1. Analytical Unit 2: Music as Culture Reasoning: From
Enslavement to Freedom, a Productive
Life-long Learner
Music as Culture
Music has played a central role in the culture and sociopoliOcal strivings of African‐Americans. Using
the coded messages
of slave songs (field hollers, work songs and spirituals) as a background, discuss the contemporary
messages of hiphop
and the overarching development of jazz. How has commercializaOon impacted pop art and culture in
contemporary
society? How has this commercializaOon been exported to the world?
Unit Descrip?on:
Music adds the spice to life, since it directly and indirectly affects language, fashion, educaOon,
history,
and many other elements of human disOncOon. Students will consider the obvious and not‐so
obvious
connecOons between music and culture. In addiOon, students will explore the connecOons of
hip‐hop
to slave songs and Jazz and consider the affects of commercializaOon on music around the
world.
Unit Narra?ve:
Storytelling is the link, which Oes the American
Slave to the African. In West African culture the
Griot is an esteemed member of the community
who is charged with preserving the history of
the tribe or village. The Griot uses humor, drama
Oc narraOves, poetry, song and dance not
only to entertain but to glorify and extol the virtues
of the community at important cultural
events. This tradiOon of poetry, dance, and storytelling
combined and crossed the
waters with the enslaved African. The tradiOon
was carried forward by the field hollers, the
blues, jazz, and rap musics of the twenty first
century. Music is ohen labeled as a common
denominator, one of the greatest avenues of
unity among human groups around the planet.
The response to the death of music icon Michael Jackson would be a prime example of how
music can unite
those who seem worlds apart. Almost everyone connects with others via some type of music. So,
music directly
results from culture, and culture directly results from music. What beIer way to look at historical
elements
and connecOons than through the evoluOon of music itself. In this unit’s research tasks, students

2. have
wonderful opportuniOes to explore the connecOons between music and culture and the current
music trend
13
with which they idenOfy (hip‐hop) and its historical connecOons to slave songs and Jazz. They
also have the
opportunity to research the commercializaOon elements that affect music and, thereby, affect
culture.
Class 1
IntroducOon
A. Faculty IntroducOon
B. Class Goals
C. Review of Unit Syllabus
D. Class Guidelines and RegulaOons
E. Blog Intro and instrucOons
Bell, Ed; Lennon, Thomas, “Unchained Memories: Readings From the Slave NarraOves”, HBO
Documentary,
2003
Class 2
Timeline/history
A. YouTube examples to correlate with the Omeline
B. Excerpts maybe from the HBO series, or from the movie Love Jones
Conyers, James L. ed., “African American Jazz and Rap”, McFarland and Co., 2001.
hIp://books.google.com/books?
id=e9lTE2pmAlYC&dq=Jazz+Rap&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=‐
ZEwTJ_KEsKqlAeQsYWeCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=12&ved=0CFEQ6A
EwCw#v=onepage&q
&f=false
Class 3
YouTube Video examples
A. You Tube/ Video
1. Rap/Hip Hop
2. Jazz
3. Rap and Jazz
B. Blogging assignment 1 (Instructor’s choice of topic)
C. PresentaOon/Discussion
Daulatzai, Sohail; Dyson, Michel Eric, “Born to Use Mics:Reading’s Nas IllamOc”, Basic
Civitas Books, New York,
2010.
Als, Hilton, “The Next Music Mogul, The New Negro”, The New Yorker, 1997.
hIp://www.newyorker.com/archive/1997/10/20/1997_10_20_144_TNY_CARDS_000380491
Class 4
Oral Discussion ‐ show clip for Beyond Beats and Rhymes, which looks at misogyny and the
history.
A. Ideas, impression, criOcal discourse
B. Blogging assignment 2 (Instructor’s choice of topic)

3. 14
Class 5
Roots of Rap /Hip Hop
A. PresentaOon on African influences
B. Modern Influences ‐ guest speaker
Wastrous, Peter, “Review/Jazz; Rap Group Releases Album That Includes Disputed Song”, New
York Times,
1990.
hIp://www.nyOmes.com/1990/04/11/arts/review‐jazz‐rap‐group‐releases‐album‐that‐includes‐
disputed‐song
.html
Brody, Richard, ”MILES TO GO”, The New Yorker, 2010.
hIp://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2010/01/miles‐to‐go.html
Frere‐Jones, Sasha, “Doom’s Day, Madvillain redeems the pretensions of independent hip‐hop”,
The New
Yorker, 2004.
hIp://www.newyorker.com/arcive/2004/04/12/040412crmu_music#ixzz0sivsr979
Class 6
Minstrel Shows
A. Slave narraOves, audio and visual
B. Work songs/field hollers, audio and visual
C. Modern comedy shows, audio and visual
Pilgrim, David, “The Coon Caricature”, Oct. 2000.
hIp://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/coon/
Class 7
Quiz
Class 8
Group PresentaOon
A. Oral presentaOon by groups
B. Individual wriIen documentaOon
Youtube Resources
hIp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=‐eh16a7n_44&feature=related
Gang Starr‐ “Jazz thing”
hIp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot6j7Jf9al0
Miles Davis‐ “Fusion”
hIp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F22yKJRZoZc
Tribe called Quest‐ “Jazz (We’ve Got)”
hIp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54OlRNrnAes&feature=related
GURU‐“Hood Dreamin h. Solar”
hIp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRpdlij3GVo
Public Enemy‐ “Fight The Power”
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Reading List
• Bernard, Shane K., Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues, University Press of
Mississippi,
Jackson, Mississippi, 1996. (MenOons black Creole music, but not Creole folk songs.)

4. • Borders, Florence E., "Researching Creole and Cajun Musics in New Orleans," Black Music
Research
Journal, vol. 8, no. 1 (1988) 15‐31.
• Cable, George W., "The Dance in Place Congo," Century Magazine, vol. 31, Feb., 1886, pp.
517‐
532.
• McGinty, Doris E. and Nickerson, Camille, "The Louisiana Lady," The Black Perspec5ve in
Music,
vo. 7, no. 1 (Spring, 1979) 81‐94.
• Nickerson, Camille, Africo‐Creole Music in Louisiana; a thesis on the planta5on songs
created by
the Creole negroes of Louisiana, Oberlin College, 1932.
• Perone, James E., Louis Moreau GoOschalk, a Bio‐Bibliography, Greenwood Press,
Westport,
ConnecOcut, 2002.
• Scarborough, Dorothy, On the Trail of Negro Folk‐Songs, Harvard University Press, 1925.
• Starr, S. Frederick, Bamboula! The Life and Times of Louis Moreau GoOschalk, Oxford
University
Press, 2000.
• Tiersot, Julien, "Notes d'ethnographie musicale: La Musique chez les peuples indigenes de
l'Amerique du Nord," Sammelbande der Interna5onalen MusikgesellschaS 11 (1910); 141‐231.
Melodies only, with musicological notes.
• Tiersot, Julien, Chansons Negres, Heugel, Paris, 1933.
• Veillon, Ching, Creole Music Man: Bois Sec Ardoin, Xlibris, 2003