I. Origins and Elements
A. American Popular Culture and Western Civilization
B. Organizational Methods and Critical Principles
D. The Psycho-Biology of Human Musical Responsivity
E. The Roots of Rock 'n' Roll
F. Differences Between Rock 'n' Roll and Jazz
G. Psycho-Historical Theories
2. Rock music and culture
H. Historical Recordings, Slides, and Musical Demonstrations
II. Mid-1950's (Begin)
A. Musical History of Black Blues
B. Emergence of the Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll
2. Northern urban Black Electrified Blues
C. Rock Becomes the Music of the Baby Boomer Generation
D. Rock Music and Culture Commercially Exploited
E. White Culture Co-Opts Black Culture
F. Historical and Representative Recordings, Slides, and
Musical Demonstrations
III. Mid-to-Late 1950's (Conclusion)
A. Psychological Stages of Development
2. Rock music and culture
B. "Why Elvis?" - Timing and Need in History
C. Early History of Rock 'n' Roll
D. Importance of American Historical Traditions to Rock
E. Historical and Representative Recordings, Slides, and
Musical Demonstrations
IV. Late 1950's to Early 1960's (Begin)
A. Personality of Emerging Rock Culture
3. Group (Narcissism and "Entitlement")
B. Conflicts Over Rock Music
1. Exemplified by Elvis Presley
C. Continuing Commercialization of Rock
1. Teen disposable income
3. Dreamy adolescence exploited
D. Organized Crime and the Business of Rock
E. Further Dilution of Black Elements in Rock
1. White Rock entrepreneurs
2. Pallid Pop-Rock (M.O.R.)
F. Celebrity Craze Continues
G. Representative Recordings, Slides, and Musical
Demonstrations
V. Early 1960's (Conclusion)
A. Rock Recovers from White Blanching
1. Rock generation growing older
2. More discriminating real Rock tastes
1. Rock as show biz for big bucks
2. Rock as the idealistic music of youth
D. Representative Recordings, Slides, and Musical
Demonstrations
VI. Early Mid-1960's
A. Traditional "Escapist" Aspects
B. The Cult of Youth Emerges
C. Rock and Folk Rock As a Medium
2. Reaction to the "Rat Race"
D. Representative Recordings, Slides, and Musical
Demonstrations
VII. Mid-1960's (British)
A. Social Unrest in British Society
2. Traditional class differences
B. Protests Among British Youth
1. Restrained upper class "Mods"
2. Aggressive lower class "Rockers"
1. Cleaned up by Brian Epstein
2. Total commercial packaging
D. Representative Recordings, Slides, and Musical
Demonstrations
VIII. Mid-1960's (Continued)
A. Rock Culture Enters Late Adolescence
1. Adulthood deferred for narcissistic hedonism
2. Increasing radical social and political protest through Rock
music and lyrics
B. Culture Becomes Intentionally Vulgar
2. Entrepreneurs discover that sex and protest sell
C. Rock Culture is Now Self-Sustaining
D. Representative Recordings, Slides, and Musical
Demonstrations
IX. Mid-1960's (Conclusion)
A. Passive Withdrawal from Competitive Rat Race
1. Whole Hippie/Beatnik syndrome
B. Moral Relativism Becomes Pervasive
C. Great Post WW II Education Boom Begins
1. Permissive philosophy and extended period of schooling
2. Beginning decline in educational and academic standards and
achievements
D. Serious Drug Culture Begins
E. The New Psychedelic Drug Culture is Commercially Exploited
F. Representative Recordings, Slides, and Musical
Demonstrations
X. Mid-to-Late 1960's
A. Rock Culture Firmly Rooted
1. Shared and sustained by Baby Boomers and Beatniks
2. Financially successful
3. Psychologically gratifying
5. Political mechanism for protest
1. Older, better Rock musicians bored
2. Extended forms, themes, and musicality
3. More sophisticated, older Rock audience
1. Rock culture growing older but not really growing up
2. Increasingly rigid and hostile Establishment culture
D. Representative Recordings, Slides, and Musical
Demonstrations
XI. Late 1960's to Early 1970's
A. Passive Resistance Becomes Active
1. Mostly white student radicals in academic setting
2. Ideal of quasi communalism proclaimed
B. Relativism Reaches Its Peak
1. "Participatory democracy" and curricular relevance run wild
2. Academic standards diluted if not disgraced
C. All Radical Movements Catalized by the Viet Nam War
D. Civil Rights Movements Erupts
E. Representative Recordings, Slides, and Musical
Demonstrations
XII. Early to Mid-1970's
A. "Radical Sixties" Subside
1. Viet Nam War winds down
2. Protest movements peaked out
B. The "Me Generation" Emerges
1. Indifference towards protest
2. Concern for good jobs, security, and material prosperity
C. Rock Music Goes Big Time
2. Celebrities preempt artistic concerns of Rock culture
D. Women's Lib Movement Emerges
E. Baby Boomers Beginning to Age
1. Yuppies elite minority
2. Downward mobile majority
3. Rock culture pervasively sensate
F. Rock Music Struggles with and for Artistic Integrity
2. The Pub/Punk Rock protest movements begin
G. Cult of Celebrity and Corruption of Art Continues
H. Representative Recordings, Slides, and Musical
Demonstrations
XIII. Mid-to-Late 1970's
A. The Pendulum of Protest Swings Back Toward
Anti-Establishment Activism
1. Anti-Rock establishment (Superstars)
2. Older established government and society
B. Passive Pub Protest Against Big Time Rock 'n' Roll
C. Gross Aggressive Punk Protest
D. Pub/Punk Protest Commercially Exploited
E. Rise and Displacement of Robotic Disco by Country and
Western
F. Representative Recordings, Slides, and Musical
Demonstrations
XIV. Late 1970's to Early 1980's
A. Serious Pub/Punk Protest Compromised
1. Artistic sell-out by big time Rock
2. Poor people and Rockers left behind
B. Eviscerated Punk Becomes Fashionable ("New Wave")
C. Beginning of Rock Altruism
1. Rock superstars become "good cause" activists
2. Numerous super charity concerts staged
3. Very little money reaches the poor and needy
D. Rock Videos Save the Rock Recording Industry
E. Representative Recordings, Slides, and Musical
Demonstrations
XV. Mid-to-Late 1980's
A. "The Eclectic Eighties"
1. Mixture of a wide variety of styles
2. Amazing high technology
3. Nostalgia for the roots of Rock 'n' Roll (Black R & B)
B. Gathering Alarm about Increasing Vulgarity, Violence, and
Psycho-Sexual Aberrations
1. Mounting counter counter-culture movement by Establishment
academics and intellectuals, including censorship
2. Beginnings of an organized defense of Rock music and culture
C. Representative Recordings, Slides, and Musical
Demonstrations
XVI. Late 1980's to the 21st Century
A. Impact of Rock Music and Culture on American Civilization
1. Rock as a cause for serious cultural change
2. Rock as a symptom of deeper causes of a crisis in Western
civilization
B. Projections into the 1990's and beyond
C. Arguments For and Against Rock Music and Culture Reviewed
and Balanced
1. Long range "lessons of history"
2. Unique aspects of American popular culture as exemplified by
Rock 'n' Roll
3. Was--is--Rock a passing fad or a true force for cultural
change?
D. Projective Recordings, Slides, and Musical Demonstrations
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