Music Geography- help w/topics for my summer class
mr.brett
678 Posts
I???m a teaching assistant for a world regional geography class and I???m going to teach an entire class on my own this summer. I have to teach a two hour class every day and want to include some music topics in there to keep things interesting. There???s a whole field of music geography that I need to start looking into (I???ve been busy with my thesis), but I was wondering if people could suggest some topics, papers, or videos that might be worthwhile material for these lectures/discussions. The class covers Latin America, North America, and Europe. In the past I???ve talked about the following topics:-The birth of hip-hop. I plan on expanding this topic and have O-dub???s book, so I???ll be able to draw on lots of material from there. I???ve talked a little about the relation to Jamaica dj???s as well. -Funk Carioca (aka Baile Funk) & Bossa Nova. I talk about the history of Brazilian music, Carnival, and Funk Carioca???s relationship to favelas. I also talk a little bit about the globalization of Funk Carioca and play some diplo tunes.I would to expand the topics above and develop talks about the following topics:-Reggae-Globalization of Cuban music + Cuban music in general. My good friend did his thesis on the Globalization of Cuban music and interviewed some members of the Buena Vista Social Club/Afro Cuban All-Stars, so I???ve got some good material here. (On a side note, they don???t like Ry Cooder and the documentary is somewhat of a joke) -I also want to do something with the globalization of Latin music in general??? does anyone know of any articles, scholarly or otherwise, that are critical of the marketing of ???world music????-Capeoria- it might be interesting to talk about globalization of capeoria and its??? influence on breakdancing. -Hip-Hop regionalism and globalization-The birth and development of blues and jazzI???m open to other topics as well. Whatever I talk about, it has to have a spatial component to it. Merely talking about Hip-Hop is not appropriate. The birth, regional stylistic characteristics, or globalization of hip-hop become geographic in nature when framed in terms of uniqueness and influence of place, influence on the culture/identity of a place etc.Thanks.
Comments
Dude. If you're talking about Can't Stop Won't Stop, O-Dub is not Jeff Chang. There is more than one Asian guy who writes about hip-hop, do not get them mixed up.
Who are you teaching the class to? College students?
Sorry 0-dub. My mistake.
Yeah... college students- there's usually a high percentage of freshmen and sophomores.
-Roots & Rastafarianism
-Jazz behind the Iron Curtain
-Protest music of Turkey
-Swinging Addis Ababa before Socialist upheaval of Haile Selassie
-Fela Kuti and his struggles with the Nigerian government
-Bollywood and the devotion/idolization of the actors, actresses and singers involved
-I find Reggaeton to be interesting, but I don't know what type of study could be done with it.
related to gypsies migration patterns (spain to EASTeUROPE)
African rythms and their impact on brazilian music
afro peruano music and lifestyle
This is interesting. My girl worked for World Circuit for a couple of years a while back, and met Cachaito, Guajiro and Ibrahim Ferrer during that time. They were generally pretty discreet, but then she doesn't speak Spanish, so they couldn't have been that indiscreet anyway. She used to do licensing, amongst other things, and they used to get a lot of requests to use songs like "Chan Chan" in movies, ads and TV shows. All of these requests had to be approved by Ry Cooder as well as Montuno (o/b/o BVSC), and he'd usually refuse to approve 'em. This meant that the BVSC members probably missed out on a lot of money, so maybe this is why they don't like him so much. General perception of Cooder seems to be that he's kind of grouchy and a bit difficult to deal with, although there's an argument to be made that maybe he's earned the right to be difficult.
My girl is still tight with the press officer over there. If you like, I can hook you up. He might have some useful connections. PM me if you're interested.
and / or
Reggae/soundsystem culture in Jamaican society
This book would be a good resource:
http://www.amazon.com/This-Reggae-Music-Story-Jamaicas/dp/0802138284
It also delves into the reggae scene among teh Jamaican immigrant population in London
Also, (I know you said North and South America and Europe) but looking at teh role of Zimbabwean Chimmurenga (literally "struggle" music) during its independence struggle in the 70s and 80s would be really interesting.
I posted this last week:
http://www.soulstrut.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=842743&an=0&page=3#Post842743
Accordions - how polka came over from Germany and Poland and influenced music in Mexico, Brazil and elsewhere
Memphis - where country and blues birthed rock and roll
Anyway, point is that the documentary talked about how between 1920-1930, record labels were recording anyone and everyone from all walks of life, all areas of the country, and one was able to hear a "regional sound", and sometimes different sounds/styles within the same county or town. I know in Hawaiian music, it is very much the same. Some love the Oahu sound, but that is very different from "Maui style", or "Big Island style", "Kauai style", be it the tunings, the vocal harmonies, and sometimes a certain way an artist writes. In blues, jazz, country, and bluegrass, one was able to do that. One theory suggests that as music and records became more widespread, it wasn't about keeping the traditions of a family or group, people wanted to tap into that sound. As with jazz, even in the 50's, you have people debating the St. Louis sound vs. New Orleans, New York jazz vs. Chicago vs. the West Coast sound. Same with hip-hop, it was all about the regions at first and wanting respect for their own sound. In time it got more homogenized, and when a sound became popular, everyone wanted to sound just like that.
The deterioration of regional music, perhaps a misnomer because if you travel and find musicians, you will still find people with their own sound. It may be on the back porch, at the park, musicians playing just for the sake of playing. The importance of that is not so much lost, it's not being taught. If it's not clean shaven, without a date or "secret sex tape", it doesn't exist. Maybe the casual music listener doesn't care, but the discussion can talk about the importance of documenting and archiving not only the music, but what life was like during a certain era, described in that music. The first half of the 1900's is a time when much was documented in sound. The second half was the TV era, and perceptions changed. Embedded in those recordings is a sense of what life was, and like now, it wasn't about wanting to follow, but wanting to know somewhere else 100, 500, 3000 miles away exists, plays and enjoys music the same way you do. In a way, it's not unlike the early days of rec.music.hip-hop where, due to the technology of the time, it was all about "talking" hip-hop. The circle became more than just friends at school, I was now able to get a mix tape from Rhode Island, or Bend, Oregon. Perhaps hip-hop is too big to talk about regions anymore, although when "The Source" first started, I enjoyed reading the scene reports. If you look at those back issues, around the time the scene reports disappeared was also around the same time Def Jam moved to Polygram, the rise of YO! MTV Raps, and the music became much bigger than before. If the "golden era" was a testing ground, 1990-1993 was about manic inbreeding, which had its good and bad sides. Everything that happened between 1990-1993 can be seen and felt today, be it hip-hop or the MASSIVE GRUNGE MOVEMENT. Has there really been a regional rage since the Seattle scene broke big in 1991? It seemed once everyone started dying off, and MTV lost patience with sarcasm, they entered into the N*SYNC/Backstreet Boys/Carson Daly era and showed that if there could be one global radio station, MTV would be the source of the transmission. Combine that alleged unity with more people jumping onto the internet, and there was no need to listen to what was going on in your town if someone else could dictate that for you.
What makes a lot of music unique and worth looking for is that sense of regionalism. Even Bollywood music, even if it showed hints of what was going on in the U.S. and Europe, a lot of the quirkiness found on those records comes from an Indian asthetic that I can read about, and appreciate from afar.
Talk about that for a bit.
Do you remember any of the specifics here? I assume he's not just talking about Sam Bush doing "Is This Love."
No, he wasn't. I'm not sure if it stands up and it was 8 years ago, but I think he discussed how both genres can be traced back to the nyahbingi drum pattern...
and while bluegrass has strayed father from it's roots, you can still hear it in its emphasis on the up-beat...
Like I said, it was a while ago so I don't really remember the specifics..