Tutorial readings and Topics

Week 1

NO TUTORIALS

Week 2

The roots of popular music 1900-1950

1950s – The rise of the teenager

Tutorial Readings

Frith, S. (2007) The Industrialisation of Popular Music. IN Frith, S. (Ed.) Taking Popular Music Seriously: Selected Essays. Aldershot, Ashgate.

Gendron, B. (1986) Theodor Adorno meets the Cadillacs. IN Modleski, T. (Ed.) Studies in Entertainment: Critical Approaches to Mass Culture. Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press.

This will be the first tutorial, so time will be spent discussing the assessment scheme and other elements of the course. Remember that tutorial participation is based partly on you bringing a sheet of paper with three questions or comments on the readings to class. But some other things to think about might include:

To what extent does the industrial nature of popular music ‘matter’? Is it something that you have ever considered much as a music listener?

What are the critiques that Gendron makes of Adorno? What aspects of his arguments does he think may be worth ‘saving’? Do you agree?

Week 3

Guest Lecture: Norman Abjorensen—Womp-bomp-a-loom-op-a-womp-bam-boom: The Emergence of Rock.

1960s – Rock and authenticity

Tutorial Readings:

Moore, A. (2002) Authenticity as authentication. Popular Music, 21(2), 209-223.

Wicke, P. (1987) 'Revolution': The ideology of Rock. In Rock Music: Culture, aesthetics and sociology. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Some questions to consider:

To what extent do you think authenticity is still an important concept in popular music?

Would you say Wicke would be more in agreement with Adorno or Benjamin?

Week 4

1970s – The Birmingham school and subcultures

1970s – Punk

Tutorial Readings:

Clarke, J., Hall, S. & Jefferson, T. (1997) Subcultures, Cultures and Class. IN Gelder, K. & Thornton, S. (Eds.) The Subcultures Reader. London and New York, Routledge.

Bennett, A. (1999) Subcultures or Neo-Tribes? Rethinking the relationship between youth, style and musical taste. Sociology, 33(3), 599-617.

Some questions to consider:

Have you ever belonged to a subculture? Or a neo-tribe?

Despite the criticisms of writers like Bennett, do you think the concept of a subculture is still useful?

Week 5

Guest Lecture – Alastair Greig (John Cooper Clarke)

1980s – Heavy metal and class

Tutorial Readings:

Goshert, J. C. (2000) "Punk" after the Pistols: American music, economics and politics in the 1980s and 1990s. Popular Music and Society, 24(1).

Bryson, B. (1996) "Anything but Heavy Metal": Symbolic exclusion and musical dislikes. American Sociological Review, 61(5), 884-899.

Some questions to consider:

What form/s does ‘punk’ take today?

To what extent does class influence taste? Thinking back to last week’s reading on neo-tribes, does such a way of forming communities make class irrelevant? To what extent is age also a factor?

Week 6

1970s – Rap and Globalisation

Tutorial Readings:

Rose, T. (1994) ‘“All Aboard the Night Train”: Flow, Layering and Rupture in Postindustrial New York’ in Black Noise: Rap music and black culture in contemporary America, Hanover & London, Wesleyan University Press.

Condry, I. (2004) ‘A History of Japanese Hip-Hop: Street Dance, Club Scene, Pop Market’, in Mitchell, T (ed) Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop outside the USA, Middleton, Conneticut, Wesleyan University Press.

Some questions to consider:

How is hip hop constructed in an Australian context?

Are some forms of music more likely to be easily ‘globalised’ than others?

Week 7

1980s – PMRC and censorship

The downside to music

Tutorial Readings:

Grossberg, L. (1993) The Framing of Rock: Rock and the new conservatism. IN Bennett, Frith, S. & Grossberg, L. (Eds.) Rock and Popular Music: Politics, policies and institutions. New York, Routledge.

Cloonan, M. & Johnson, B. (2002) Killing me softly with his song: an initial investigation into the use of popular music as a tool of oppression. Popular Music, 21(1), 27-39.

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