Thursday 4 February 2010

History and impact of pop music and pop culture

History of pop music in America / from rock to hip-hop
What is its impact on our lives?
How does it relate to the Fine Arts?

Has pop music been partly responsible for eroding the deleterious dictatorships and totalitarian regimes of the world?

The Dance Theater of Harlem recently performed classical European ballet moves to the James Brown funk song, "Mother Popcorn." The unexpected collision of the historical fine arts and the classical modern expression worked marvelously. People were amused and enlightened by the juxtaposition.

Specs:
- 10 slides on the assigned topic, 10 on your choice of additional topic.
- 3 recordings - mp3's - on each topic.
- Brief printed explanation to accompany each slide.
- store in Google Docs.

1. Gospel - what about gospel music provides a background for pop?
2. Folk - which fold musics have been inspirational to pop artists? Which folk songs have won a place in pop culture alongside rock and R n B?
3. Country music - what parts of country music contributed to the birth of r n r? How has country become sort of a variation of rock?
4. Blues - what qualities of the blues are bedrock parts of pop?
5. R n B - early forms of RnB were called Race music and were immediate predecessors to the rock revolution.
6. Leo Fender and the revolutionary aspects of developing the Fender guitars, amps and bass.
Part One: the Strat and the Tele.
7. Leo Fender 2: pop music and the impact of the P Bass and the Jazz Bass, too.
8. Leo Fender 3: guitar amplifiers that changed the world - the Deluxe, the Bassman, the Super.
9. Les Paul and the Gibson Les Paul guitar and pop music.
10. Les Paul and multi-track recording. Pop music and technology.
11. Hair and the excitement and image of pop stars.
12. Costumes of pop music: from the ducktail to the feather boa.
13. Dance and pop music: get them on the dance floor and you will be a success.
14. Drugs and pop culture. From Liquor to Horse to PCP.
15. Urban and African-American slang and pop music. The language of pop.
16. Movies that brought pop music and pop culture to the masses.
17. TV and the pop star: how TV fed the appetite and spread the culture of pop.
18. Radio and the development of pop.
19. 1950's rock: the initial revolutionary confluence of musics and heroic performers.
20. Black culture meets white culture and America is revolutionized.
21. British rock: in the 1960's talented people in one European nation shook the smug Yanks.
22. Singer-songwriters and pop music: in the 7o's multi-talented performers established a sort of folk-rock category.
23. Punk: the British and the urban background of million-sellers like Green Day.
24. Psychedelia: drug-drenched, stately pop music that reflected poetic space journeys.
25. Metal and Heavy rock: grinding guitars and basic riffs seem eternally part of pop.
26. Progressive rock: jazzy and complicated.
27. Icons: Ray Charles
28. Icons: Little Richard
29. Icon: Chuck Berry
30. Icon: Michael Jackson
31. Icon: the Beatles
32. Icon: Jimi Hendrix
33. Icon: Bob Dylan
34. Icon: Prince
35. Icon: Stevie Wonder
36. Modern icon: Radiohead

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