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Anthropology of Music: Music in
the Post-9/11 World
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The events of September 11, 2001,
radically altered the
trajectory of American domestic and foreign policies, prompting a
series of reactions and counter-reactions that have set a contentious
tone for global relations in the early 21st century. At the same time,
these events resonated with surprising force in the world of music
production and reception, both within and beyond the borders of the
United States. This course, designed principally for junior and senior
music majors, seeks to probe the messy intersection of music, politics,
and violence in the weeks and months immediately following 9/11. After
establishing a theoretical framework for conducting a historical and
music-centered investigation of the recent past, we will engage in five
large tasks:
1. We will listen critically to a
representative sample of the
large and
heterogeneous
body of domestic pop,country,
and rap music composed
and performed in the wake of
9/11 (e.g. Bruce
Springsteen's The Rising,
Toby Keith's
"Courtesy of the Red
White and Blue [the Angry
American]", John
Adams' On the Transmigration of
Souls,
Wu Tang Clan's
"Rules")
2. We will chart a number of post-9/11 changes
to the
music industry (e.g.
widespread corporate self-
censorship, visa
problems for international artists).
3. We will survey a number of musical
reactions to 9/11
from outside the
United States (e.g. post-9/11 songs from
Peruvian Andes,
Afghanistan, and Egypt).
4. We will read through some of the most
interesting post-
9/11 scholarship and
fiction (from Judith Butler's
Precarious Life to
Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely
Loud
and incredibly Close).
5. We will document musical reactions
to 9/11 that
occurred in New York
City.
With the last task in mind, students will produce an original history
of a musical reaction to 9/11, based on archival and/or ethnographic
work. These histories, along with audio recordings and photographs,
will then be published online in a venue to be determined.
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