April 5--Guest Speaker: Dr. Jeremy Smith, Duke Jazz Archivist

*For this class, you are only required to post a question.*

3 Short Readings on Blackboard:

• Amiri Baraka, "Black Woman," from Raise, Race, Rays, Raze: Essays Since 1965
• Amiri Baraka, "Jim Brown on the Screen," from Spirit Reach
• Pearl Cleage, "Mad at Miles," from The Miles Davis Companion

March 31-Female Masculinity

Reading:

• Shana Goldin-Perschbacher (2008) “’The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams’” Meshell NdegéOcello and Black Female Masculinity,” from Sexuality, Listening, and Intimacy: Gender Transgression in Popular Music, 1993-2008, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Virginia

Viewing:

• MeShell NdegéOcello "Boyfriend" and "Pocketbook" videos above

Listening:

• NdegéOcello tracks on Blackboard

Posting can be on one or both of videos, or one or more of the audio tracks.

March 29--Kinging

Readings:

• Francesca Britain (2006) “Women Who ‘Do Elvis’: Authenticity, Masculinity, and Masquerade,” Popular Music & Society
• Diane Torr (2010) “Man for a Day: A Do-It-Yourself Guide,” from Sex Drag, and Male Roles: Investigating Gender as Performance

Viewing:

• Youtube viewing/listening: The Mighty Slim Pickins, “Thirteen Times” and “Stray Cats”; Janny James, "Hound Dog"

March 24--Kurt Cobain cont'd

Note that this is a change from the syllabus.

Reading:

• Jan Muto (1995) "He Was The Woman Of His Dreams: Identity, Gender, and Kurt Cobain," Popular Music & Society 19(2)

Viewing:

• Both versions of video "In Bloom" posted above (from 1991 album Nevermind)
• Optional viewing: Alternate "all dress" version of "In Bloom" below

Artifact for posting:

• "In Bloom" music video or "Dive" live performance, both posted above

March 22--Kurt Cobain

Readings:

• Simon Frith (1994) “The Voice,” from Performing Rites
• Kurt Cobain, excerpts from Journals

Listening:

• Nirvana tracks on Blackboard, (also, video above gives a sense of Cobain's emotional range)

Posting:

• Cobain's Journals excerpts

For Class Discussion:

• How can Frith's article be used to understand Cobain's writings, lyrics, singing and performance style?

March 17--The Crooner Part II (Jeff Buckley)

Reading:

• Shana Goldin-Perschbacher (2007) “’Not with You But of You’: ‘Unbearable Intimacy’ and Jeff Buckley’s Transgendered Vocality,” from Oh Boy! Masculinities and Popular Music

Listening:

• Jeff Buckley: “Mojo Pin,” “Hallelujah,” “The Way Young Lovers Do”

Posting:

• One of the songs on Blackboard

March 15-- The Crooner, Part I (Rudy Vallee)

Reading:

• Allison McCracken (2001) “Real Men Don’t Sing Ballads: The Radio Crooner in Hollywood, 1929-1933,” from Soundtrack Available: Essays on Film and Popular Music, ed. Pamela Robertson Wojcik and Arthur Knight
• "Singing Teachers Condemn Crooning," New York Times, 23 February 1932, p 19
• "Full-Voiced Singers Encroach on Popularity of the Crooners," New York Times, 1 May 1932, p. X10

Listening:

• Rudy Vallee, “Would You Like to Take a Walk,” “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries,” "I Love the Moon"
• Bing Crosby “I Surrender Dear”

Artifact posting is on either:

• one of the New York Times articles-----or
• comparison of Vallee's and Crosby's singing voice (based on the Blackboard tracks)

NOTE: If your comment doesn't show up right away, don't worry--it just means I have to take it out of the spam folder.

March 3-The Cockrocker Part II

**Film Screening Wed, March 2, 8PM, Lilly Library Room 103: This Is Spinal Tap (1984)**
(If you can't make the screening, you can check out one of their VHS copies)

You'll have until Thursday at noon to post for this one.

Reading:
--Carl Plantinga (1998) “Gender, Power, and a Cucumber: Satirizing Masculinity in This Is Spinal Tap,” Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video, ed. Barry Keith Grant and Jeannette Sloniowski

Artifact:
--The artifact for the posting in this case is the movie.

Also, I double-checked my 1970s body language books for the seated "male" pose we discussed, and yikes! A few examples below:




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Apparently, in the 1970s U.S., women manifested negative evaluation this way: