Cultural History of Rock and Popular Music class offers students an opportunity to learn how rock and popular music developed and changed in the 20th and 21st century, and at the same time, to understand rock and popular music in relation to their social and historical contexts. In the class, we look into the origins of rock and popular music, their different styles and substyles, and related music cultures. We briefly examine early 20th century popular music styles that influenced the emergence of rock (from early gospel, blues, and rhythm and blues, to country music), and proceed with the emergence of rock’n’roll in the 1950s, and with 1960s rock music and related styles, including folk, folk-rock, garage rock, psychedelic rock, jazz-rock, soul, and funk. Furthermore, we follow the development of later rock styles such as heavy metal, punk, new wave, industrial, grunge, indie rock, and post-rock, and trace rock’s connections to pop, disco, hip-hop, electronic dance music, and Latin American, Jamaican, African, Asian, and European musics. At the same time, we also study rock and popular music as manifested outside of Anglo-American geographic areas, especially in Latin America, Jamaica, Eastern and Central Europe (before 1989), Germany, and Scandinavia. In our class discussions, we analyze music styles, songs and videos, and interrogate their relatedness to issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and nationality, and see how media, technology, identity, and politics shape rock and popular music and culture. No preliminary requirements.
Last update: Verbuč David, M.A., Ph.D. (01.02.2022)
