DRAFT SYLLABUS 11/1/16 - SUBJECT TO CHANGE

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1 Black Sound Music 1922 DRAFT SYLLABUS 11/1/16 - SUBJECT TO CHANGE Brown University, Spring 2017 Orwig 109 Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1:00pm 2:20pm Kiri Miller kiri_miller@brown.edu Orwig 208 Cora Johnson-Roberson corajr@brown.edu Orwig 306 Course Description How might sound studies resonate queerly when heard through racialized ears? In this seminar we will intervene in the developing interdisciplinary field of sound studies by bringing the analytic framework of blackness to bear on its core topics, including voice, audio technologies, soundscapes, listening practices, and sound s relationship with modernity. We will explore ideas about black sound (and black ideas about sound) through listenings and readings from popular music studies, ethnomusicology, media studies, performance studies, and critical race theory, foregrounding the intersection of race with gender and sexuality throughout. You will typically need to read one to two articles or book chapters before each meeting. In addition, you will often need to read/view/listen to supplemental media assigned in the syllabus or by your classmates. You will write 10 critical reviews over the semester on readings of your choice, as well as a brief sonic analysis in the middle of the term. Twice during the term, you and a partner will serve as discussion leaders for half a class on one of our Thursday class meetings. Over the course of the semester, you will be developing a final project, the results of which will be shared with the class in a presentation at the end of the term. Workload Expectations This class requires 180 hours of work over the 14-week semester: 35 hours in class (80 minutes x 26 class meetings) 90 hours for readings, media, critical reviews (7.5 hours/week x 12 weeks) 40 hours for final projects (5 hours/week x 8 weeks) 8 hours for sonic analysis and comments 7 hours for discussion leading prep Course Materials All course readings will be available through OCRA. Please read and annotate them thoroughly (electronically or by hand) so that they are at your disposal during our class discussions. Some days will also have media to be watched/listened to ahead of time, through links made available on the course wiki.

2 Assignment Descriptions critical review: You will write brief reviews of 10 readings over the course of the term. These should consist of 3-4 summary sentences plus a discussion question. The summary sentences should be about what struck you as the most important, discussion-worthy points: your response to the question What was this reading about, and why does it matter for this class? The discussion question should be one that could generate a conversation in class, not a question that only the author could answer or that would require further research. For your first 5 critical reviews, you may choose from the readings due up to March 2. Post each review to the course wiki by noon the day before the reading is due. Do the same for your second 5 critical reviews, which must all be posted by April 27. discussion-leading: Twice during the semester, you and a partner will be responsible for assigning some supplementary web material and guiding seminar discussion for about half a class meeting. How to do this: 1. Skim the assigned reading for your discussion-leading day about ten days in advance. You will lead discussion on one of the readings (consult with us as to which one). 2. Locate some related web material (blog posts, YouTube, podcasts, articles, etc.). The web supplement should take less than 20 minutes for class members to complete. 3. Post a supplementary web assignment to the wiki before class time one week before your discussion-leading day. 4. Use your classmates critical reviews and discussion questions to guide the discussion. sonic analysis: A short (1-page double spaced) analysis of a sound or sonic technology through the analytic frame of blackness. Examples might include: a piece of music, the use of sound in film, a performance or art installation, the sounds and sonic technologies of policing (helicopters, LRADs, gunfire, gunfire detection). Submit these to a page on the course wiki by 5 PM on March 16. You must comment on at least one other student s analysis by 5 PM on March 23. final project: You have the option of either writing a research paper of double-spaced pages on a topic relevant to the course, or producing a creative work (e.g. remix, performance) along with a 3-page artist statement. In either case, your proposed format and topic should be submitted to the professors via by 5 PM on February 23. The final version of the project must be submitted via by 5 PM on May 11. presentation: A polished 10-minute presentation at the end of the term sharing the results of your final project, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A. Evaluation Breakdown and Course Policies in-class work homework 15% discussion leading 20% critical reviews 20% class participation 10% sonic analysis

3 15% presentation 20% final project Late critical reviews will not be awarded credit. Other late assignments will be penalized 5 percentage points per day. Active participation is a crucial aspect of this course, and unexcused absences will directly affect your course grade. Beginning with your third skipped class, your final grade will be reduced by 5 percentage points for each absence. You must Kiri and Cora ASAP (before class begins) if you have a good reason to miss class. Screen/Device Policy If you are texting, updating your status, checking your , or otherwise using device(s) for purposes other than consulting the readings or taking notes, you will be asked to leave and you will be counted as absent for that day. If you choose to do your readings on a laptop or tablet, you should be prepared to talk about them without frequent visual consultation during class. Academic Integrity We take plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty very seriously. All students must be familiar with Brown s Academic Code and carry out their work accordingly. When in doubt, cite a source or ask what to do. Academic Support We are committed to creating an inclusive and welcoming classroom environment. Please inform us if you require any accommodations or modification of course procedures to help meet your access needs. You may speak with either of us after class or during office hours. For further assistance, contact Student and Employee Accessibility Services at or SEAS@brown.edu. Content Notes Some of the materials for this course contain descriptions of intense antiblack racism and violence. Readings marked with CN have a note indicating the nature of such content. During classroom discussions, all of us should be mindful of the unevenly distributed psychological impact of these topics and our words upon each other. Course Calendar Introduction Week 1 Introduction Jan 26 (Th) Intro; getting acquainted

4 Week 2 Jan 31 (T) Feb 2 (Th) Theoretical Frameworks Du Bois 1903, The Souls of Black Folk, ch. 14 The Sorrow Songs Weheliye 2000, In the Mix: Hearing the Souls of Black Folk Moten 2003, Resistance of the Object: Aunt Hester s Scream (CN: slavery, torture) Voice Week 3 Black Speech and Song Feb 7 (T) Feb 9 (Th) Black 2011, Abolitionism s Resonant Bodies: The Realization of African American Performance Conquergood 2000, Rethinking Elocution: The Trope of the Talking Book and Other Figures of Speech Eidsheim 2011, Marian Anderson and Sonic Blackness in American Opera Brooks 2010, Sister, Can You Line It Out? : Zora Neale Hurston and the Sound of Angular Black Womanhood Student discussion-leading begins. Week 4 Vocal Training and Production Feb 14 (T) Feb 16 (Th) Eidsheim 2015, The Micropolitics of Listening to Vocal Timbre Olwage 2004, The Class and Colour of Tone Listening and Embodiment Week 5 Listening Feb 21 (T) Feb 23 (Th) No class Ellison 1947, Invisible Man, Prologue Furlonge 2011, To Hear the Silence of Sound : Making Sense of Listening in Ralph Ellison s Invisible Man Media: (What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue Final project topics due at 5pm. Week 6 Listening in the Body Feb 28 (T) Bradby 1993, Sampling Sexuality: Gender, Technology and the Body in Dance Music Smith 2013, Akimbo Culture: Dance and the Participatory Pleasures of the Body

5 Mar 2 (Th) Miller 2007, Jacking the Dial: Radio, Race, and Place in Grand Theft Auto Recording and Radio Week 7 U.S. Recording Mar 7 (T) Mar 9 (Th) Stadler 2010, Never Heard Such a Thing: Lynching and Phonographic Modernity (CN: descriptions of lynching) Roy 2004, Race records and hillbilly music : institutional origins of racial categories in the American commercial recording industry Lockheart 2003, A History of Early Microphone Singing, Week 9 Radio, Ethnic/National Belonging, and the State Mar 14 (T) Mar 16 (Th) Blake 2011, Audible Citizenship and Audiomobility: Race, Technology, and CB Radio Lekgoathi 2009, You Are Listening to Radio Lebowa of the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Bronfman 2014, Birth of a Station: Broadcasting, Governance, and the Waning Colonial State Sonic analysis due by 5pm. Week 9 African and Diasporic Recording Mar 21 (T) Mar 23 (Th) Veal, Dub, ch. 2 Every Spoil Is A Style : The Evolution of Dub Music in the 1970s Meintjes 2005, Reaching Overseas : South African Sound Engineers, Technology, and Tradition. Brown 2010, Buzz and Rumble: Global Pop Music and Utopian Impulse Response to a peer s sonic analysis due by 5pm. Mar 28 (T) Mar 30 (Th) No class spring recess No class spring recess Audio Technologies: Vocoder, Turntable, Synthesizer, Telephone Week 10 Apr 4 (T) Black Uses of Technology Rose 1994, Black Noise, ch. 3 Soul Sonic Forces: Technology, Orality, and Black Cultural Practice in Rap Music Katz 2012, Groove Music, ch. 2 Mix and Scratch: The Turntable Becomes a

6 Musical Instrument Media: Erykah Badu - But You Caint Use My Phone Mixtape Apr 6 (Th) Week 11 Apr 11 (T) Apr 13 (Th) Weheliye 2002, Feenin : Posthuman Voices in Contemporary Black Popular Music Futurities Keeling 2014, Electric Feel: Transduction, Errantry and the Refrain Lewis 2007, Improvising Tomorrow s Bodies: The Politics of Transduction Lewis 2008, Foreword: After Afrofuturism Lewis 2007, The Virtual Discourses of Pamela Z Soundscapes and Modernity Week 12 Apr 18 (T) Apr 20 (Th) Week 13 Apr 25 (T) Apr 27 (Th) Rhizomatic Soundscapes Veal, Dub, ch. 8 Starship Africa: The Acoustics of Diaspora and of the Postcolony Eshun 1998, More Brilliant than the Sun, Operating System for the Redesign of Sonic Reality Chude-Sokei 2011, When Echoes Return The Modern Nyong o 2014, Afro-philo-sonic Fictions: Black Sound Studies after the Millennium Weheliye 2014, Engendering Phonographies: Sonic Technologies of Blackness Closing discussion Conclusion Week 14 May 2 (T) May 4 (Th) May 9 (T) Presentations of Final Projects Presentations Presentations Presentations

7 Final projects due by 5 PM on May 11. Reading List Black, Alex W. Abolitionism s Resonant Bodies: The Realization of African American Performance. American Quarterly 63, no. 3 (2011): doi: /aq Blake, Art M. Audible Citizenship and Audiomobility: Race, Technology, and CB Radio. American Quarterly 63, no. 3 (2011): doi: /aq Bradby, Barbara. Sampling Sexuality: Gender, Technology and the Body in Dance Music. Popular Music 12, no. 2 (May 1, 1993): doi: / Bronfman, Alejandra. Birth of a Station: Broadcasting, Governance, and the Waning Colonial State. Small Axe 18, no (July 1, 2014): doi: / Brooks, Daphne A. Sister, Can You Line It Out? : Zora Neale Hurston and the Sound of Angular Black Womanhood. Amerikastudien/American Studies, 2010, Brown, Jayna. Buzz and Rumble: Global Pop Music and Utopian Impulse. Social Text 28, no (March 20, 2010): doi: / Chude-Sokei, Louis. When Echoes Return. Transition, no. 104 (January 1, 2011): doi: /transition Conquergood, Dwight. Rethinking Elocution: The Trope of the Talking Book and Other Figures of Speech. Text and Performance Quarterly 20, no. 4 (October 2000): doi: / Du Bois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. Champaign, Ill.: Project Gutenberg, Eidsheim, Nina Sun. Marian Anderson and Sonic Blackness in American Opera. American Quarterly 63, no. 3 (2011): doi: /aq The Micropolitics of Listening to Vocal Timbre. Postmodern Culture 24, no. 3 (August 24, 2015). doi: /pmc Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: New American Library, Eshun, Kodwo. More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction. London: Quartet Books, Furlonge, Nicole Brittingham. To Hear the Silence of Sound : Making Sense of Listening in Ralph Ellison s Invisible Man. Interference 1 (2011). Katz, Mark. Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ. Oxford University Press, Keeling, Kara. Electric Feel: Transduction, Errantry and the Refrain. Cultural Studies 28, no. 1 (2014): doi: / Lewis, George E. Foreword: After Afrofuturism. Journal of the Society for American Music 2, no. 2 (2008): doi: /s

8 . Improvising Tomorrow s Bodies: The Politics of Transduction. E-Misférica 4, no. 2 (November 2007). The Virtual Discourses of Pamela Z. Journal of the Society for American Music 1, no. 1 (2007): doi: /s Lockheart, Paula. A History of Early Microphone Singing, : American Mainstream Popular Singing at the Advent of Electronic Microphone Amplification. Popular Music and Society 26, no. 3 (October 2003): doi: / Meintjes, Louise. Sound of Africa! : Making Music Zulu in a South African Studio. Durham: Duke University Press, Miller, Kiri. Jacking the Dial: Radio, Race, and Place in Grand Theft Auto. Ethnomusicology 51, no. 3 (October 1, 2007): doi: / Moten, Fred. Resistance of the Object: Aunt Hester s Scream. In In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, Nyong o, Tavia. Afro-Philo-Sonic Fictions: Black Sound Studies after the Millennium. Small Axe 18, no (July 1, 2014): doi: / Olwage, Grant. The Class and Colour of Tone: An Essay on the Social History of Vocal Timbre. Ethnomusicology Forum 13, no. 2 (November 1, 2004): doi: / Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan Univ Pr, Roy, William G. Race Records and hillbilly Music : Institutional Origins of Racial Categories in the American Commercial Recording Industry. Poetics 32, no. 3 4 (June 2004): doi: /j.poetic Smith, Christopher J. Akimbo Culture: Dance and the Participatory Pleasures of the Body. In The Creolization of American Culture: William Sidney Mount and the Roots of Blackface Minstrelsy, University of Illinois Press, Stadler, Gustavus. Never Heard Such a Thing: Lynching and Phonographic Modernity. Social Text 28, no (March 1, 2010): doi: / Veal, Michael E. Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, Weheliye, Alexander. In the Mix: Hearing the Souls of Black Folk. Amerikastudien/American Studies, 2000, Weheliye, Alexander G. Engendering Phonographies: Sonic Technologies of Blackness. Small Axe 18, no (July 1, 2014): doi: / Feenin : Posthuman Voices in Contemporary Black Popular Music. Social Text 20, no. 2 (2002):

Required Texts: All readings are available through e-reserves on the library electronic reserves page.

Required Texts: All readings are available through e-reserves on the library electronic reserves page. ETHN 176/MUS 154/LTEN 187 Black Music/Black Texts: Music and Sound in Black Cultural Production Cognitive Science Building 001 Tu/Th 11-12:20 Instructor: Dr. Roshanak Kheshti Email: rkheshti@ucsd.edu Office