Rock and Roll and Rebellion

The desire begins with the demand to live not as an object but as a subject of history- to live as if something actually depended on ones actions- and that demand opens onto a free street- Greil Marcus Lipstick Traces

This class will follow the history of political dissonance and cultural rebellion in popular music for about the last half of the 20th century. Topics covered will include Protest Music, Hippies, Punk Rock and Hip Hop. Grades will be based on attendance, participation and two papers. 

This class is very short, so it has to start on time. Should tardiness become an issue I reserve the right to lock the door after class begins.

Readings will include selections from the following compiled into a class reader:
Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus
Assault on Culture by Stewart Home
Sounding Off!: Music As Subversion/Resistance/Revolution by Sakolsky & Ho 
Cassette Mythos edited by Robin James
Extended Play by John Corbett
Rap Attack by David Toop
Microphone Fiends Gottleib and Wald
Rotten by John Lydon
Our Band could be your life by Michael Azerrad
Nothing Feels Good by Greenwald
England’s Dreaming by John Savage
Cultural Resistance Reader
The Portable Sixties Reader edited by Ann Charters
Articles culled from websites

In addition you are required to purchase or borrow a copy of:
Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil

In class screenings may include: 
Another State of Mind
Sonic Outlaws 
The Year Punk Rock Broke 
Weather Underground
The Filth and The Fury
Woodstock
Beautiful Frenzy
Decline of Western Civilization

Class schedule (subject to change):

Jan 27: Introduction

Feb 1: Woody Guthrie, Pete Seager and the Wobblies
	read: ‘Progressive’ Music, ‘Progressive’ Politics and selections from The Incomplete Folksinger

Feb 3:  Civil Rights Movement and African American Consciousness: Staple Singers, Gil Scot Heron, Last Poets, etc 
read: The Civil Rights Movement from Stand and be Counted, 

Feb 8: Anti War Movement: Bob Dylan, Phil Oches
	read: The Anti War Movement from Stand and be Counted ; Country Joe McDonald selections from The Portable Sixties Reader 
		
Feb 15: S.F.:  Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane
	Read: From Ringolevio and Psychedelic Rock Posters: History, Ideas, and Art both from the Portable Sixties Reader

Feb 17:  The Fugs

Feb 22:  60’s Anomalies: The Monks, Nihilist Spasm Band
read: Music in Black and White by Will Bedard
	The Nihilist Spasm Band “Godfathers of Noise” by Rui Edwardo Paes

Feb 24: Velvet Underground
	read: prologue Please Kill Me

March 1: Detroit Rock City: Black Panthers, White Panthers, MC5, Stooges
	read:  Please Kill Me, 
Dutch Provos, Kommune 1, Motherfuckers, Yippies and White Panthers from The Assault on Culture

March 3: MC5, Stooges, pt 2
	read: Please Kill Me

March 8: Tropicalia: Os Mutantes, Tom Zee, Caetano Veloso
	read: Tropicalia, Counterculture, and the Diasporic Imagination in Brazil  and The Politics of Plagiarism 

March 10: Music is the Weapon of the Future: Afrobeat
	read: Fela: King of Invisible Art

March 15: Reggae: Bob Marley, etc
	read: selections from Reggae Rasta Revolution
	due: paper 1

March 17: Origins of Punk: NY Dolls, The Ramones, Patti Smith
	read: Please Kill Me

March 22: NYC; Richard Hell, Television, Dead Boys
	read: Please Kill Me

March 31: Punk Goes British: Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols
	read: Prologue from Lipstick Traces, Never mind the situationists; this was situation comedy from Rotten

April 5: Explosion of British Punk: Slits, Clash, etc 
	read: Punk from The Assault on Culture	

April 7: Crusty Punks = Neo Hippies?: Crass
	read: Class War chapter in Assault on Culture

April 12: American Punk & Hardcore: The Germs, Dead Kennedy’s, Black Flag
	read: Black Flag: Thirsty and Miserable, LA: How could Hell be any worse?  and DKs & SF: California Uber Alles all from American Hardcore

April 14:  All X’ed Out: Minor Threat and straight edge
	Read: Minor Threat from This band could be your life, Straight Edge from American Hardcore

April 19: Cassette Culture
	read: No More Masterpiece Manifesto from Cassette Mythos, Long live the Humble Audio Cassette: A Eulogy from Sounding Off 

April 21: Appropriation: Negativeland; John Oswald, Tape Beatles, etc
	read: Plunderphonics ;  Plagiarism, Interview with the Tape-Beatles from Sounding Off

May 3: Origins of Hip Hop: South Bronx Story
	read: Soul Sonic Forces: Technology, Orality, and Black Cultural Practice 
in Rap Music from Sounding Off, Tough from Rap Attack

May 5: Hip Hop and Social Consciousness: Public Enemy, The Coup, etc
	Due: topic for final paper

May 10: Feminism: Riot Grrrrl
	read: Kathleen Hanna from an interview in Punk Planet and Riot Grrrl is from Cultural Resistance Reader
	Smells like teen spirit, Riot Grrrls, revolution and women in independent Rock from Microphone Fiends

May 12: Anarchy, Squatting and free Jazz: The Ex
	read: from Extended Play by John Corbett

May: 17: show and tell- 
	read: Maximizing Rock N Roll, An Interview with Tim Yohonnan from Sounding Off

Suggested further readings:
Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus by Louis Althusser (can be found excerpted in the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism)
Subculture: The Meaning of Style by Dick Hebdige
Self-Reliance and Other Essays by R.W. Emerson
A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Assignments: 

Paper one:
You have been hired by a record company to assemble a compilation cd of Political Music up to 1970. You need to both make the cd and write the liner notes. Do not rely solely on examples of either songs or artists from class. Do some research, find people we’ve left out, including mainstream (popular) artists is you see fit. It doesn’t need to be a survey, you can focus on one aspect, culture, movement, etc. About 1250 words (5 pages) not including sources + cd.

Final Paper:
Pick an artist or group who has come to prominence in the last 10 years, someone we haven’t focused on in class. Talk about how they do or don’t fit into the trajectory we’ve been looking at all semester. About 2000 words (8 pages) not including sources.