American Popular Song at the Crossroads: The Brill Building Era, 1958-65

ARTM-228

Winter Semester, 2002

Professor Robynn Stilwell

Assessment

Listening quizzes 3 @ 25% each

This course is primarily a repertoire course, examining the musical, industrial, and cultural importance of a critical turning point in the history of popular music, one that is widely misunderstood even by scholars because of its transitional nature. The quizzes will test your ability to recognize recordings and associate them with the appropriate songwriters, producers, artists, and record labels. You will be asked further to answer brief questions regarding the significance of the recordings.

Essay 25%

In a brief (approximately 1500 word) essay, you will choose a topic which may be a songwriting team, a record label, a producer, a recording artist, a DJ, a record company executive, industrial practice, or any other similar topic (with approval from instructor), and examine the cultural, historical, and industrial position with reference to available historical literature, the recordings themselves, and record reviews, both from the period and the present day. Please keep in mind the reliability of your sources and read them critically; this is especially important for internet sources and reviews.

A brief overview of grading criteria:

A	going beyond a “B” by showing a real spark of originality and ingenuity
B	substantially correct on technical matters and containing a coherent argument
C	the least one could reasonably expect from an undergraduate student; may be only basic, or possibly well-argued but containing technical flaws
D	containing major flaws of reasoning, coherence, or technical matters but still having some merit on one or more elements; shows evidence of some learning from the course
F	lacking in all major criteria

Course schedule

	W 1/9 Course overview
M 1/14 Historical context/industrial practice	W 1/16 Burt Bacharach & Hal David
	W 1/23 Leiber & Stoller
M 1/28 Atlantic Records	W 1/30 Atlantic Records, continued
M 2/4 The Brill Building songwriters & producers	W 2/6 Brill Building, continued
M 2/11 Brill Building, continued	W 2/13 Quiz 1
	W 2/20 The Girl Singers
M 2/25 Motown	W 2/27 Motown, continued
M 3/11 Motown, continued	W 3/13 Stax
M 3/18 Stax, continued	W 3/20 Stax, continued
M 3/25 (buffer)	W 3/27 Quiz 2
	W 4/3 The British Invasion
M 4/8 Soul	W 4/10 On TV
M 4/15 On Broadway	W 4/17 Alumna: Carole King Tapestry Grace of My Heart
M 4/22 Alumnus: Neil Diamond Beautiful Noise The Jazz Singer (1980) Essays due	W 4/24 (buffer)
M 4/29 Quiz 3