Mus 345.01    “Ethnic,” Regional, and Border Musics in the US      Dr. Ron Emoff    

            Our primary goal in this class will be to explore, critique, analyze, muse upon, and enjoy components of the conception, production, performance, and reception of particular musics in the U.S., those played at its margins.  Musical borders have commonly encompassed more than  geographic boundaries, to include divisions drawn upon social status, class, ancestry, political stance, economic background, or religious conviction..  The quotation marks around the term "ethnic" are meant to indicate that notions of ethnicity have often been politically, socially, historically–and sometimes un-insightfully polarized–some conceptions of ethnicity  thus are problematic or misinformed. 

We will investigate historically the musical practices of each chosen group, and  we will investigate some of the  stereotypes  of varied groups projected in  popular media (movies, tv, music video, etc.).  We will look at the varied  means by which people have creatively expressed themselves in  milieux  of marginality in the U.S. 

            This class is designed to accommodate students with no prior musical experience, as well as to be captivating  to students who do have prior musical experience and knowledge.

                                                Tentative Weekly Schedule

Week 1           Introduction; thoughts on ethnicity, globalization, localization, race, class, nation, "cultural pluralism"

Read               Michael Omi and Howard Winant,  Racial Formations in the  U.S.

                        Charles Keil, "Ethnic Musics in the U.S..."

                        Richard Alba, Ethnic Identity: The Transformation of White America

Week 2  and Week 3

Cajuns and Créoles in  Louisiana (We’ll watch some of Les Blank’s docufilms, and some of the popular cinema film,Southern Comfort )

Read               Doris Tentchoff, "Ethnic Survival Under Anglo-American Hegemony"

                        Mathé Allain, "They Don't Even Talk Like Us..."

                        Ron Emoff, “A Cajun Poetics of Loss and Longing”    

                        Virginia Dominguez, White by Association

Week 4 and Week 5

Texas-Mexican musics (We’ll watch Les Blank's Chulas Fronteras).

Read               Manuel Peña, The Texas-Mexican Conjunto

                        Jose Limon,  "Texas-Mexican Popular Dancing"

Week 6  and Week 7

Bluegrass, Newgrass, Dawg, Spacegrass, New Old-timey  (We’ll watch Les Blank's Sprout Wings and Fly;  scenes from the movies Bonnie and Clyde  and Deliverance;   the bluegrass documentary entitled High and Lonesome;  scenes from Oh Brother Where Art Thou? )

Read               The 2 assigned chapters from Robert Cantwell’s book,Bluegrass Breakdown ; articles from All That Glitters is not Gold.

Week 8           Hip hop/rap––sampling; misogyny? racism? violence? carving out a space in the inner city/elsewhere?

( We’ll watch segments of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing ;  Boyz' n the Hood , Welcome to Death Row... ). 

Read               Russel Potter, Spectacular Vernaculars

                        Bell Hooks, Outlaw Culture

                        Chuck D,  Fight the Power

Tricia Rose, “Hidden Politics: Discursive and Institutional Policing of Rap Music,”  and “Flow, Layering, and Rupture in Post-Industrial New York.”

Week 9           Hawai'i; tourism, colonialism, militarism, ethnic re-vitalization;  slack-key guitar, hula, lounge music; (We’ll watch Les Blank's Puamana; Hawaiian Rainbow; segments of Bing Crosby films...).

Read               George Lewis, "Da Kine Sounds" and  "Beyond the Reef"       

Week10          Intro to Native American popular musics, and intro to Klezmer

Read               James Riding In, "The Politics of the Columbus Celebration"

                        Johnny Flynn,  "Christopher Columbus and the Problem of History"

                        Whidden, "North American Native Music"

                        Mark Slobin, "Klezmer Music"

                        Feldman, "The Transformation of a Klezmer Dance Genre"