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Each unit will focus on the social and economic conditions of a historical era including its political and religious movements; the interactions of diverse ethnic, cultural, and musical traditions; and how these factors shaped American music.
I. Folk and Ethnic Musics
A. The English-Celtic tradition including ballads and fiddle tunes
B. The African-American tradition including spirituals and work songs
C. The American Indian tradition including healing and ceremonial songs
D. Latinx traditions including music from Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America
E. Other traditions: French (Cajun and Zydeco), Scandinavian, Arab, and Asian
F. Folk Music as an instrument of advocacy including protest, freedom and Civil Rights songs
II. Popular Sacred Music from Psalmody to the Revival Spiritual
A. Psalm tunes and rural revivalism
B. Urban revivalism and gospel music
III. Popular Secular Music
A. Secular music in the cities from colonial times to the 1820s including military music, musical theater, and popular song
B. Musical theater and opera from the 1820s to the present including minstrelsy, vaudeville, and Broadway
C. Popular songs from the 1820s to the advent of rock & roll including parlor songs, band music, and Tin Pan Alley
IV. Offspring of the Rural South
A. Country music including honky-tonk, western swing, rockabilly, and bluegrass
B. The blues including boogie-woogie, call-and-response, classic, and urban blues
V. Jazz and Its Forerunners
A. Ragtime and other precursors of Jazz
B. Jazz including Dixieland, swing, bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, and contemporary
C. "The Spanish Tinge"—Latin influences in Jazz
VI. Popular Music in Postwar America
A. R&B and other Black popular styles leading to the development of rock & roll
B. Transatlantic developments in rock music including heavy metal, jazz-rock fusion, and punk rock
C. Latin jazz, dance, rock, and pop music
D. Black post-rock styles including soul, funk, and hip hop/rap
VII. Classical Music
A. The search for an American identity including early American composers
B. Twentieth-century innovations including modernism, serialism, and minimalism
C. Film and television music from Virgil Thomson to John Williams
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America's Musical Landscape. 8th ed. Ferris, Jean. McGraw-Hill. 2018 (classic)
American Music: A Panorama. 5th Concise ed. Candelaria, Lorenzo and Kingman, Daniel. Cengage. 2014 (classic)
Instructor prepared materials