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RSU Music History
MUSC 3723
Fall 2004 Professor: Hugh Foley, Ph.D.
Office Phone: 918-343-7566 e-mail: hfoley@rsu.edu Office: Baird Hall 105
Wed. 2p – 4:30 BH107 Foley website: www.rsu.edu/faculty/hfoley/
Course Description: Music History, MUSC 3723, acquaints students with significant historical developments in music as it has progressed through the ages. This particular section of the course is devoted to the development and social significance of American popular music.
Textbooks and Resources:
Carney, George O., and Hugh W. Foley, Jr. Oklahoma Music Guide. Stillwater, OK: New
Forums, 2003.
Starr, Larry, and
Christopher Waterman. American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to
MTV. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Course Objectives:
In addition to understanding the progression of American popular music from the American colonial period through the present, students should also be able to contextualize contemporary popular music in the scope of its antecedents and influences. Objectives of the course are to elevate the student’s understanding of how popular music reflects and influences society, how Oklahoma musicians specifically have influenced American popular music, and to further enhance the student’s expressive, communicative, and critical skills through writing about popular music.
Policies,
Procedures, and Course Requirements
Contacting the professor: I often receive as many as fifty or more e-mail messages per day. Therefore, whenever writing me, make sure to title your e-mail “Music History Question” so I will know to give it priority. In addition, thanks in advance for including your name on the e-mail so I don’t have to guess your identity based on a cryptic e-mail address. I generally can get to your e-mail within twenty-four hours, and often in a much shorter time. However, I typically don’t get back to you until Monday if you e-mail me on a Friday afternoon.
Written Work Font and Format: All work should be typed in a 12 font using Times New Roman, the same font and style that is on this syllabus. All work should also be double-spaced.
Assessment Tools:
1. Book review: Students will write a 1,000-word book review of a book about popular music that was published in the last five years. Students can find a number of these books in the RSU Library. A book review format would be as follows:
a. thesis about the book, i.e., “J.J. Rockman’s Guitars, Cadillacs, and Groupies is an excellent book about the rock lifestyle because it examines the pleasures and pitfalls of being signed to a major label, the monotony of playing in a touring rock band, and the destructive temptations of working in the entertainment business.”
b. at least three quotes from the book to support the thesis
c. at least one quote from a published review of the book
d. Due: September 29th.
2. Music History Compact Disc Journal: Students are provided with two compact discs in the textbook American Popular Music:From Minstrelsy to MTV. The discs have a total of 43 songs on them. Students should complete a detailed journal about the music on the discs, and students should determine the following information about each track:
a. Significance of the artist or artists on the track.
b. Significance of the individual song on the track for the artist, composer, or genre.
c. Year of song’s initial release, and/or subsequent performance by the artist listed on the track.
d. What influences from previous genres or artists are present in the track, and what influence, if any did the track or artist have on subsequent recordings or artists.
e.
Due: November 17.
3.
Oklahoma’s influence on American music
a.
Using the Oklahoma Music Guide, students will make a list of
the artists, groups, tribes, and musical movements on pages 2 and 3 of the
guide. After listing the individual artist, group, musical movement, or tribe,
students should indicate what chapter in American Popular Music that the
entries should be associated with, and a one sentence justification for that
chapter assignment. If entries could go in more than one chapter, that can also
be expressed in the entry, although only one chapter listing for each entry is
necessary. Due December 6.
4.
Mid-term exam after Chapter 7, Final Exam after Chapter 14.
Grading policy:
1. Book Review 25%
2. Compact Disc Research Journal 25%
3. Oklahoma Music Influences 25%
4. Mid-term and final averaged together 25%
100% - 90% = A, 89% - 80% = B, 79% -70% = C, 69% - 60% = D, Below 60% = F
Academic
Integrity: Plagiarism
is a form of academic dishonesty in which a student represents someone else’s
work as his or her own. To avoid plagiarism, when you use someone else’s data,
arguments, designs, words, ideas, project, etc., you must make it clear that the
work originated with someone else by citing the source. Any work received by the
instructor and determined to be plagiarized will initiate a lengthy and rather
unpleasant series of administrative events detailed in the following section,
“Academic Misconduct.”
Academic
Misconduct: Students
are expected to follow university policies as put forth in the institution’s Student
Code of Responsibilities and Conduct at www.rsu.edu/scode
ADA
Statement: If
you have special physical, psychiatric, or learning disabilities, please let me
know so that your learning needs may be appropriately met. You will need to
provide documentation of your disability to the office of Student Relations.
Attendance Policy: None. Students can correspond with
the instructor via e-mail or meet with the instructor during regularly scheduled
office hours.
Late Work: The instructor will accept work up
to one week after is due, but students should not expect it to be returned until
the next grading cycle that will occur when the next assignment is due.
Closure Statement: The
schedule and procedures of this course are subject to change in the event of
extenuating circumstances. (University Closure Statement, IRPAA 8/25/99, p. 25).