MUS 3.01 African-American Music
What is “African American music”? What is “black music”? What does African American music reveal about race, culture, and American society? And why has African American music, perhaps more than any other music, moved with such energy, crossing boundaries of nation, race, ethnicity, and been taken up with passion and commitment by people in so many parts of the world? We address these and other core questions as they emerge from specific historic and ethnographic case studies, examining music in an interdisciplinary critical framework that attends to both its aesthetic, experiential, and political meanings. We investigate select African American musical genres in both the U.S. and in global contexts. The course is divided into four units on blues, jazz, rock and hip hop, focusing on themes of text and intertextuality, improvisation and dialogue, technology and sampling. In addition, we address these genres as they are taken up in other parts of the world. Case studies will include blues in the U.K. and Tibet, jazz in France and Japan, and hip hop in Burma and South Africa. Texts, performances, media, in-class workshops all form an integral part of this course.
Cross Listed Courses
AAAS 81.06