For this blog, rather than exploring one of our class cultures further or turning the ethnomusicological spotlight back on your own experiences, you're going to select a unique topic, do some research on it, and create a blog post to teach your classmates about it. Here's the catch: your Big Blog no. 1 needs to be on a genre (or sub-genre) of American Roots Music.
In Dr. Mr. Vaneman's lecture about the blues, he pointed out that one of the unique aspects of American-born musics is that they inevitably well up from the bottom rungs of society before spreading across the globe. As he showed, the blues were born from the very poorest of Southern American society and, by birthing such genres as Rock, Country, and R&B, has basically conquered the world. This, in essence, is what American Roots music is--kinds of music that were born on American soil, musics that are almost always syncretic nature and initially connected to underprivileged communities.
So, first, select your specific type of American Roots to research and blog about. Here is a list of possibilities--you can pick something not on this list, but run it by me first:
African-American Spirituals
Gospel
Bluegrass
Country (specify early, later, etc.)
Zydeco
Appalachian folk
Shape-note hymnody
Doo-wop
Soul
Funk
Hip-Hop
Swing
Western Swing
Tejano
Salsa
Rock&Roll
Rockabilly
Sub-genres of Rock (check with me, make sure it's basically American, as opposed to British)
Sub-genres of Jazz (again, check with me)
A good place to start wandering through some of these and other possibilities is, believe it or not, the Wikipedia entry on Music History of the United States.
This delightful cartoon by Matt Groenig, the genius behind This Simpons, might spark some ideas as well:
In terms of scope, think of this as a short term paper, but more informal, and with a fair amount of media embedded. As a guidepost, aim for about 1000 words, plus media. You'll need a handful of sources at the end (use full citations, rather than just web addresses), but you don't need to include footnotes or parenthetical references. We need something of the history of your topic--how and where did it get started, what earlier music genres fed into it, what were some of the early musicians in your genre--as well as an over-all description of your genre--what instruments are involved, what vocal styles, what are typical lyrics like, etc. While a bit of fan-girling (or fan-guying) is just fine, do remember that you're teaching other people about your chosen topic, and they need to learn about that topic from you.
And a slightly different instruction: as soon as you can, please leave a comment on this blog letting us know what your topic will be. That way we can try to avoid the entire class doing the same topic (a few folks overlapping is fine, but I don't think any of us really want to read seventeen different histories of Bluegrass....), and you can see who is doing what topic before you start your comments, so that if you're interested in a particular genre that you didn't do yourself you can aim for it.
And, finally, I've found my opening! The poetry of the official Youth Poet Laureate of the US, Amanda Gorman, actually owes a fair amount to various types of American Roots Music, borrowing the rhythms and allusions and other various aspects from them. Amanda is the poet that spoke at the Presidential Inauguration last Wednesday, and she basically stole the show. Here she is, in all her glory. (Oh, and if you find yourself as a new Amanda Gorman fan, or would like to, head over to James Corden's interview of her--he's obviously in awe.)
For our next blog posts, we're returning to having you look at the music of your own music-culture. The idea here is to take the lens of ethnomusicology and shine it back in your general direction. There are no right or wrong answers here, just honest observation. In an effort to not overwhelm you with too many blog posts, I'm letting you pick the direction you'd like to go here--you can discuss how either music and religion or music and gender intersects in your own musical experiences. We've found ourselves noticing both of those relationships in the cultures we've studied, and we'll be noticing them even more as the semester progresses. If you choose Music & Religion: Think about how music and religion intersect in your own experience by considering both use and aesthetics. For instance, many Native American groups use a good amount of music in their religious ceremonies and teaching. Too, their songs are an important means of transmitting reli...
This will be our final blog where your turn the gaze of ethnomusicology back around your direction. Most of us have our first musical experiences with our families, and you can often give credit for some of your personal musical taste to those experiences--whether you share those opinions or rebel against them. Too, one of the Big Points of this class is to explore how music and culture are interrelated, and cultures are built out of families. So for this blog, you're going to find out more about how someone in your family relates to music. Specifically, I want you to pick someone that's at least one generation older than you and interview them about their relationship with music. You might talk with them about the music of their childhood, or as teenagers, or what they listen to today, or all three. We talked about potential questions in class and I posted them to Canvas. If possible, resist the urge to email your mom a bunch of questions and have her send the answers back to...
My topic will be on the history of Tejano music!
ReplyDeleteRock and Roll
ReplyDeleteMine will be on Rock & Roll.
ReplyDeleteI will be doing Hip-hop!
ReplyDeleteSwing
ReplyDeleteSoul!
ReplyDeleteGospel
ReplyDeleteI would like to do Salsa music!
ReplyDeleteAfrican-American Spirituals!
ReplyDeleteAppalachian folk music
ReplyDeleteI would like to do Appalachian folk music!
ReplyDeleteCountry
ReplyDeleteI'll be doing shape-note singing/hymnody
ReplyDeleteI will be doing Soul!
ReplyDelete