View New Course Proposal New Undergraduate Course Proposal Form 1. Department and Contact Information Tracking Number Date & Time Submitted 702 2007-11-30 15:45:21 Department College Budget Account Number Humanities and American Studies Arts & Sciences 012327000 Contact Person Phone Email Maria Cizmic 49383 mcizmic@cas.usf.edu 2. Course Information Prefix Number Full Title HUM 2515 Introduction, the Cultural Study of Popular Music Is the course title variable? Is a permit required for registration? Are the credit hours variable? N N N Credit Hours Section Type Grading Option 3 Class Lecture (Primarily) Regular Total Clock Hours Abbreviated Title (30 characters maximum) 45 Cultural Study of Pop Music Prerequisites None Corequisites None Co-Prerequisites None Course Description An introduction to the cultural study of popular song, this class examines how music constructs racial, gender, and class identities and intersects with politics, globalization, and commerce. Variable topic, open to nonmajors, not repeatable for credit. 3. Gordon Rule Does this course meet the writing portion of the Gordon Rule? N http://www.ugs.usf.edu/ugc/proposals/view_new.cfm?id=702 (1 of 4) [2/21/2008 4:58:50 PM]
View New Course Proposal If you checked "yes" above, specify how the 6,000 words will be covered (exams, papers). N/A Does this course meet the computation portion of the Gordon Rule? N 4. Justification A. Indicate how this course will strengthen the Undergraduate Program. Is this course necessary for accreditation or certification? In our recent review of our undergraduate curriculum in Humanities, we realized that our offerings are heavy at the 3000 and 4000 level. We are currently developing new courses at the 2000 level that would serve as general education offerings, introductions to the major, and a major elective. Introduction to the Cultural Study of Popular Music (along with Intro to the Cultural Study of Film, being proposed by Annette Cozzi) will provide students with an interdisciplinary approach to the study of popular music. Students will learn skills basic to the Humanities major that are aimed at the general education populace and focused on music. In this way, the course expands our offerings at the 2000 level, expands our gen ed offerings, and supplies a new path into the major. This change is not necessary for accreditation or certification. B. What specific area of knowledge is covered by this course which is not covered by courses currently listed? The Humanities and American Studies department has recently hired two music historians: myself (Dr. Maria Cizmic) and Dr. Andrew Berish. We both offer courses that involve music at the 3000 and 4000 level, but there is no music centered humanities course at the 2000 level. Dr. Mario Ortiz used to offer a course on Latin American Popular Song, but since he has left the department, that course has not been offered. This course will be a variable topic course, which could be offered as a study of American popular music, or Latin American popular music, or another popular music tradition. As a sample syllabus, I have submitted a course on American Popular Song. However the course is focused, it will cover a basic history of the popular music tradition of a given geographic area; will teach students basic listening skills; will teach students to analyze popular songs according to song form, voice, and instrumentation; will use popular songs to teach students about identity politics (race, class, gender) as well as issues surrounding commerce, technology, and globalization; will teach students to deal with secondary literature dealing with identity politics, commerce, technology, and globalization; and teach students to apply these secondary readings to their analyses of popular songs in order to interpret music's cultural meanings. C. What is the need or demand for this course? (Indicate if this course is part of a required sequence in the major.) What other programs would this course service? This course will fill a need in our lower level course offerings. As mentioned above, our offerings are heavy in the 3000 and 4000 level and we felt a need to expand our 2000 level offerings. This class is also submitted as part of the new general http://www.ugs.usf.edu/ugc/proposals/view_new.cfm?id=702 (2 of 4) [2/21/2008 4:58:50 PM]
View New Course Proposal education curriculum, and is currently under review. This course will also take advantage of expertise amongst our faculty. This course would also service American Studies, Music, Communication. D. Has this course been offered as Selected Topics/Experimental Topics course? If yes, what was the enrollment? This course has not previously been offered. E. How frequently will the course be offered? What is the anticipated enrollment? This course will be offered 1 to 2 times a year. We anticipate an enrollment or 150. The course will be taught as a lecture course twice a week, with weekly sections taught by a teaching assistants. F. Do you plan to drop a course if this course is added? If so, what will be the effect on the program and on the students? (Please forward the nonsubstantive course change form regarding the course to be deleted to the Council secretary.) No course will be dropped to add this course to the curriculum. G. What qualifications for training and/or experience are necessary to teach this course? (List minimum qualifications for the instructor.) A Ph.D. in appropriate humanities discipline (including musicology, history, American Studies). 5. Other Course Information A. Objectives / Outcomes Students completing this course will: (1) identify important figures, events, works, and concepts in the evolution of a particular popular music tradition; (2) be able to analyze a popular song or performance in terms of its sonic and formal musical properties; (3) learn to situate the analysis of music in its cultural, historical, and political context; (4) learn cultural theories from a range of disciplines regarding race, class, gender and apply these ideas to the cultural analysis of music in a well written and argued paper. B. Major Topics Popular music and race; popular music and gender; popular music and class; the popular music industry and commercialism; popular music and globalization; music technology; a history of music recording; genre studies within popular music (for example, tin pan alley songs; early rock n roll; hip hop); popular music and social and political movements. C. Textbooks Starr & Waterman, American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3. This text will http://www.ugs.usf.edu/ugc/proposals/view_new.cfm?id=702 (3 of 4) [2/21/2008 4:58:50 PM]
View New Course Proposal 6. Syllabus be supplemented by a course reader created by the instructor. Your college will forward an electronic copy of your syllabus to Undergraduate Studies when your course is approved for submission. http://www.ugs.usf.edu/ugc/proposals/view_new.cfm?id=702 (4 of 4) [2/21/2008 4:58:50 PM]
College of Arts and Sciences Department of Humanities and American Studies Introduction to the Cultural Study of Popular Music HUM 2515 Instructor: Dr. Maria Cizmic Phone: (813) 974 9383 Office: CPR 370 Email: mcizmic@cas.usf.edu Office Hours: Tuesdays 9 11 am; Thursdays 9 11 am Classroom: CPR 356 COURSE DESCRIPTION This course will provide an introductory overview of American popular song from the mid 19 th century to the present. Discussing American popular music traditions from several interdisciplinary perspectives, including musicology, history, performance studies, and cultural studies, we will explore how popular music constructs racial, gender, and class identities. This course will also focus upon the local and global impact of popular music through commerce, technology, and politics. Our topics will range from minstrelsy, the birth of Tin Pan Alley, to the racial and gender politics of rock music and hip hop. This course is part of the University of South Florida s Foundations of Knowledge and Learning Core Curriculum. It is certified for the Humanities Core Area and for the following dimensions: Critical Thinking, Inquiry-based Learning, Creative and Interpretive Processes and Experiences, and Interrelationships Among Disciplines. STUDENT OUTCOMES RELATED TO GENERAL EDUCATION OBJECTIVES Students completing this course will: (1) identify important figures, events, works, and concepts in the evolution of a particular popular music tradition; (2) be able to analyze a popular song or performance in terms of its sonic and formal musical properties (A1, A3, E3); (3) learn to situate the analysis of music in its cultural, historical, and political context (A1, A3, B3, C4); (4) learn cultural theories from a range of disciplines regarding race, class, gender and apply these ideas to the cultural analysis of music in a well written and argued paper (A1, B3, D1, D3). Required Books Starr & Waterman, American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3 Course Reader, available at ProCopy 1
COURSE OUTLINE Week 1 8/26 Tuesday: Introduction 8/28 Thursday: The 19 th -century: The Hutchinson Family and social protest, emancipation, immigration, and temperance. Reading: Charles Hamm, If I Were a Voice ; or The Hutchinson Family and Popular Song as Political and Social Protest. 8/29 Friday: TA led discussion section, analyze and discuss a Hutchinson Family song. Week 2 9/2 Tuesday: Songs of the Civil War. Reading: Charles Hamm, All Quiet Along the Potomac or Songs of the Civil War 9/4 Thursday: Stephen Foster and Minstrelsy. Reading: Dale Cockrell, Prologue to Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World. 9/5 Friday: TA led discussion section, analyze and discuss a Stephen Foster song. Week 3 9/9 Tuesday: The Birth Tin Pan Alley. Reading: Starr and Waterman, American Popular Song, chapter 2. 9/11 Thursday: Irving Berlin and Ragtime. Reading: Charles Hamm, It s Only a Paper Moon or The Golden Years of Tin Pan Alley. 9/12 Friday: TA led discussion section, analyze and discuss a Tin Pan Alley song. Week 4 9/16 Tuesday: The Blues and Race Records. Reading: Hazel V. Carby, It Jus Be s Dat Way Sometime : Sexual Politics of Women s Blues. 2
9/18 Thursday: Early Jazz: New Orleans and Louis Armstrong. Reading: Robert Walser, ed. Keeping Time readings by Langston Hughes and Louis Armstrong. 9/19 Friday: TA led discussion section, analyze and discuss a Ma Rainey song. Week 5 9/23 Tuesday: Midterm Exam Review 9/25 Thursday: Midterm Exam #1 9/26 Friday: TA led discussion section, analyze and discuss a Louis Armstrong song. Week 6 9/30 Tuesday: Crooners and Jitterbugs: Pop and jazz between the wars. Reading: Starr and Waterman, American Popular Music, chapter 6. 10/2 Thursday: The Depression Era, music and social movements: the case of Strange Fruit. Reading: Richard Reuss and JoAnne Reuss, Selections from American Folk Music and Left-Wing Politics. 10/3 Friday: TA led discussion section, analyze and discuss Strange Fruit. Week 7 10/7 Tuesday: American popular music and WWII Reading: David Stowe, The Conscription of Swing. 10/9 Thursday: Early 20 th century Race and Gender Politics: Spirituals, Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson. Reading: James Weldon Johnson, selections from The Books of American Negro Spirituals. 10/10 Friday: TA led discussion section, analyze and discuss Go Down Moses, sung by both Robeson and Anderson. Week 8 10/14 Tuesday: Race, Class, and Hillbilly Music Reading: Starr and Waterman, American Popular Music, chapter 5. 3
10/16 Thursday: What was the first Rock n Roll record? Rhythm and Blues. Reading: Starr and Waterman, American Popular Music, chapter 7. 10/17 Friday: TA led discussion section, analyze and discuss Elvis Hound Dog. Week 9 10/21 Tuesday: Paper #1 Due: Strange Fruit Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and black masculinity. Reading: Starr and Waterman, American Popular Music, chapter 8. 10/23 Thursday: Sun Records and Elvis Presley. Reading: Griel Marcus, Selections from Mystery Train. 10/24 Friday: TA led discussion section, analyze and discuss a Little Richard song. Week 10 10/28 Tuesday: Midterm Exam Review 10/30 Thursday: Midterm Exam #2 10/31 Friday: TA led discussion section, analyze and discuss a Chuck Berry song. Week 11 11/4 Tuesday: Gender and rock n roll: Brill Building and Girl Groups Reading: Jacqueline Warwick, excerpt from Girl Groups, Girl Culture: Popular Music and Identity in the 1960s. 11/6 Thursday: the Beatles and the British Invasion. Reading: Walter Everett, excerpts from The Beatles as Musicians, vol. 1, and Barbara Ehrenreich, Beatlemania: Girls Just Want to Have Fun. 11/7 Friday: TA led discussion section, analyze and discuss a Beatles song. Week 12 11/11 Tuesday: 1960s Counterculture, music and social protest. Reading: Starr and Waterman, American Popular Music, chapter 10, and Joan Didion, The White Album. 11/13 Thursday: Funk and Black Empowerment: James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone. 4
Reading: Starr and Waterman, American Popular Music, chapter 11. 11/14 Friday: TA led discussion section, analyze and discuss a James Brown song. Week 13 11/18 Tuesday: Paper #2 Due: Concert Report Gender, Sexuality, and Dance Music: 1970s Disco Reading: Starr and Waterman, American Popular Music, chapter 12. 11/20 Thursday: Reactions to Disco: Punk as subculture of style. Reading: Dick Hebdige, excerpts from Subculture of Style. 11/21 Friday: TA led discussion section, analyze and discuss a Giorgio Moroder song. Week 14 11/25 Tuesday: 1980s Megastars, Gender, and alternatives: Madonna, Prince, and Morrissey. Reading: Starr and Waterman, American Popular Music, chapter 13. 11/27 Thursday: No Class Thanksgiving Day 11/28 Friday: No TA sections Week 15 12/2 Tuesday: Race and Gender in Rap and Hip-Hop. Reading: Starr and Waterman, American Popular Music, chapter 14, and Tricia Rose, Rap, Hip-Hop and the Postindustrial City. 12/4 Thursday: Sampling and the Digital Revolution. Reading: Starr and Waterman, American Popular Music, chapter 15. 12/5 Friday: TA led exam review. Final Exam: Tuesday, 12/11, 10:30am 12:30pm Course Evaluation and Grading Scale o Discussion Section Participation: 10% of course grade. Students are graded by their section leaders on the quality of their participation in each week s discussion section. Grading is on a scale of 0-4, with 0=did not attend; 1=attended but did not 5
o o o Two Midterms: each worth 20% of course grade; Final Exam: 20% of course grade. There will be two midterm exams and one final exam, each of which will ask the students to do the following. There will be a short answer section which will ask students a series of questions dealing with historical context of the works and events discussed in class. Then there will be an essay section. Students will be given 6 essay questions ahead of time, of which 4 will appear on the exam. Students will have to answer 2. These essays will ask students to compare two different works, or to apply the ideas from a reading to a film, composition, or artwork discussed in class. Paper #1: 20% of course grade. In this paper, students will compare Billie Holiday s original 1939 recording of Strange Fruit with one other recording. Students must analyze the lyrical content and compare the differing musical and performance strategies of the two recordings. They will then evaluate these two performances in terms of such historical and cultural questions: What does it mean to re-make Strange Fruit? Does the original context of the song matter (1930s Federal Anti-Lynching Laws) to the artistic and political power of later versions? Can a song about one subject be relevant to a very different historical moment with very different social problems? To succeed, students must synthesize analysis of a musical text with critical thinking about changing historical and cultural contexts based on class material. Paper #2: 10% of course grade. This paper asks students to take critical inquiry into their own chosen musical environments. They will need to select and attend a popular music concert and use Christopher Small s ideas from Musicking to explore how the aesthetic and performative impact of music is the result of both musical and social practices. They will need to critically evaluate the social meanings of such elements as: venue, audience participation, cost, musician s performative strategies, and performer/audience interactions. Grading Policies Course assignments and the final grade will be given as a +/- or straight letter grade. College policy states that the S/U option must be agreed to during the first three weeks of the semester. Incomplete grades should only be granted when, due to circumstances beyond the control of the student, only a small portion of the required work remains undone and the student is otherwise passing the course. 6
The grading scale below will be applied to all assignments and final grades: 98 100 = A+ 87 89 = B+ 77 79 = C+ 67 69 = D+ 59 0 = F 94 97 = A 84 86 = B 74 76 = C 64 66 = D 90 93 = A- 80 83 = B- 70 73 = C- 60 63 = D- Any late assignments will be lowered by one point for every day late. There are only two exceptions to this rule: o o Reasonable accommodations will be made for students with disabilities, provided a current Memorandum of Accommodations, from the Office of Student Disability Services, is brought to the instructor by the end of the second week of classes. Reasonable accommodations will be made in the case of religious holidays. Students who anticipate the necessity of being absent from class due to the observation of a major religious observance must provide notice of the date(s) to the instructor, in writing, by the second class meeting. Academic Integrity and Dishonesty In all assignments, students are expected to explore their own personal ideas as generated by this course and supported by appropriate citations to outside sources. Any signs of plagiarism (be it plagiarizing another student s work or any other source) may result in a FF grade for the course. Final drafts of the paper assignment will be turned in through USF s Safe Assignment program. This program checks all submitted papers against paper databases and the internet for plagiarism. Course Policies It is not permissible to sell either written or audio tape notes for this course. In general, electronic devices are not allowed in class. A student may tape class discussion for personal use, but please consult the instructor before doing so. The last day to drop this course with a W is November 3, 2007. 7