March 1 - The Cockrocker

Reading:

• Sheila Whiteley (1997) “Little Red Rooster v. the Honky Tonk Woman: Mick Jagger, Sexuality, Style and Image,” from Sexing the Groove

Listening:

• Rolling Stones, “Cocksucker Blues” (available as youtube recording above)

Optional:

• Steve Waksman (1996) “’Every Inch of My Love: Led Zeppelin and the Problem of Cock Rock,” Journal of Popular Music Studies

Feb 24-Hipsters cont'd & Cockrockers

Reading:

• Steve Waksman (1999) “Kick Out the Jams! The MC5 and the Politics of Noise,” from Instruments of Desire

Listening:

• MC5, “Rocket Reducer No. 62”

Feb 22-The Hipster

NOTE: For this week, post discussion questions, but no artifact postings (to give you more time to work on papers)

Readings:

• Ingrid Monson (2003) “The Problem with White Hipness: Race, Gender, and Cultural Conceptions,” Journal of the American Musicological Society
• Barbara Ehrenreich (1983) "The Beat Rebellion: Beyond Work and Marriage," The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment
• Mark Greif, "What Was the Hipster?," New York Magazine, 24 October 2010

Listening:

• Hipster music of your choice (using your personal definition of hipster)

Feb 17-Jimi Hendrix Part II

Reading:

• Maureen Mahon (2004) “Jimi Hendrix Experiences,” from Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race

*Note: The BRC that Mahon mentions in the chapter refers to the Black Rock Coalition, a non-profit organization supporting black musicians working in rock genres. See link on the right hand site of this post under "Useful Links."

Listening:

• Jimi Hendrix, “If 6 Was 9”
• Living Colour, "Elvis Is Dead"

Feb 15-Jimi Hendrix

Reading:

• Steve Waksman (1999) “Black Sound, Black Body: Jimi Hendrix, the Electric Guitar and the Meanings of Blackness,” Popular Music and Society. Focus especially on second half of article.

Listening:

• Jimi Hendrix tracks, “Star-Spangled Banner” (Woodstock version); "Voodoo Child (Slight Return);" or any others posted on Blackboard
• The "Voodoo Chile" track that Waksman mentions is the video above

Feb 10-Elvis, Post-Army

Reading:

• Freya Jarman-Ivens (2007) “’Don’t Cry, Daddy’: The Degeneration of Elvis Presley’s Musical Masculinity,” from Oh Boy! Masculinities and Popular Music

Listening:

• Elvis Presley (Excerpts from Aloha from Hawaii, in Blackboard)

Feb 8-The Teen Idol (Beatlemania)

Reading:

• Norma Coates (2007) “Teenyboppers, Groupies, and Other Grotesques: Girls and Women and Rock Culture in the 1960s and early 1970s,” Journal of Popular Music Studies
• Barbara Ehrenreich, Elizabeth Hess, Gloria Jacobs (1991) “Beatlemania: Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, ed. Lisa A. Lewis
• David Dempsey (1964) “Why the Girls Scream, Weep, Flip,” New York Times, 23 February 1964, SM15

Viewing:

• Videos of Beatles fans, listed to the right of this post, under "Period Film Clips"  (these are the artifacts for the posting)

Feb 3 - Elvis Part II

Reading:

• David R. Shumway (1997) “Watching Elvis: The Male Rock Star as Object of the Gaze,” The Other Fifties: Interrogating Midcentury American Icons
• Sue Wise (1984) "Sexing Elvis," Women's Studies International Forum

Listening:

• "Hound Dog," versions by Elvis Presley and Big Mama Thornton

Posting:

• Compare the Presley & Thornton recordings. (Don't worry so much about connecting the recordings to the readings for this one) There is a video of Thornton performing the song above, but I'd prefer you listened to the version posted on Blackboard (which is of higher recording quality). I'd especially recommend that you listen with headphones in a quiet room.