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History of Rock |
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underlined word or sentence in this course. When you've been there. the blue should turn purple indicating you visited there. |
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The Course Week
1 We begin with a discussion of what
music was like in America and Europe before the advent of
"rock n' roll." Enter electricity! Week 2 Early styles of different ethnic groups and the introduction of new media. both separating and "democratizing" styles of music Week
3 The "smooth" vs. the "rough" (the
30s and 40s) Week
4 Rock n' Roll for real Week
5 Blues vs bluegrass vs The Brill
building
British Invasion, Women's Lib, more drugs, Civil rights, birth control, stereo
Last Update: June 10th, 2021 |
Welcome
to my new edition of Rock n' Roll History. I am actually a
part of this history as a songwriter, singer, producer, etc. I
will attempt to rouse your curiosities during the semester:
not necessarily about names, dates, places and other trivia
usually found in an history class, but about the when, where
and whys concerning this ridiculously broad field of music. We
will attempt to figure out how this music has affected us and
our society, and how our electronic world has changed our
behavior, especially where Rock music is concerned. Recommended extra reading of Marshall McLuhan will be part of our coursework, as well as portions of the book "The Triumph Of Vulgarity," by Robert Pattison. Here is why we are using this book. It is available for $31.00 at Amazon. The Kindle app is free online at several places. Make sure you have this ready to go before the first class There will be a short quiz every week. These quizzes will determine your final grades, so you need to take them seriously. My email is parnell_dennis@smc.edu Most of you will need to spend some extra time listening to the music from the first 8 weeks, as a lot of you will be unfamiliar with it. You will need to be able to identify different styles and a few simple chord progressions (most of you can already do that). I really don't care where Elvis was born or who Carley Simon's father was, or what really killed Prince. That's trivia, and I'm happy to know that some of you will really be "into" that stuff, but I'm more interested in having you get excited about a song from 800 A.D. becoming a huge hit in the early 60s. How could that happen? Or how Jesus and Harlem are related. Although this is still an online course, I expect each of you to actively participate in class discussions - your grade will depend upon it - so, if you're not used to "speaking up" in class this is your chance....... if you don't ask you might never know. My Zoom address is 621 432 589 On a separate page below, you will find everything else you need to know for this class. Links will always be underlined in blue: just click on them - If all else fails, email me and we'll solve the problem! Here is an additional page with information you should look at before you actually begin the course |