Syllabus for
Masters in Liberal Studies MLS 741
Music and Political Power
Instructor: Sr. Lecturer in Music, Patricia Dixon
Description
The focus of this course will be to study how music and politics intersect,
how music helps shapes attitudes in culture, and how does music becomes a
form of political power. The approach will emphasize inter-disciplinary and
cross cultural approaches to the study of musical traditions as we examine
four domains:
a. Music as an agent of change
b. Music as an implicit or explicit commentary on power
c. Music and technology in the global stage
d. Music as a mirror of political and cultural change
e. Music as a transformative experience
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:
a. Identify the ways in which music changes attitudes in society
b. Demonstrate the ways in which music conveys political messages
c. Describe how artists mobilize traditions in music to from personal and
political identities
d. Give examples of how technology and music are tools for activism in the
global stage
e. Analyze how the media manipulates artists and cultural values
f. Identify the ways in which mega events can be a catalyst for change in
society
g. Articulate a personal statement on how music has been transformative for
them.
Required Texts
Politics in Music: Music and Political Transformation from Beethoven
to Hip-Hop by Courtney Brown. (ISBN 13:978-0-9766762-3-2)
Finding Grace in the Concert Hall: Community and Meaning among Bruce Springsteen
Fans by Linda K. Randall.(ISBN 1-5776-685-2)
Acting in Concert: Music, Community and Political Action by Mark Mattern.
(ISBN 0-8145-2484-9)
Place and
Meeting Times
The class will meet in the Scales Fine Arts Center, Wake Forest University.
Third floor in Room 307, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 to 9 p.m.
WEEK ONE
First Session: Music as an Agent of Change
Introductions: Teaching approach, class format and assignments.
Reading: Chapter 1: Popular Music and Community, Acting in Concert by Mattern. Define the elements of what is political. Define what elements about music make it a political vehicle.
Film: Roots of American Music (Chapters 1-4 second part of the class)
Second Session: Music as Commentary on Power
Historical
Background of Protest Songs in the US
Lecture: Power Point-First period 1905 1915
Reading: Chapter 1 and 5, Music
and a Conveyor of Political Messages, and Industrialization and the Emergence
of Labor Music, Music and Politics by Brown
The IWW or Wobblies: The Songs of Joe Hill
Reading in
class: Joe Hill and the Rhetoric of
Radicalism, by Marvin, Thomas F.
The Journal of American Culture
http://onlinelibrary. wiley.com.go.libproxy.wfubmc.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1542-734X.2011.00778.x/full
WEEK TWO
Third Session: Music as Commentary on Power
Historical
Background of Protest Songs in the US
Lecture: Second Period 1935-1943
Reading: Chapter 2, Popular Music, Political Action and Power, Acting in Concert, Mattern
Examples of : Confrontational
Music, Deliberative Music, and Pragmatic Music
Confrontational Music: La Marseillaise
Deliberative music: Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) 9/11.
Alan Jackson
Pragmatic: Mac the Bomb, Pete Seeger
Social Movements and the Populist Heritage
The American
Communist Party,
Reading: From the “Final Cornflakes” to
the “Ballad for Americans”: Communist Musical Culture in the 1930’s,
My Song is My Weapon by Robbie Lieberman
Topics: The Composers Collective, Racism in America, and the Emergence of Protest Music Culture in Radio
Film: Woody
Guthrie: This Machine kills Fascists (second
part of the class)
Video: Celebrating his 100’s birthday this year, July 14. The Smithsonian
100 Year
AnniversaryWoody Guthrie
Fourth Session: Music as Commentary on Power
Folk Protest Music: Progressive and Conservative Thought
Historical
Background of Protest Songs in the US
Lecture: Third Period: 1945-1950
People’s Song Inc. The birth of propaganda songs; music as an implicit
critique of power structures for social movements, such as the Progressive
Party 1946.
Groups: Almanac Singers and the Weavers. Singers: Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
The Progressive
Party Song Book: Antiwar sentiments
Progressive Battle Hymns,1912. Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National
Historic Site: Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library at Dickinson
State University.http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record.aspx?libID=o283063.
Discussion of First Assignment: topics, presentations and music.
Film: Woody Guthrie: This Machine kills Fascists (continuation)
WEEK
THREE
Fifth Session:
Music as Commentary on Power
Class Presentations: First
Assignment: Folk Protest Music: Progressive and Conservative Thought
Reading 1:
A Censorship of Forgetting: Origins and Origin
Myth of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Annie
J. Randall
Examples of four versions of the Hymn
Reading 2:
Nationalism and Patriotic Music: American
Nationalism Pages 94 to 110, Chapter 4, Music and Politics,
Brown
Different renditions of The Stars Spangled Banner
Reading 3:
Folk Music and the American Left: A generational-
ideological comparison by R. Serge Denisoff. http://www.jstor.org/stable/588927
Musical examples of two eras, 20 and 40’s and 50’ and 60s
Reading 4:
Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro
American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom, by Lawrence
Levine pp. ix-xiv, 3-19.
Two examples to share with the class
Reading 5:
“I Don’t Trust you Anymore”:
Nina Simone, Culture and Black Activism in the 60’s
by Ruth Feldstein. /http://jah.orfordjournals.org/
E xamples of two songs by Simone
Sixth Session: Music and Technology in the Global Stage
The Folk Revival Movement and the Civil Rights Movement
Historical
Background of Protest Songs in the US
Lecture: Fourth Period 1957 1964
Readings: Protest Music: Movement
and Non- Movement Motivations, pages 135-166 Chapter 6, Music
and Politics, Brown and “Bob Dylan: Beyond
Left and Right”, pages 101-134 in Minstrels of the Dawn
by James Rodnizstky.
Music:
Comic Satire: Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie.
Call for Peace: Give Peace a Chance by Paul McCartney and
Imagineby John Lennon and Revolution by Lennon and McCartney
Inner Conflict, Psychological Portraits: Like a Rolling Stone,
by Bob Dylan
Political and Prophetic: The Times They Are A Changin’
by Bob Dylan
Freedom Songs: We shall Overcome, We’ll never turn
back, (Freedom Singers) Little Boxes (Malvina Reynolds), Freedom Riders by
{Phil Ochs)
Education and Lies: What did you learned in School Today
(Tom Paxton)
Anti War, Anti Establishment: To be a Killer (Wes Houston
Environment: Mac the Bomb, Pete Seeger
Transcendence: My Father’s Mansions has many Rooms,
Pete Seeger
Film: The Power of Song: Pete Seeger
Class discussion and reflection assignment.
WEEK FOUR
Seventh Session: Music and Technology
in the Global Stage
The New Song Movement in Latin America
Reading: Popular
Music and Democratic Politics in Chile, 1960-1973, Chapter 3 Acting
in Concert, Mattern
Lecture: Canción Nueva Chilena: Violeta Parra
and Victor Jara’s legacies
Music: Parra, La Carta, Mira Como Sonrien,
Quilapayún, El Pueblo Unido Jamás Sera Vencido,
Inti Illimani version, Vientos del Pueblo,Victor
Jara. Plegaria a un Labrador.
Film: El
Derecho a Vivir en Paz. Victor Jara‘s Story
Eighth
Session: Music and Technology in the Global Stage
Canto Nuevo
Reading:
Resistance and Redemocratization after the 1973
Coup, Chapter 4, Acting in Concert, Mattern.
Collaborations between American singers and Chilean singers in Exile: La Pena
de Berkley, and Grupo Raices. Pete Seeger and Victor Jara, Phil Ochs and Victor
Jara
Section of Phil Ochs film; But for Fortune
Collaborations between Europeans and Chileans: France Quilapayun, and Italy
Inti Illimani.
Film: The Defeat of a Dictator by Steve York
Assign final
paper and discuss topics
WEEK FIVE
Ninth Session:
Music as a Mirror of Political and Cultural Change
The Singing
Revolution: The Case of Estonia
Film discussion: A summary of major points covered in the course as they pertain
to the Estonia case.
a. Music as an agent
of change
b. Music as an implicit or explicit commentary on power
c. Music and technology in the global stage
d. Music as a mirror of political and cultural change
e. Music as a transformative experience
Class Assignment
(graded)
Each student takes one point and discusses its relevance to the film.
Film: The Singing Revolution
Tenth Session:
Music as a Transformative Experience
Final Papers
Presentations in Class
Possible Topics for Papers
Mega Events as Political Power
The Role of Music in Social Movements
Passing the Torch: from Woody Guthrie to Bruce Springsteen
Political Manifesto Music: a Comparative Study between two Artists
Music as a Mirror of Political and Cultural Change: A Case Study
Assignments
and grading
Class participation will count as 20%. This will include any contributions you make to the class, music, articles, extra work that compliments the topics we are covering, and participation in discussions.
Mid -session assignment will count as 30%. This will include a short paper based on a reading and an oral presentation to an audience.
Final Assignment will be 50%. This will be a final paper (7 to 10 pages including bibliography) on a topic of your choice.
I will use two rubrics,
one to test Critical Thinking for the first assignment, and another to test
Life Long Learning, for the final paper.