The Politics of Contemporary Black Popular Music (2017)

AfAm 327 Fall 2017

Professor Weheliye

TA: Jared Richardson

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 & Afrobeats, 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 group project and presentation

*Weekly blog posts/responses

*In-class participation

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

Grading

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

Participation 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 should be turned off 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.

*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, you should ask about them.

Students with Disabilities

Any student requesting accommodations related to a disability or other condition is required to register with Services for Students with Disabilities (ssd@northwestern.edu; 847-467-5530) and provide professors with an accommodation notification from SSD, preferably within the first two weeks of class. For more information: http://www.northwestern.edu/disability. All information will remain confidential. I can best accommodate students if they let me or the TA know about their specific needs related to learning and fulfilling the requirements of the course.

Quarter Schedule

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

Tuesday 9/19 Course Introduction

Thursday 9/21 Gilroy, The Black Atlantic Chapters 1& 3

Tuesday 9/26 Henriques, “Sonic Diaspora, Vibrations and Rhythm” & Walcott, “’Keep on Movin’: Rap, Black Atlantic Identities and the Problem of Nation”

Thursday 9/28 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

Tuesday, 10/3 Disco: Brewster & Broughton, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life pp.106-162; Lawrence-Love Saves the Day Chapter 5

Film: The Secret Disco Revolution

Thursday, 10/5 Hip-Hop: Brewster & Broughton, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life pp.165-210; Schloss, "It's about Playing Records."

Film: Wild Style (Canvas)

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

Film: Dub Echoes

Thursday, 10/12 Reggae: Veal, “Starship Africa;” Chude-Sokei, “Roots Diaspora and Possible Africas.”

Tuesday, 10/17 Hip-Hop/Reggae: Nyong’o, “Queer Assemblages” & Ellis, “Out and Bad:Toward a Queer Performance Hermeneutics in Jamaican Dancehall.”

Film: Out and Bad: London's LGBT Dancehall Scene

Thursday, 10/19 Hip-Hop: Clay, “Queer Women of Color and Hip-Hop Masculinity” & Hardy, “Punks Jump Up to Get Theirs.”

Film: Hip Hop-Beyond Beats and Rhymes

Essay due at 5pm via Canvas Website

Tuesday, 10/24 Shange, “A King Named Nicki: Strategic Queerness and the Black Femmecee,” Shorey, Queer Rap is Not Queer Rap,

Thursday, 10/26 R&B: Nelson, The Death of Rhythm & Blues (Chapter 7: Assimilation Triumphs, Retronuevo Rises); Harvey, The Quiet Storm

Film: Urban Soul: Stories On the Making of Modern R&B Parts 1-7

Tuesday, 10/31 R&B: Bat, “What is Hypersoul?” Lindsey, “If You Look in My Life: Love, Hip-Hop Soul, and Contemporary African American Womanhood;” Brooks, “Itʼs Not Right But Itʼs Okay.”

Thursday, 11/2 Britfunk & Lover’s Rock: Strachan, “Britfunk: Black British Popular Music, Identity and the Recording Industry in the Early 1980s” & Palmer, “‘Men Cry Too’: Black Masculinities and the Feminisation of Lovers Rock in the UK.”

Film: Young Soul Rebels (Canvas)

Tuesday, 11/7 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

Thursday 11/9 No Class

Tuesday, 11/14 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

Thursday, 11/16 Hip-Hop: Safy-Hallan Farah, Poetic Justice: Drake and East African Girls & Toronto World: Drake, Halal Gang, and the Diaspora in the 6; Campbell, “An Afrodiasporic Versioning of Black Canada.”

Tuesday, 11/21 Jungle: Reynolds, “Roots ’n’ Future: Jungle Takes Over London” & Zuberi, “Black Whole Styles”

Films: Jungle Fever

History of the "Amen Break"

Thursday, 11/23 NO CLASS: National Genocide Remembrance day

Tuesday, 11/28 UK Garage: Reynolds, “Two Steps Beyond: UK Garage and 2step”

Film: Rewind 4ever: The History of UK Garage

Thursday, 11/30 Afrobeats: Boima Tucker, At the Crossroads of BET, Afrobeats, and #BlackLivesMatter; Dan Hancox, It's Called Afrobeats and It's Taking Over London; Shipley, “Transnational circulation and digital fatigue in Ghana's Azonto dance craze;” David Drake, Pop Music's Nigerian Future

Tuesday, 12/5 Final Presentations