The Politics of Contemporary Black Popular Music

AfAm 327 Fall 2013

Professor Weheliye

T/Th 11:00-12:20

The Politics of Contemporary Black Popular Music

This course provides an introduction to the history of black popular music since the1970s, focusing primarily on sound cultures from the US, Caribbean, and Western Europe. We will begin by studying the mixing techniques developed in Reggae (dub), Disco (remix), and Hip-Hop (scratching and sampling) to discuss how they have shaped popular music since the1970s. We will then survey these genres as well as the histories of R&B, House and Techno and some of their many offshoots (Jungle & Dubstep, for instance) have developed over the last 30 years to ask how popular music functions as one of the main channels of communication among the cultures of the African diaspora. Overall, this course investigates the aesthetic, political, cultural, and economic dimensions of black popular music, paying particular attention to questions of gender, sexuality, class, nation, language, and technology.

Requirements

*Regular attendance

*Essay

*Final multimedia project & presentation

*Weekly blog posts/responses

*In-class participation

*Twitter moderation and responses

*Creating or editing three Wikipedia entries related to the course topic

Grading

Essay, Multimedia Project/Presentation, Blog Posts, and Wikipedia Entries 70%

In-class Participation, Twitter, and Attendance 30%

Rules

*Laptops may only be used for class related activities; otherwise they will be taken away.

*Cell phones and other mobile devices may be used for course related Tweeting during class time

*You are required to bring reading materials to class, either in hard copy or electronic form.

*Please familiarize yourself with the “Avoiding Plagiarism” document posted on the Lore Website site.

*Attendance is mandatory. Missing more than one class will result in a lower grade.

*Though the topic is ‘fun,’ which it no doubt is, studying popular music requires a particular thoughtfulness, because we are surrounded by it everywhere.

*In-class/online behavior should be based on mutual respect. I encourage and appreciate active, informed, and critical interchanges during our discussions, but these should be conducted in a manner that is considerate of others. This means that we should not use discriminatory and non-inclusive language whenever possible, even if we encounter this language in some of the materials on the syllabus. If you are unsure about using any particular terms, I encourage you to ask about them.

Quarter Schedule

Please note: the most up-to-date version of the quarter schedule will always be available online.

Tuesday 9/24 Course Introduction

Thursday 9/26 Gilroy-The Black Atlantic Chapters 1& 3

Noah Sow: Not Exactly Mainstream: 30 Years of Afrodeutsche Artistic Production

5:00pm - 7:00pm

Hagstrum Room, University Hall 201

Tuesday 10/1 Iton-In Search of the Black Fantastic Chapter 5

Thursday 10/3 Disco: Lawrence, “Disco & the Queering of the Dance Floor;” Dyer, “In Defence of Disco;” Shapiro, “Disco: Playing With a Different Sex;”

Film: The Joy of Disco: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zQpMnU6N4o

Tuesday 10/8 Disco: Brewster & Broughton, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life pp.106-162; Lawrence-Love Saves The Day Chapters 6 & 7

Thursday 10/10 Hip-Hop: Brewster & Broughton, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life pp.165-210; Schloss, "It's about Playing Records."

Film: Wild Style

Tuesday 10/15 Hip-Hop: Flores, “Puerto Rocks-Rap, Roots, and Amnesia;” Rose, “Never Trust a Big Butt and a Smile;” Judy, “On the Question of Nigga Authenticity.”

Thursday 10/17 Reggae: Brewster & Broughton, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life pp. 93-105; Eshun, “Inner Spatializing the Song”

Film-Dub Stories:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6Eet-sm8Yw

Tuesday 10/22 Reggae: Veal, “Starship Africa;” Chude-Sokei-“Roots Diaspora and Possible Africas;” Bush, “The Story of Jamaican Dub Reggae and Its Legacy”: http://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/bush.html

Film: Dub Echoes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGIqnGEcCbo&feature=youtu.be

Thursday 10/24 R&B: Nelson, The Death of Rhythm & Blues (Chapter 7: Assimilation Triumphs, Retronuevo Rises); Neal, Looking for Leroy (Chapter 5: “Fear of a Queer Soul Man: The Legacy of Luther Vandross”).

Film: Urban Soul: Stories On The Making of Modern R&B Parts 1-7: http://www.vh1.com/video/misc/181187/urban-soul-part-1.jhtml

Essay Due

Tuesday 10/29 R&B: Bradley, “Living for the Weekender: BritFunk Chanting Down the Discos;” Neal, “Rhythm and Bullshit?: The Slow Decline of R&B;” Harvey, “The Quiet Storm”: http://pitchfork.com/features/underscore/8822-quiet-storm-tk-tk-tk/

Thursday 10/31 House/Techno: Reynolds, “A Tale of Three Cities: Detroit Techno, Chicago House & New York Garage;” Brewster & Broughton, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life pp. 230-248.

Film-Pump Up the Volume: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw-tRL9PUNg

Tuesday 11/5 Black Rock & Funk: Royster, “P–Funk’s Black Masculinity and the Performance of Imaginative Freedom;” Eshun, “Mixadelic Universe;” Mahon, “Black Like this: Race, Generation, & Rock in the Post-Civil Rights Era.”

Film: Tales of Dr. Funkenstein: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKfQRU5KKao

Thursday 11/7 Hip-Hop: Kelley, “Kickin' Reality, Kickin' Ballistics;” Miller, Bounce: Rap Music and Local Identity in New Orleans (Introduction); Sarig, Third Coast: OutKast, Timbaland, and How Hip-Hop Became a Southern Thing (Introduction).

Tuesday 11/12 Hip-Hop: Perry, “Bling Bling … and Going Pop Consumerism and Co-optation in Hip Hop;” Sharpley-Whiting, ““I See the Same Ho”

Video Vixens, Beauty Culture, & Diasporic Sex Tourism;” Clay, “Queer Women of Color and Hip-Hop Masculinity”

Film: Hip Hop-Beyond Beats and Rhymes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW_Xbj0zNMQ

Thursday 11/14 R&B: Hanchard, “Jody;” Brooks, “Itʼs Not Right But Itʼs Okay;” Gilroy, “After the Love Has Gone.”

Tuesday 11/19 R&B: Bat, “What is Hypersoul?” Weheliye, “Desiring Machines in Black Popular Music;” Thomas, “Queens of Consciousness & Sex-Radicalism in Hip-Hop: on Erykah Badu & The Notorious K.I.M.”

Thursday 11/21 NO CLASS

Tuesday 11/26 Techno: Brewster & Broughton, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life pp. 250-262; Schaub, “Beyond the Hood? Detroit Techno, Underground Resistance, and African American Metropolitan Identity Politics.”

Film: High Tech Soul the Creation of Techno Music http://vimeo.com/2342523

Thursday 11/28 NO CLASS – THANKSGIVING

Tuesday 12/3 Jungle, Garage, Dubstep: Reynolds, “Roots ’n’ Future: Jungle Takes Over London” & “Two Steps Beyond: UK Garage and 2step;” Flatley, “Beyond Lies the Wub: a History of Dubstep”: http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/28/3262089/history-of-dubstep-beyond-lies-the-wub

Films:

Jungle Fever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pboSETUoSko&feature=youtu.be

History of the "Amen Break": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac

Rewind 4ever: The History of UK Garage

Thursday 12/5 Final Presentations