Public Syllabus

The History of Music 101 Syllabus
Instructors: Savannah Cooley, Allison Salo, Wajiha Fawaz, and John Gonek
Course Meeting Times: Monday and Wednesday from 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Course Description and Importance
     Our lives are surrounded by music daily. Whether we have it playing in the background or we are singing along to it in the car. Music is always there, and it has been for decades. The interesting part about music is how far along it’s come from the 1920s to the 21st century. The genres of music have drastically changed from swing music with the blues all the way to rap and pop rock. Music has changed throughout history but it has also changed history. Music has opened countless gateways between topics like race and gender. Some people don’t understand the amount of importance that music has brought to the world, more specifically the United States of America. Over the past decades music has evolved substantially and has largely affected and shaped the culture in the US.
     Throughout the entire human history, music has been a natural recreation that occupies our lives in a thousand ways. Being surrounded by music has become part of our daily lives, whether by listening to it on the radio, in the car, or at clothing stores in the mall. Music holds a cultural taste and acts as a snapshot that enables people to visualize what it was like during that time period. Reading about the history of music can inform us the events that occured during that century, but it can never carry the feelings or emotions like the music itself does. For example, when one reads about the Great Depression, they can envision the hardships that people went through, but listening to Blues music, which encompasses the sorrow and the pain the nation encountered during the 1930’s, allows them to dive deep into the feeling of the decade. Music is a living being that continues to grow alongside technology, and continues to expand and reform, as we experiment with it. Music represents the voice of every generation; all the fears, the worries, and the victories are expressed through it.
     Over time music has changed drastically. When music became widely available to many Americans in the 1920s due to radio it was often simplistically written. As the decades progressed, music has gotten more complicated in both the lyrics and the music itself.  The themes that music deals with are often reflective of the time that the music is made. This is best exemplified during the late 1960s where a large amount of American music contained anti-Vietnam war themes. There has been other times when music contained certain anti-establishment themes, but none as often as those written during the 1960s. What’s popular in music can definitely change in a short period of time. Even music written of the same genre will sound widely different depending on what year it is written. A Rock ‘n’ Roll song written in the 1950s will certainly be very different than a Rock ‘n’ Roll song written in the 1970s, same thing with a rap song written in the 1990s compared to the 2000s. American music has changed widley over time and every era of music has given us a different sound even in the same genre.
     All together music has immensely impacted countless people’s lives in America. Numerous people are surrounded by music everyday. They listen to it for various reasons, such as to relieve stress or to feel a sense of happiness. Society is partially shaped by music, but music is also shaped by society. This is because music is very popular and when people listen to songs it creates new trends, but also artists want to appeal to the population so they create music that society will enjoy. Music has changed vastly, it was once only available as records, then cd’s, eventually it aired on the radio, and currently there is music videos being produced. Each decade there is a new genre of music that is popular which reflects the time period its produced in. Music of the same genre can sound completely different but each genre has distinctive characteristics that make them their own unique category of music.
Course Schedule
Week 1: 1920’s Jazz music with influence of dance
20sss
Primary source:
Secondary sources:

Week 2: 1930’s Swing music
30s.png
Primary source:
Secondary sources:

Week 3: 1940’s Jazz music along with big band sound
40s.jpg
Primary source:
  • Hot Big Band. “COUNT BASIE Swingin’ the Blues, 1941 HOT big band swing jazz.” YouTube commentary by That1940sguy, 15 Oct, 2008,
Secondary sources:

Week 4: 1950’s Rock n’ Roll music
50s.gif
Primary sources:
Secondary sources:

Week 5: 1960’s Folk and roots rock music
60s.jpg
Primary source:
  • “Playboy Interview With John Lennon and Yoko Ono.” Playboy Interview With John Lennon and Yoko Ono, www.whale.to/b/lennon1.html.
Secondary sources:

Week 6: 1970’s Disco, funk, and rock music
70s.png
Primary source:
Secondary sources:

Week 7: 1980’s Dance and new wave
80s.jpg
Primary sources:
Secondary sources:

Week 8: 1990’s Rap and pop punk music
90s
Primary source:
Secondary sources:

Week 9:  2000’s Hip Hop and post music
2000s.jpg
Primary source:
  • Eminem. “Eminem 2000 Interview.” YouTube commentary by EminemFanpage2010, 19 Nov, 2010,
Secondary sources:
  • “Hip-Hop’s golden age isn’t the 1990s, it’s the 2000s.” FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music., 4 Feb. 2016,
  • Kleinfield, N. R. “Guarding the Borders Of the Hip-Hop Nation.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 July 2000,

Week 10: 21st Century All genres
Primary source:
Secondary sources:

Assignments
After all 10 weeks of the course have been completed students are to complete the following two assignments:
1. For assignment one, write a paper with 500-1,000 words. The prompt for the paper is to compare and contrast music in the 1920s to music in the 21st century. Make sure to include how it has impacted culture as a whole and explain how music has changed throughout history, from era to era. Also students must use, and cite, at least two secondary and one primary source.
2. Assignment two is to make a collage. The prompt for this assignment is to collaborate each era into one collection. Students can use quotes, drawings, pictures, or anything else that can represent and symbolize a specific era. There must be at least two items to represent each era (a total of at least 20 items, 2 per era).

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