 16. “The House that Ruth Brown Built,” Ruth
Brown (with Andrew Yule), from Miss Rhythm:
The Autobiography of Ruth Brown, Rhythm and
Blues Legend
o 17. Ray Charles, or, When Saturday Night Mixed
It Up with Sunday Morning, Ray Charles and
David Ritz, from Brother Ray: Ray Charles’
Own Story
o 18. Jerry Wexler: A Life in R&B, Jerry Wexler
and David Ritz, from Rhythm and the Blues: A
Life in American Music
o 20. From Rhythm and Blues to Rock ‘n’ Roll:
The Songs of Chuck Berry; Norman Jopling,
“Chuck Berry: Rock Lives!”
o 21. Little Richard: Boldly Going Where No Man
Had Gone Before, Charles White, from The Life
and Times of Little Richard: The Quasar of Rock
o 22. Elvis Presley, Sam Phillips, and Rockabilly,
Elizabeth Kaye, “Sam Phillips Interview”
o 24. The Chicago Defender Defends Rock ‘n’
Roll, Rob Roy, “Bias Against ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’
Latest Bombshell in Dixie”
LISTENING
 Hadju
o Bessie Smith, “T’aint Nobody’s Bizness If I Do”
(1923); “Downhearted Blues” (1923); “Gin
House Blues” (1925, written by Fletcher
 Henderson and Henry Troy)
o Alberta Hunter, “Downhearted Blues” (1922)
o Duke Ellington, “Down in Our Alley Blues”
(1927)
o Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, “Stompin’
at the Savoy” (1936, arranged by Fletcher
Henderson)
o Big Joe Turner, “Shake, Rattle, Roll” (1954,
written by Jesse Stone under the pseudonym
Charles E. Calhoun, Atlantic Records); “The
Chicken and the Hawk” (1955)
o Jackie Brentson, “Rocket 88” (1951, recorded by
Ike Turner and His Kings of Rhythm)
o Wynonie Harris, “Good Rockin’ Tonight” (1948)
o Jimmy Preston and His Prestonians, “Rock the
Joint” (1949)
o Louis Jordan, “Caldonia” (1945); “Ain’t Nobody
Here But Us Chickens” (1947); “Saturday Night
Fish Fry” (1949); “Ain’t That Just Like a
Woman” (1946, compare the guitar intro played
by Carl Hogan to Chuck Berry, “Johnny B.
Goode”)
o Jim Jackson, “Jim Jackson’s Kansas City Blues”
(1927)
o Charlie Patton, “Going to Move to Alabama”
(1929)
o Count Basie, “Red Wagon” (1939, with Freddie
Green, guitar, Walter Page, bass, and Jo Jones,
drums)
o Hank Williams, “Move It On Over” (1947)
o Big Bill Broonzy and the Famous Hokum Boys,
“Eagle Riding Papa” (1930)
o Milton Brown and His Brownies, “Easy Ridin’
Papa” (1936)
o Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, “Ida Red”
(1938, compare to Chuck Berry, “Maybelline”);
“New San Antonio Rose” (1940)
o Bill Haley and His Saddlemen, “Deal Me a
Hand” (1950); “Rocket 88” (1951); “Rock the
Joint” (1952)
 o Wild Bill Moore, “We’re Gonna Rock, We’re
Gonna Roll” (1948)
o Bill Haley and His Comets, “Shake, Rattle, and
Roll” (1954); “Thirteen Women (and Only One
Man In Town)” (1954); “(We’re Gonna) Rock
Around the Clock Tonight” (1954)
o Chuck Berry, “Maybellene” (1955); “Thirty
Days” (1955); “Too Much Monkey Business”
(1956); “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man” (1956);
“You Can’t Catch Me” (1956); “Sweet Little
Sixteen” (1958, compare to The Beach Boys,
“Surfin’ USA,” 1963, Berry won a copyright
infringement suit against The Beach Boys for the
song); “Back in the USA” (1959, compare to The
Beatles, “Back in the USSR” and Bruce
Springsteen, “Born in the USA”); “Come On”
(1961)
o Little Richard, “Tutti Frutti” (1957, produced by
Robert “Bumps” Blackwell); Pat Boone, “Tutti
Frutti” (1957)
o Little Richard, “Keep a Knockin'” (1958,
produced by Robert “Bumps” Blackwell;
compare to minstrel song “Who Dat Knocking”
and Jaack McVea’s “Open the Door, Richard”)
o Elvis Presley, “That’s Alright (Mama)” (1954);
“Blue Moon of Kentucky” (1954) (compare to
Bill Monroe version); “Heartbreak Hotel”
(1956); “Don’t Be Cruel” (1956, written by Otis
Blackwell); “Jailhouse Rock” (1957, written by
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller)
 Jackson
o Sister Rosetta Tharpe, “That’s All” (1938,
from Sprituals To Swing concert, Carnegie Hall,
organized by John Hammond) and “Rock Me”
(1938, with Albert Ammons on piano, based on
“Hide Me in Thy Bosom” written by Thomas
Dorsey, from Sprituals To Swing concert,
Carnegie Hall, organized by John Hammond);
“This Train” (1939, traditional, collected by John
and Alan Lomax, compare to version by Woody
 Guthrie, 1940, Staple Singers, 1965); “Nobody’s
Fault But Mine” (1949, first recorded by Blind
Willie Johnson, 1927); “Savior Don’t Pass Me
By” (1939); “Rock Me” (1941, with Lucky
Millander); “What He Done For Me” (1942);
“Didn’t It Rain” (1946); “Up Above My Head”
(1949)
 Additional Listening
o Mills Brothers, “Paper Doll” (1957)
o Roy Acuff, “Great Speckled Bird” (1936)
o Xavier Cugat, “Brazil” (1943)
o Machito and His Afro-Cubans, “Nagüe” (1941)
o Frank Sinatra and the Axel Stordahl, “Nancy
(With the Laughing Face)” (1945)
o Nat “King” Cole, “(Get Your Kicks on) Route
66” (1946, written by Bobby Troup)
o Nat “King” Cole, “Nature Boy” (1948, written
by eden ahbez (George McGrew))
o Pèrez Prado, “Mambo No. 5” (1947)
o Rosemary Clooney, “Mambo Italiano” (1954)
o Jack McVea and His All Stars, “Open the Door,
Richard” (1947) (compare to minstrel show song
“Who Dat Knocking” and Little Richard’s “Keep
a Knocking”)
o Ruth Brown, “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter
Mean” (1952)
o Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, “Hound
Dog” (1952, written by Jerry Leiber and Mike
Stoller); Elvis Presley, “Hound Dog” (1956)
o Muddy Waters, “(I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie
Man” (1954, written by Willie Dixon, Chess
Records)
o Howlin’ Wolf, “Spoonful” (1960, written by
Willie Dixon, Chess Records)
o Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys, “Blue
Moon of Kentucky” (1946); “It’s Mighty Dark to
Travel” (1947)
o Hank Thompson, “The Wild Side of Life” (1952)
(compare to Carter Family, “I’m Thinking
Tonight of My Blue Eyes” and Roy Acuff,
 “Great Speckled Bird”)
o Kitty Wells, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky-
Tonk Angels” (1952, written by J. D. “Jay”
Miller) (compare to Hank Thompson, “The Wild
Side of Life,” Carter Family, “I’m Thinking
Tonight of My Blue Eyes” and Roy Acuff,
“Great Speckled Bird”)
o Hank Williams, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”
(1949); “Hey, Good Lookin'” (1951)
o The Chords, “Sh-Boom” (1954); The Crew Cuts,
“Sh-Boom” (1954)
o Junior Parker, “Mystery Train” (1953); Elvis
Presley, “Mystery Train” (1955)
o Jerry Lee Lewis, “Great Balls of Fire” (1957,
written by Otis Blackwell)
o Buddy Holly and the Crickets, “That’ll Be The
Day” (1957)
o Ritchie Valens, “La Bamba” (1958)
o The Coasters, “Charlie Brown” (1959, written by
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller)
VIEWING:
 Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, dir. Taylor Hackford (1987)

Tu Everybody Eats When They Come to My House: Postwar

01/31 Reconfigurations

Th
02/02 Roll Over Beethoven: The Rise of Rock ‘n’ Roll

WEE
K 06 1960s Part 1

READING
 Hadju, LFS, Ch. 7-8, 123-150
 Grace Elizabeth Hale, “Black as Folk: The Folk Music
Revival, the Civil Rights Movement, and Bob Dylan,” in A
Nation of Outsiders: How the White Middle Class Fell in
Love with Rebellion in Postwar America, 84-131
 PRSR:
o 25. The Music Industry Fight Against Rock ‘n’
 Roll: Dick Clark’s Teen-Pop Empire and the
Payola Scandal, Peter Bunzel, “Music Biz Goes
Round and Round: It Comes Out Clarkola”; New
York Age, “Mr. Clark and Colored Payola”
o 26. The Brill Building and the Girl Groups,
Charlotte Greig, from Will You Still Love Me
Tomorrow? Girl Groups from the 50s On
o 27. From Surf to Smile, Richard Cromelin,
“Interview with Brian Wilson”
o 29. Bringing It All Back Home: Dylan at
Newport, Irwin Silber, “Newport Folk Festival,
1965,” Paul Nelson, “Newport Folk Festival,
1965”
o 32. No Town Like Motown, Harvey Kubernik,
“Berry Gordy: A Conversation with Mr.
Motown”
LISTENING
 Hadju
o The Shirelles, “Tonight’s the Night” (1960,
written by Luther Dixon and Shirley Owens,
produced by Luther Dixon); “Will You Love Me
Tomorrow?” (1960, written by Carole King and
Gerry Goffin, produced by Phil Spector)
o Roy Orbison, “Only the Lonely” (1960);
“Crying” (1962)
o Connie Francis, “My Heart Has a Mind of Its
Own” (1960)
o Frankie Avalon, “Why” (1959)
o Stephen Stills, “Love the One You’re With”
(1970)
o Billy Eckstine, “Love the One You’re With”
(1971)
o Pèrez Prado, “Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom
White)” (1955)
o Mitch Miller, “The Yellow Rose of Texas”
(1955)
o Elton John, “Philadelphia Freedom” (1974)
o David Bowie, “Fame” (1975, with John Lennon)
o The Eagles, “One of These Nights” (1975)
o Eve Tanguay, “I Don’t Care” (1922)
o Billie Holiday, “God Bless the Child” (1955)
o Frank Sinatra, “Ebb Tide” (1958, compare intro
to Erroll Garner, “Misty”)
o George Jones, “She Thinks I Still Care” (1962)
o Ray Charles, “Hit the Road, Jack” (1961, written
by Percy Mayfield)
o Trini Lopez, “If I Had a Hammer” (1964, written
by Pete Seeger, compare to versions by Peter,
Paul, and Mary; The Weavers; Odetta; Sam
Cooke; Aretha Franklin; Johnny Cash; among
others); Peter, Paul, and Mary, “If I Had a
Hammer” (1962); Sam Cooke, “If I Had a
Hammer” (1964)
o The Beatles, “Love Me Do” (1963); “Chains”
(1963, written by Carole King and Gerry
Goffin); “Please Please Me” (1963); “Can’t Buy
Me Love” (1964); “You’ve Got To Hide Your
Love Away” (1965); “Help!” (1965); “Eleanor
Rigby” (1966); “Come Together (1969, compare
to Chuck Berry, “You Can’t Catch Me”), all
produced by George Martin
o Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan (produced by John
Hammond): “Talkin’ New York”
(1962); Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (producers John
Hammond and Tom Wilson): “Masters of War”
(1963); “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” (1963,
music based on traditional Child ballad “Lord
Randall”); “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright”
(1963, music adapted from traditional song
“Who’s Gonna Buy You Ribbons When I’m
Gone?”); “Blowin’ in the Wind” (1963, compare
to version by Sam Cooke, 1964); “The Times
They Are A-Changin'” (1964, from The Times
They Are A-Changin’, produced by Tom
Wilson); “Mr. Tambourine Man” (1965,
from Bringing It All Back Home, produced by
Tom Wilson, compare to version by The
Byrds); “Like a Rolling Stone” (1965,
from Highway 61 Revisited, produced by Tom
Wilson)
 o The Rolling Stones, “Come On” (1963, compare
to Chuck Berry version); “Satisfaction” (1965)
o Lovin’ Spoonful, “Do You Believe in Magic?”
(1965)
o Mississippi John Hurt, “Coffee Blues”
(1966, Today!)
o Joni Mitchell, “My Old Man” (1971)
o REM, “Radio Free Europe” (1983)
o Guided By Voices, “Hardcore UFO’s” (1994)
o Eric B. and Rakim, “Eric B. Is President” (1986)
o Tyler, the Creator, “Yonkers” (2010)
o Marvin Gaye, “Got To Give It Up” (1977)
o Robin Thicke, “Blurred Lines” (2013, featuring
T.I. and Pharrell, produced by Pharrell Williams,
Marvin Gaye added as a writer due to lawsuit
over copyright infringement for “Got To Give It
Up,” 2015, currently being appealed)
 Additional listening
o The Kingston Trio, “Tom Dooley” (1958, based
on actual murder in North Carolina, recorded
versions by G. B. Grayson and Henry Whitter,
1928; field recording of Frank Proffitt, 1940,
recorded in 1961; Frank Warner, 1952; The
Folksay Trio, 1953; Paul Clayton, 1956; Lonnie
Donegan, 1958; Doc Watson, 1964)
o Chubby Checker, “The Twist” (1960, produced
by Dave Appell who performed in Jimmie
Lunceford Orchestra, released on Cameo-
Parkway, originally released by Hank Ballard
and the Midnighters, 1959)
o The Isley Brothers, “Twist and Shout” (1962,
originally recorded by The Top Notes, 1961, in
version produced by pre-Wall of Sound Phil
Spector)
o Sam Cooke, “Twistin’ the Night Away” (1962,
recorded with the “Wrecking Crew” studio
musicians, Los Angeles)
o The Drifters, “Up On The Roof” (1962, written
by Gerry Goffin and Carole King)
o The Ronettes, “Be My Baby” (1963, written by
 Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector,
produced by Phil Spector)
o The Crystals, “He’s a Rebel” (1962, uncredited
vocals by Darlene Love, written by Gene Pitney,
produced by Phil Spector); “Uptown” (1962,
written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil,
produced by Phil Spector); “Da Doo Run Run”
(1963, written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich
and Phil Spector, produced by Phil Spector)
o The Beach Boys, “Surfin’ USA” (1963); “In My
Room” (1963); “I Get Around” (1964);
“Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” (1966, Pet Sounds);
“God Only Knows” (1966, Pet Sounds); “Good
Vibrations” (1966, Smiley Smile)
o The Temptations, “My Girl” (1964, written and
produced by Smokey Robinson and Ronald
White, Motown)
o Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, “The Tracks
of My Tears” (1965, written by Smokey
Robinson, Pete Moore, and Marv Tarplin,
Motown)
o The Supremes, “Stop! In the Name of Love”
(1965, written by Holland–Dozier–Holland,
Motown); “You Can’t Hurry Love” (1966,
written by Holland–Dozier–Holland, Motown)
o Marvin Gaye, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved
By You” (1964, written by Holland-Dozier-
Holland); “Ain’t It Peculiar” (1965, written by
Smokey Robinson, Bobby Rogers, Pete Moore,
and Marv Tarplin); “Ain’t No Mountain High
Enough” (1967, with Tammi Terrell, written by
Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson); “I
Heard It Through the Grapevine” (1968, written
by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong,
compare to versions by Gladys Knight and the
Pips (1967), The Miracles (1968), and in
advertisement for California Raisins (1986));
“What’s Going On” (1971, written by Marvin
Gaye)
Tu
02/07 Twistin’: Teenage Symphonies, Hitsville USA, and More

The Rise of the “Auteur” Pop Star From Subcultures: The Beach Boys
Th and California Surfers—Dylan and the Folk Revival—The Beatles and
02/09 the British Invasion—Marvin Gaye at Motown

Fr
02/10 Discussion sections

Mo
02/13,
midni
ght. Assignment 02 Outline. Upload to Canvas

WEE
K 07 1960s Part 2

READING
 Hadju, Ch. 9, 151-170
 Michael Frisch, “Woodstock and Altamont,” in True Stories
From the American Past, Vol. II: Since 1865, ed. William
Graebner (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997), 210-231
 Michael J. Kramer, “The Wild West Festival Is You And Me
in a Cooperative Association,” in The Republic of Rock:
Music and Citizenship in the Sixties Counterculture (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 94-129
 Simon Frith, “‘The Magic That Can Set You Free’: The
Ideology of Folk and the Myth of the Rock Community,”
Popular Music 1, 1981, 159-168
 PRSR:
o 31. From R&B to Soul, Jerry Wexler and David
Ritz, from Rhythm and the Blues: A Life in
American Music
o 35. Aretha Franklin Earns Respect, Phyl Garland,
“Aretha Franklin-‘Sister Soul’: Eclipsed Singer
Gains New Heights”
o 36. The Beatles, the “British Invasion,” and
Cultural Respectability, William Mann, “What
Songs the Beatles Sang . . .,” Theodore Strongin,
“Musicologically . . .”
 o 37. A Hard Day’s Night and Beatlemania,
Andrew Sarris, “Bravo Beatles!,” Barbara
Ehrenreich, Elizabeth Hess, and Gloria Jacobs,
“Beatlemania: Girls Just Want to Have Fun”
o 38. England Swings, and the Beatles Evolve on
Revolver and Sgt. Pepper; Richard Goldstein,
“Pop Eye: On ‘Revolver'”; Jack Kroll, “It’s
Getting Better…”
o 39. The British Art School Blues, Ray Coleman,
“Rebels with a Beat”
o 40. The Stones versus the Beatles, Ellen Willis,
“Records: Rock, Etc.-the Big Ones”
o 41. If You’re Goin’ to San Francisco, Ralph J.
Gleason, “Dead Like Live Thunder”
o 42. The Kozmic Blues of Janis Joplin, Nat
Hentoff, “We Look at Our Parents and . . .”
o 43. Jimi Hendrix and the Electronic Guitar, Bob
Dawbarn, “Second Dimension: Jimi Hendrix in
Action”
o 46. Festivals: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,
J. R. Young, “Review of Various Artists,
Woodstock”, George Paul Csicsery, “Altamont,
California, December 6, 1969”
o 49. Sly Stone: “The Myth of Staggerlee,” Greil
Marcus, from Mystery Train: Images of America
in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music
LISTENING
 Hadju
o Julie Andrews, “The Rain In Spain” (1956,
from My Fair Lady, written by Alan Jay Lerner
and music by Frederick Loewe, based on George
Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion)
o Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, “Ohio” (1971)
o Chicago, “Saturday in the Park” (1972)
o David Bowie, “Ziggy Stardust” (1972);
“Starman” (1972)
o Gilbert and Sullivan, “Favorite Airs from The
Mikado” (1914, Edison Records)
o Sarah Vaughan, “Stairway to Paradise” (1957,
written by George Gershwin, 1922)
 o Ella Fitzgerald, “I Get a Kick Out of You” (1956,
written by Cole Porter, produced by Norman
Grantz); “Can’t Buy Me Love” (1964, compare
to The Beatles); “Sunshine of Your Love” (1968,
compare to Cream version)
o Cream, “Sunshine of Your Love”
(1968, Disraeli Gears); “Crossroads”
(1968, Wheels of Fire, compare to Robert
Johnson version)
o The Beatles, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club
Band” (1967, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club
Band); “Revolution” (1968, The Beatles (The
White Album)); “Back in the USSR” (1968, The
Beatles (The White Album)), all produced by
George Martin
o The Rolling Stones, “Street Fighting Man”
(1968, Beggars Banquet)
o Janis Joplin, “Piece of My Heart” (1968, Cheap
Thrill, compare to Erma Franklin version)
o Erma Franklin, “Piece of My Heart” (1967)
o Simon and Garfunkel, “The Sounds of Silence”
(1964, acoustic; 1966, with overdubbed band,
produced by Tom Wilson); “America” (1968)
o Les Paul and Mary Ford, “How High the Moon”
(1951)
o The Shangri-Las, “Leader of the Pack” (1964,
written by George “Shadow” Morton, Jeff Barry,
and Ellie Greenwich, produced by George
“Shadow” Morton)
o The Kinks, “Sunny Afternoon” (1966, Face to
Face)
o The Who, “Pinball Wizard” (1969)
o Various musicians, “Superstar” (1970,
from Jesus Christ Superstar, music by Andrew
Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice)
o Carole King, “It’s Too Late” (1971, Tapestry)
 Additional listening
o Sam Cooke, “You Send Me” (1957, produced by
Robert “Bumps” Blackwell); “A Change is
Gonna Come” (1964)
 o James Brown, “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”
(1966)
o Otis Redding, “Respect” (1965, written by Otis
Redding, Stax Records); Aretha Franklin,
“Respect” (1966, produced by Jerry Wexler,
recorded at Muscle Shoals Studios, Atlantic
Records);  The Rationals, “Respect” (1966)
o Jefferson Airplane, “White Rabbit”
(1967, Surrealistic Pillow)
o Grateful Dead, “The Golden Road (To Unlimited
Devotion)” (1967, Grateful Dead); “St. Stephen”
(1969, Live/Dead); “Turn on Your Love Light”
(1969, Live/Dead, originally recorded by Bobby
“Blue” Bland, 1961); “Uncle John’s Band”
(1970, Workingman’s Dead)
o The Doors, “Break on Through” (1968, The
Doors)
o The Temptations, “Cloud Nine” (1968, written
by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong,
produced by Norman Whitfield, Motown)
o Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Purple Haze” (1967,
Are You Experienced?); Jimi Hendrix, “Star
Spangled Banner/Purple Haze” (live at
Woodstock, 1969, released on Woodstock
album, 1970)
o Credence Clearwater Revival, “Fortunate Son”
(1969, Willie and the Poor Boys)
o Sly and the Family Stone, “Everyday People”
(1969, Stand!); “Don’t Call Me Nigga, Whitey”
(1969, Stand!)
VIEWING
 Woodstock, dir. Michael Wadleigh (1970)
 Gimme Shelter, dirs. Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte
Zwerin (1970)

Tu
02/14 R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Soul and Civil Rights in the Sixties

Th
02/16 Are You Experienced? Rock and the Youth Counterculture
WEE
K 08 1970s

READING
 Hadju, LFS, Ch. 10, Ch. 12, 171-184, 197-210
 Eric Weisbard, “It’s Whose Thing?: The Isley Brothers and
Rhythm and Blues,” in Top 40 Democracy: The Rival
Mainstreams of American Music (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2014), 28-69
 Jeff Chang, “Loop 1: Babylon Is Burning, 1968-1977,”
in Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop
Generation (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), 7-88
 PRSR:
o 47. The Sound of Autobiography: Singer-
Songwriters, Carole King, Robert Windeler,
“Carole King: ‘You Can Get to Know Me
through My Music’
o 52. Heavy Metal Meets the Counterculture, John
Mendelsohn, “Review of Led Zeppelin,” Ed
Kelleher, “Black Sabbath Don’t Scare Nobody”
o 57. Get On Up Disco, Andrew Kopkind, “The
Dialectic of Disco: Gay Music Goes Straight”
o 51. Parliament Drops the Bomb, W. A. Brower,
“George Clinton: Ultimate Liberator of
Constipated Notions”
o 56. The Global Phenomenon of Reggae, Robert
Hilburn, “Third-World Theme of Bob Marley”
o 58. Punk: The Sound of Criticism?, James
Wolcott, “A Conservative Impulse in the New
Rock Underground”
o 70. Hip-Hop, Don’t Stop, Robert Ford, Jr., “B-
Beats Bombarding Bronx: Mobile DJ Starts
Something with Oldie R&B Disks,” Robert Ford,
Jr. , “Jive Talking N.Y. DJs Rapping Away in
Black Discos”
o 71. “The Music Is a Mirror,” Harry Allen, “Hip
Hop Madness: From Def Jams to Cold Lampin’,
Rap Is Our Music,” Carol Cooper, “Girls Ain’t
Nothin’ but Trouble”
LISTENING
 Hadju
o New York Dolls, “Jet Boy” (1973, produced by
Todd Rundgren)
o The Dead Boys, “Sonic Reducer” (1977, Young,
Loud, and Snotty, written by David Thomas of
Rocket from the Tombs and Pere Ubu and
Cheetah Crome of Rocket from the Tombs and
Dead Boys, produced by Genya Ravan)
o Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers,
“Chinese Rocks” (1977, L.A.M.F., written by
Dee Dee Ramon and Richard Hell)
o David Bowie, “Heroes” (1977, Heroes, written
by David Bowie and Brian Eno, produced by
David Bowie and Tony Visconti)
o Iggy Pop, “Sister Midnight” (1977, The
Idiot, produced by David Bowie)
o The Ramones, “Blitzkrieg Bop” (1976); “Judy Is
a Punk” (1976); “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker”
(1977)
o Blondie, “One Way Or Another” (1978); “Heart
of Glass” (1978); “The Tide Is High” (1980,
cover of The Paragons, 1966); “I Feel Love”
(1977, Live cover of Donna Summer song)
o Donna Summer, “I Feel Love” (1977, written
and produced by Giorgio Moroder, 12-inch
extended mix release); “Bad Girls” (1979)
o Barry White, “Love’s Theme” (1974)
o Don McLean, “American Pie” (1971)
o Velvet Underground and Nico, “Sunday
Morning” (1967, written by Lou Reed and John
Cale, sung by Nico) “I’m Waiting For the Man”
(1967, written by Lou Reed); “Heroin” (1967,
written by Lou Reed)
o Patti Smith, “Gloria” (1975, Horses, produced by
John Cale)
o The Stooges, “No Fun” (1969, The Stooges,
produced by John Cale, lead singer Iggy Pop)
o James Brown, “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex
Machine” (1970)
o Sly Stone, “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf
 Agin)” (1969); “Thank You for Talkin’ to Me
Africa” (1971, There’s a Riot Goin’ On)
o Gloria Gaynor, “I Will Survive” (1978)
o Sylvester, “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”
(1978)
o D.O.A., “Disco Sucks” (1979)
o The Vectors, “Death to Disco” (1979)
o The Accident, “Kill the Bee Gees” (1979)
o Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, “The
Message” (1982)
o Kraftwerk, “Trans-Europe Express” (1976)
o Afrika Bambaattaa, “Planet Rock” (1982)
o Gil Scott-Heron, “The Revolution Will Not Be
Televised” (originally recorded in 1970
for Small Talk at 125th and Lenox; re-recorded
with full band, 1971, Pieces of a Man)
o KRS-One and Boogie Down Productions, “The
Bridge Is Over” (1987, note reference to Billy
Joel, “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”)
o Chic, “Good Times” (1979, lyrics based on
Depression era songs “Happy Days Are Here
Again,” 1929, written by Milton Ager and Jack
Yellen, as well “About a Quarter to Nine,”
written by Harry Warren and Al Durban for the
1933 musical 42nd Street, made famous by 1935
performance by Al Jolson, written and produced
by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards)
o Queen, “Another One Bites the Dust” (1980,
bassline inspired by “Good Times”)
o The Sugarhill Gang, “Rapper’s Delight” (1979,
produced by Sylvia Robinson of Mickey and
Sylvia, samples “Good Times”)
o Blondie, “Rapture” (1980, note Deborah Harry’s
rap and mention of “Fab Five” Freddie and
Grandmaster Flash)
o The Clash, “The Magnificent Seven”
(1980, Sandinista!)
o LL Cool J, “I Can’t Live Without My Radio”
(1985, Radio, produced by Rick Rubin and Jazzy
Jay
 o Notorious BIG, “Gimme the Loot” (1994, Ready
to Die, produced by Sean “Puffy” Combs and
others
o Lonnie Johnson, “Got the Blues for Murder
Only” (1930)
o Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, “Duncan and
Brady” (1947)
o Johnny Cash, “Folsom Prison Blues” (1957)
o Charles Ives, Symphony No. 2 (1897,1901)
o Miles Davis, “Serpent’s Tooth” (1953, featuring
Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins)
o Public Enemy, “Party for Your Right to Fight”
(1988, produced by Chuck D, Rick Rubin, Hank
Shocklee of the Bomb Squad); “Fight the Power”
(1989, produced with members of the Bomb
Squad)
o Kanye West, “Gold Digger” 2005, samples Ray
Charles, “I Got a Woman”)
 Additional listening
o Santana, “Oye Como Va” (1970, written by Tito
Puente, 1963)
o Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street
Rhythm Band, “Express Yourself” (1970)
o Led Zeppelin, “Rock ‘n’ Roll”; “Stairway to
Heaven” (1971, Led Zeppelin IV)
o Stevie Wonder, “Superstition” (1972, Talking
Book, 1972)
o The Staples Singers, “Respect Yourself” (1972)
o Townes Van Zandt, “Pancho and Lefty” (1972)
o Elton John, “Crocodile Rock” (1973, Don’t
Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player, lyrics by
Bernie Taupin)
o John Denver, “Thank God I’m a Country Boy”
(1974)
o The Eagles, “Hotel California” (1976, Hotel
California)
o Bob Marley, “Simmer Down” (1963/4, as The
Wailing Wailers, with Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh,
Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry
Smith, produced by Coxsone Dodd); “Get Up
 Stand Up” (1973, Burnin’, written with Peter
Tosh); “Trenchtown Rock” (1975, Live!); War”
(1976, Rastaman Vibration); “Africa Unite”
(1979, Survival); “Redemption Song”
(1980, Uprising)
o Sex Pistols, “God Save the Queen” (1977, Never
Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols)
o  The Clash, “1977” (1977, The Clash); “London
Calling” (1979, London Calling)
o Television, “See No Evil” (1977, Marquee
Moon, produced by Andy Johns)
o Talking Heads, “Psycho Killer” (1977, Talking
Heads: 77)
o Willie Colon and Ruben Blades, “Pedro Navaja”
(1978)
VIEWING
 Almost Famous, dir. Cameron Crowe (2000)
 Wild Style, dir. Charlie Ahearn (1982)

Tu Mainstream and Margin in the 1970s: AOR, Funk, Punk, Disco, and
02/21 More

Th
02/23 Two Turntables and a Microphone: The Rise of Hip Hop

Fr
02/24 Discussion sections.

Mo
02/27,
midni
ght. Assignment 02. Upload to Canvas

WEE
K 09 1980s-Present

READING
 Hadju, LFS, Ch. 11, Ch. 13, Coda, 185-196, 211-244
 John Seabrook, “The Song Machine,” New Yorker, 26 March
2012, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/03/26/the-
song-machine
 John Seabrook, “Blank Space: What Kind Of Genius Is Max
Martin?,” New Yorker, 30 September 2015,
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/blank-
space-what-kind-of-genius-is-max-martin
 Madonna, “Madonna’s Full Acceptance Speech at Billboard
Women in Music 2016,” Billboard, 13 December 2016,
http://www.billboard.com/video/madonnas-full-acceptance-
speech-at-billboard-women-in-music-2016-7624369
 Sady Doyle, “In Defense of the Spice Girls,” Rookie, 10
November 2011. http://www.rookiemag.com/2011/11/in-
defense-of-spice-girls/
 Jessica Rosenberg and Gitana Garofalo, “Riot Grrrl:
Revolutions from Within,” Signs 23, 3, Feminisms and
Youth Cultures (Spring 1998), 809-841
 PRSR:
o 62. Thriller Begets the “King of Pop”, Greg Tate,
“I’m White! What’s Wrong with Michael
Jackson”, Daryl Easlea, “Don’t Stop ‘Til You
Get Enough: Sweden Remembers the Times with
Michael Jackson”
o 63. Madonna and the Performance of Identity,
Camille Paglia, “Venus of the Radio Waves”
o 65. R&B in the 1980s: To Cross Over or Not to
Cross Over?, Nelson George, from The Death of
Rhythm and Blues
o 72. Where Rap and Heavy Metal Converge, Jon
Pareles, “There’s a New Sound in Pop Music:
Bigotry”
o 73. Hip-Hop into the 1990s: Gangstas, Fly Girls,
and the Big Bling-Bling, J. D. Considine, “Fear
of a Rap Planet”
o 79. Grunge Turns to Scrunge, Eric Weisbard,
“Over and Out: Indie Rock Values in the Age of
Alternative Million Sellers”
o 80. “We Are the World”?, George Lipsitz,
“Immigration and Assimilation: Rai, Reggae, and
Bhangramuffin”
o 82. Public Policy and Pop Music History Collide,
Jenny Toomey, “Empire of the Air”
o 85. Country in the Post-Urban Cowboy Era,
 Mark Cooper, “Garth Brooks: Meet Nashville’s
New Breed Of Generously Stetsoned Crooner”
o 86. Performance as Simulacrum, Boy Bands, and
Other 21st-Century Epiphanies, Joshua Clover,
“Jukebox Culture: How I Learned to Stop
Worrying and Love the Boy Band,” Nina C.
Ayoub, “Idol Pursuits”
o 88. The End of History, the Mass-Marketing of
Trivia, and a World of Copies without Originals,
Jay Babcock, “The Kids Aren’t All Right
They’re Amazing,” Robert Everett-Green,
“Ruled by Frankenmusic,” Eliot Van Buskirk,
“Why File Sharing Will Save Hollywood,
Music”
LISTENING
 Hadju
o Cher, “Believe” (1998, Believe)
o Jeremih (Featuring YG), “Don’t Tell ‘Em”
(2014, Late Nights)
o Kid Ink, “Money and the Power” (2013, My
Own Lane)
o Ke$ha, “Tik Tok” (2010, Animal, written with
Dr. Luke and Benny Bianco, produced by Dr.
Luke and Benny Bianco)
o Beyoncé, featuring Jay-Z, “Drunk in Love”
(2013, Beyoncé, produced by Timbaland and
others)
o Nicki Minaj, “Sex in the Lounge” (2012, Pink
Friday: Roman Reloaded, featuring Lil Wayne
and Bobby V)
o Tina Turner, “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”
(1984, Private Dancer, written and produced by
Terry Britten)
o Marvin Gaye, “Let’s Get It On” (1973, Let’s Get
It On)
o KC and the Sunshine Band, “That’s The Way (I
Like It)” (1975, At the Time)
o Katy Perry, “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” (2010,
Teenage Dream, produced by Dr. Luke and Max
Martin)
 o Leslie Gore, “You Don’t Own Me” (1963,
producer Quincy Jones)
o Lorde, “Royals” (2013, Pure Heroine)
o Kendrick Lamar, “Alright” (2015, To Pimp a
Butterfly, produced by Pharrell Williams); “The
Blacker the Berry,” (2015, To Pimp a Butterfly,
produced by Boi)
o Taylor Swift, “Bad Blood” (2014, 1989,
featuring Kendrick Lamar, produced by Martin,
Shellback, Ilya)
o Rolling Stones, “Ruby Tuesday” (1967); “Let’s
Spend the Night Together” (1967)
 Additional listening
o Michael Jackson, “Thriller” (1982, Thriller);
“Man in the Mirror” (1987, Bad, produced by
Quincy Jones)
o The Eurythmics, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of
This)” (1983)
o Van Halen, “Jump” (1984, 1984)
o Bruce Springsteen, “Born in the USA” (1984,
Born in the USA, produced by former rock critic
and Springsteen manager Jon Landau, among
others); “Born in the USA” (acoustic demo,
1982)
o David Bowie, “Let’s Dance” (1983, Let’s Dance,
produced by Nile Rodgers)
o Madonna, “Like a Virgin” (1984, Like a Virgin,
produced by Nile Rodgers); “Vogue” (1990, I’m
Breathless); “What It Feels Like for a Girl”
(2000)
o Prince, “When Doves Cry” (1984, Purple Rain)
o U2, “(Pride) In the Name of Love” (1984, The
Unforgettable Fire, produced by Brian Eno and
Daniel Lanois)
o Run D.M.C., “King of Rock” (1985, King of
Rock, produced by Russell Simmons)
o Beastie Boys, “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right
(To Party)” (1986, Licensed To Ill, produced by
Rick Rubin); “Shake Your Rump” (1989, Paul’s
Boutique, produced by Beastie Boys, Dust
 Brothers, and Mario Caldato Jr.)
o Run D.M.C., featuring Aerosmith, “Walk This
Way” (1986)
o Salt N Peppa, “Push It” (1987)
o NWA, “Fuck the Police” (1988, Straight Outta
Compton, produced by Dr. Dre, Easy E, and
others); “Express Yourself” (1988, Straight Outta
Compton, produced by Dr. Dre, Easy E, and
others)
o De La Soul, “Me Myself and I” (1989, 3 Feet
High and Rising, produced by Prince Paul)
o A Tribe Called Quest, “Jazz (We’ve Got)” (1991,
Low End Theory)
o Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991,
Nevermind, produced by Butch Vig)
o Bikini Kill, “Rebel Girl” (1993)
o Queen Latifah, “U.N.I.T.Y.” (1993)
o Hole, “Asking For It” (1994, Live Through This)
o No Doubt, “Just a Girl” (1995)
o TLC, “No Scrubs” (1999)
o Destiny’s Child, “Independent Women, Pt 1”
(2000, Survivor and Charlie’s Angels
soundtrack)
o Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg, “Nothin’ But a G
Thang” (1992, The Chronic)
o Tupac Shakur (2Pac), “Dear Mama” (1995, Me
Against The World)
o Puff Daddy featuring The Notorious BIG, The
LOX & Lil’ Kim, “It’s All About the
Benjamins” (1997, No Way Out)
o Spice Girls, “Wannabe” (1996, Spice)
o Radiohead, “Karma Police” (1997, OK
Computer)
o Backstreet Boys, “I Want It That Way” (1999,
Millennium)
o Britney Spears, “…Baby One More Time”
(1998, …Baby One More Time, produced by
Max Martin and Rami); “Oops!…I Did It Again”
(2000, Oops!…I Did It Again, produced by Max
Martin)
 o Christina Aguilera featuring Lil’ Kim, “Can’t
Hold Us Down” (2002, Stripped)
o Katy Perry, “I Kissed a Girl” (2008, One of the
Boys, written by, among others, Max Martin,
produced by Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco)
o Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera, “Moves
Like Jagger” (2011, Hands All Over, produced
by Shellback and Benny Blanco)
o Taylor Swift, “Shake It Off” (2014, 1989, written
by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, and Shellback,
produced by Max Martin and Shellback)
o Beyoncé, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”
(2008, I Am… Sasha Fierce, written by Beyoncé
Knowles along with Thaddis Laphonia “Kuk”
Harrell and producers Christopher “Tricky”
Stewart, Terius “The Dream” Nash);
“Formation” (2016, Lemonade, written with
Khalif Brown, among others, and produced by
Beyoncé Knowles, Mike Will Made It (Michael
Len Williams II), Andre “A+” Levins, and
others)
VIEWING
 Purple Rain, dir. Albert Magnoli (1984)
 The Punk Singer: A Documentary Film About Kathleen
Hanna, dir. Sini Anderson (2014)
 Optional: 1991: The Year Punk Broke, dir. Dave Markey
(1992)

Tu Video Killed the Radio Star: The 1980s //

02/28 Indie Nations/Corporate World: 1990s

Th Guest Lecture—Alana Toulin, Rebel Girls, Pop Tarts and Problematic

03/02 Faves: Women, Gender and Power in American Music, 1980s to present

Fr Discussion sections
03/03  

Mo Assignment 03 Outline. Upload to Canvas

03/06,
midni
 ght

Tu “Sampling” Recent Pop Music History: The Expansion of Compression

03/07 —Pop Music Formats in the New Millennium

We 03
/15
midni
ght Assignment 03. Upload to Canvas
Expectations
Attendance: Students are expected to attend all lectures and discussion sections. If a
student misses more than three meetings, the instructor reserves the right to issue a
failing grade.
Reading: This course features roughly 100-150 pages of reading a week.
Listening/Viewing: Multimedia is an essential part of this course for obvious reasons.
Be sure to complete the listening and viewing assignments as well as your readings. In
a course on popular music, it would be a shame to privilege reading over other modes
of communication, expression, argument, and experience!
Assignments: Students must complete all assignments to pass the course. These are
designed to be fun, but they are also demanding—and perhaps for some, frustrating.
Rather than test the breadth of your absorption of course materials, the assignments
test your ability to wield specific knowledge of US popular music effectively in order
to mount compelling, evidence-based arguments. If this mode of evaluation is not to
your tastes, do not take the course.
Please be aware that historical analysis and musical analysis are not a science in the
strict sense of the term. There is no purely objective, machine-like way to develop
interpretation within the traditions of historical or musical meaning-making. This
means there is not some perfectly standardized way to evaluate your work. There is,
however, a craft to this mode of thinking, writing, and reasoning. It is that craft that
we will use evaluations to help you access, participate in, and through which you can
improve your capabilities as an observer, thinker, and writer. Your task is to develop
effective and compelling evidence-based arguments informed by historical awareness
and thinking. These will often work by applying your judgment and assessment to
consider how things connect or contrast to each other: how do different or similar
songs, performers, genres, historical moments, geographic locations, etc., relate to
each other? And most importantly, why? Additionally, your task in this course is not
to treat popular music merely as a reflection of larger phenomenon, but rather as
a shaping agent of historical activities: music not as a mirror, but as a vessel of
historical meaning and action.
Rubric: Your assignments must be well written in order to communicate a convincing,
compelling, and precise argument that is driven by our description of and analysis of
meaning in materials drawn from the course (and other sources if needed). Evaluation
of assignments is based on the following rubric: (1) presence of an articulated
argument, (2) presence of evidence, (3) compelling and precise connection of
evidence to argument by comparing and contrasting details and their significance, and
(4) logical flow and grace of prose: an effective opening introduction; the presence of
clear topic sentences; the presence of effective transitions from one part of the
assignment to the next; a compelling conclusion.
If you have any questions about evaluation in the course geared at helping you access
and develop the craft of historical analysis, please speak with the instructor or
teaching assistant.
Please submit your essay through the course Canvas website.
Late/Extension Policy: Please communicate with your instructor or teaching assistant
ahead of time if you require an extension for an essay. Reasonable, occasional
requests will be granted, but may involve a slight deduction in points to be fair to
students who complete work on time. Late assignments without extensions granted
will lose 1/4 point per day.
Quizzes/Short Assignments: There may be a number of quizzes and shorter
assignments in this course. They will be evaluated as part of your participation grade.
History Department Writing Center: The History Department Writing Center is
available for students working on your assignments. It is not merely for students
having difficulty with their writing (we all have difficulty with our writing for it is
difficult to write well), but also for students at any level or stage of the writing
process: reading evidence, “brainstorming,” generating an argument, connecting
argument to evidence, structuring paragraphs and transitions, and improving style and
tone. Students wishing to contact the History Department Writing Center can email
historywriting@northwestern.edu. There is also the Writing Place, another excellent
resource for improving your thinking and writing about historical topics,
http://www.writing.northwestern.edu.
Academic Integrity: All Weinberg College and Northwestern policies concerning
plagiarism and academic dishonesty are strictly enforced in this course. The instructor
also reserves the right to assign a failing grade for the course if a student is found to
have violated college or university policy concerning academic integrity. See
http://www.weinberg.northwestern.edu/handbook/integrity/ for more details.
Special Needs: Students with special needs and disabilities that have been declared
and documented through the Northwestern Office of Services for Students with
Disabilities (SSD) should meet with the instructor to discuss any specific
accommodations. For further information, see the Office of Services for Students with
Disabilities (SSD) website: http://www.northwestern.edu/disability.
Evaluation
Assignment 01: 15%
Assignment 02: 15%
Assignment 03: 30%
Assignment Outlines: 5% x 3 = 15%
Class/discussion section attendance/participation (including shorter assignments as
necessary): 25%.
Assignments receive grades as both a letter grade (on the scale below) and a point
system within the course percentages per assignment. Since assignments are weighted
differently, the scales varies as to points given per assignment, but they all translate to
the following 100-point scale in terms of letter grades.
93 and above – A
90-92 – A-
87-89 – B+
84-86 – B
80-83 – B-
77-79 – C+
74-76 – C
70-73 – C-
65-69 – D
65 and below – F
Assignments 
Outlines
The outline assignments are designed to help you begin to organize your
interpretation, evidence, and argumentation (the linking of evidence to support an
interpretation) leading up to writing each essay for the course. They ask you to begin
to map out the contours of your essay. They should take the following form: (1) a
tentative title, (2) a hypothesis, (3) outline of body paragraphs, each with a topic
sentence and planned evidence that will be used to support interpretation put forward
in topic sentence.
(1) Tentative title of essay
(2) Hypothesis (1-2 sentences or clauses).
What is the overarching contention of your essay in response to the prompt? What
material will you use to support this argument? Are you explaining why or how the
argument arises from the evidence? Most crucially, are you developing
a historical argument based on your evidence, one that rigorously and compellingly
connects, locates, links, and shows the relationship between your evidence and a
historical moment, era, or time period and what how it has been understood by
previous historians? It is often useful to develop an argument as a statement and then
add the word “because” to explain the how or why—the justification—of your link
from evidence to argument. The hypothesis, in bold in the example below, will most
often form the eventual thesis for your essay, perhaps with a snappy opening line.
Don’t worry if you only partially begin to develop your hypothesis—that’s the point
here: to try to get started on articulating an interpretation in a compelling and cogent
form. It’s not easy to do and it usually takes a few tries to arrive at something worth
saying.
Example of an opening paragraph with thesis: The taboo blackface minstrel show of
the rowdy nineteenth century theater seems so different from the sentimental piano
playing of the parlor in the nineteenth century middle-class home, however Stephen
Foster’s music forces us to reconsider these distinctions. His career exemplifies the
surprising confluence of blackface minstrelsy’s transgressions with the constraints of
respectability and decorum emerging in the dominant middle-class culture of
modernizing America. Because songs such as “Oh Susannah” and “The Old Folks At
Home” musically modeled how participants in middle-class white American society
could balance fantasies of wild freedom and release with the need for security and
stability, they not only harmonized contradictory elements in Foster’s personal life,
but also in the broader culture of the nineteenth-century United States [note: this claim
is what I will need to support in the rest of the essay with evidence and
argumentation]. In doing so, Foster’s music suggests we revise our assumptions about
the incompatibility of the blackface minstrel show’s vulgar roughness with middle-
class sentimentalism and supposed refinement.
(3) Body paragraphs (2-3 in shorter assignments, 3-6 or more in longer assignments),
each with (a) topic sentence and (b) outline of evidence to be used. Each should have
a tentative topic sentence and supporting evidence (1-2 examples of evidence to
support the topic sentence).
(a) Topic sentences. As with your hypothesis, your topic sentence should strive to
explain the point of its subsequent paragraph and the how or why justifying the
argument put forward.
Example: Stephen Foster’s first big hit as a commercial songwriter, “Oh Susannah”
mingled desires escape with notions of discovering home; it did so by oddly mapping
the idealized bourgeois home of middle-class whites onto a fantastical version of the
Southern slave plantation.
(b) Evidence. Evidence can be a short quotation, description of song or performance
material on audio, in an image, or a film clip, etc. You can provide an excerpt of it in
outline with the reference information.
Example: The lyric “I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee” condenses the
flight from home while the vision of locating Susannah and particularly the recurring
idea she is crying for the singer suggests a vision of searching for, and perhaps
arriving in, a secure, sentimentalized domestic relationship. Fleeing and reconstituting
home blur in the song’s story, which becomes a displaced proxy for the contradictions
between seeking freedom from the bourgeois home and securing it in the disorienting
culture of industrializing, urbanizing nineteenth-century America. It is no accident,
perhaps, that the singer is moving from rural Alabama to urban New Orleans.
Assignment 01
Write an imitation of a Tin Pan Alley song. You will not be evaluated for the quality
of your hit-making songwriting skills, but rather for your explanation of how and why
your imitation resembles a Tin Pan Alley standard. Have fun with your imitation, try
to pay attention to the themes, styles, rhymes, and tones of the quintessential Tin Pan
Alley song. To accompany your Tin Pan Alley imitation, in 500-750
words approximately, explain precisely and compellingly how your lyric relates to the
content and context of the Tin Pan Alley song as a historical phenomenon. You might
even use the moments when your imitation does not seem accurate to you as
opportunities to explain what the Tin Pan Alley song was all about in its time,
location, and context. Be sure to justify the choices you made in relation to specific
examples and aspects of Tin Pan Alley songwriting and its historical context from
lecture, readings, viewings, and/or audio selections. Refer to assignment rubric under
Expectations section of syllabus for more information and guidelines. For more on
this assignment, read Michael J. Kramer, “Tunesmithing History,” Issues in Digital
History, https://www.michaeljkramer.net/tunesmithing-history/.
Assignment 02 
You have been asked by a recording label to write an essay and construct an annotated
Spotify playlist of 5-10 songs revolving around a particular artist, group, producer,
record label, or other topic between 1840 and 1960. Your assignment is to (1) create
the annotated playlist in Canvas (1-3 sentences of description and justification of
selection per track), and follow it with (2) an analytic essay of up to 1000-1500 words.
The recording company insists that your essay must offer a compelling, precise, and
clear evidence-based argument as to the historical significance of your profile topic.
In other words, the “suits” (the executives) want to know what their customers can
learn about the larger story of US history from studying the story you will tell in your
annotated playlist and analytic essay about the playlist. Your annotated tracks can
form part of your evidentiary base, along with specific evidence from the readings,
listening, viewing, and lectures.
Your essay should emphasize how your profile topic relates to a specific theme from
the course: why does it matter to the larger history of popular music in the United
States between 1840 and 1960? How does your pop music topic not only “reflect” that
larger history, but also embody, raise the stakes of, even drive that larger story?
Instructions for assembling and embedding Spotify playlist are below; you may create
an actual playlist or, if for some reason you are not able to do so, you may simply
create an annotated playlist in the text entry box (in other words do not spend time if
you hit technical difficulties; privilege the historical and interpretive work and spend
your time on that!).
Refer to assignment rubric under the Expectations section of syllabus for more
information and guidelines. For more about the intent of the assignment, read Michael
J. Kramer, “Spotify Playlists for Historical Analysis,” Issues in Digital History, 8
February 2016, https://www.michaeljkramer.net/spotify-playlists-for-historical-
analysis/.
USING SPOTIFY:
-Log in to or create a free account at Spotify web player (or download the Spotify
app) at https://play.spotify.com.
-Click on “Your Music” on the lefthand column.
-Click on “New Playlist” and Create a playlist name.
-Use the Search function on lefthand column to locate songs you wish to add.
-Move cursor over the three dots next to song name to open up menu. Select Add to
and then when next menu opens up add the song to the playlist you have created.
-Click on “Your Music” and go to your playlist.
-Next to each track (not for the playlist as a whole), move cursor to the three buttons
and select “Copy Spotify URL.”
-Go to this webpage, https://developer.spotify.com/technologies/widgets/spotify-play-
button/.
. Paste in the Spotify URL to generate the embed code. Select and cut the embed code
to paste in to your Canvas assignment.
-You will write your canvas assignment directly in the HTML page as a “Text Entry.”
-To paste in your Spotify track as an embedded file, you must switch to the “HTML
editor” function, which lets you paste in the embed code (which should look
something like this: <iframe src=”https://embed.spotify.com/?
uri=spotify:track:7GBk90STM3d2BsNomTnpve” width=”300″ height=”380″
frameborder=”0″ allowtransparency=”true”></iframe>). Click on “HTML editor” to
paste in code. Once you do so you can switch back to “Rick content editor” to write
your annotations of the text and your essay (the embed will show up as a gray box).
-You can also assemble your embed code, annotations, and essay in a text file or MS
Word and then paste the entire document into the HTML Editor setting on the Text
Entry page. This will prevent you from accidentally deleting or losing any of your
work. If you do be sure to switch back to the “Rich content editor” function to make
sure your assignment is rendering correctly.
-Be sure to submit your assignment. You can revise it up until the deadline.
-You are now a computer programmer! (And you thought that you wouldn’t be
acquiring useful computer skills in a pop music course!)
-It is acceptable if you run into technical difficulties to create a text version of your
song tracks and annotations and essay. Give the technical part a try and see if you can
do it; if not, spend your time on the content of the assignment.
Assignment 03
In 2000-2500 words, develop an analytic essay about one genre of American popular
music since 1960. Your essay must focus on the relationship of this genre to larger
cultural issues in the United States: what did this genre do as an active agent in the
shaping of US history? What can we learn about US history through the “amplifier” of
this genre? How does this genre relate to other genres of American popular music?
Which performers or songs or labels, etc., best exemplify the genre and why? How
stable is this genre, or do the performers, songs, sounds, labels, stories that constitute
it raise questions about how genres themselves get constructed within US popular
music history? Your essay must offer a clear, compelling, and precise argument that is
driven by explications of specific evidence. You only need to draw upon material
from the course, but you may also pursue outside sources as well if you wish to do so
through additional research. Refer to assignment rubric under Expectations section of
syllabus for more information and guidelines for essays.
 
1 thought on “Syllabus—US Popular Music History” 

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