ADST 310: Issues in Afro-Atlantic Studies
The Popular Music of Africa and the Diaspora
Wednesday 6-9PM
Newcomb 316a
Christopher Dunn (cjdunn@)
Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30-5PM or by appointment
The last twenty years has seen the extraordinary proliferation of electrified and mass-mediated popular music from Africa and the African Diaspora. Interest in these musical cultures has grown dramatically in the United States due in part to popular radio programs such as "Afropop Worldwide" (formerly broadcast by NPR and now by PRI) and successful European and American tours of African performers such as King Sunny Adé, Miriam Makeba, Fela Kuti, Manu Dibango, Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare, Kanda Bongo Man, Thomas Mapfumo, Youssou N’Dour, Baaba Maal, and Angélique Kidjo and diasporic performers such as Gilberto Gil, Olodum, Carlinhos Brown, Boukman Eksperyans, Susana Baca, Joe Arroyo, Juan Luis Guerra, David Rudder, Cubanismo, Buena Vista Social Club and any number of reggae artists.
This course is an introductory survey of contemporary popular music of Africa and the African Diaspora. Emphasis is on listening, recognizing, and appreciating diverse styles, their relation to traditional music, their hybrid transformations in recent decades, and their engagement with electronic media technologies. Much of this music foregrounds the dilemmas of modernization, modernity, and postcoloniality in the developing world. We will focus particularly on the multi-valent social and political meanings of black popular music within local, national, and global contexts. Through popular music we will gain insight into the culture and society of several African, Caribbean, and South American nations.
This course has been designed as a seminar and therefore I expect everyone to participate in class discussions. Each student should choose one book to review which is due on the day of class discussion for that particular title. We will be listening to relevant music samples during each class period. However, most of the listening must be done in the Howard-Tilton Music Library. I have prepared mixed tapes featuring a broad range of musical styles. You should spend about an hour per week listening to these tapes which will prepare you for class discussion and for the final exam which will include a music identification section.
WWOZ-FM (90.7) also features several music programs which are relevant to this course:
Spirits of Congo Square: Sunday, 10pm-2am
Sabor Latino: Saturday, 11am-2pm
Tudo Bem--Brazilian Music: Saturday, 2-4pm
African and Caribbean Journey: Saturday, 8-10pm
Reggae Show: Saturday, 10-12pm
Course Evaluation
1) Regular class attendance and participation in discussions.........20%
2) One critical review of selected text (2-3 pages).....................10%
3) Mid-semester exercise.................................................20%
4) Final paper (8-10 pages)..............................................30%
4) Final Exam..............................................................20%
Graduate students will write a 20-page research paper for 50% of the grade.
Reading List
Ray Allen and Lois Wilcken (eds.) Island Sounds in the Global City: Caribbean Popular Music & Identity in New York.
Frances R. Aparicio. Listening to Salsa: Gender, Latin Popular Music, and Puerto Rican Cultures
Carolyn Cooper. Noises in the Blood Orality, Gender, and the 'Vulgar' Body of Jamaican Popular Culture.
Jocelyne Guilbault. Zouk: World Music in the West Indies.
Gerhard Kubik. Africa and the Blues.
George Lipsitz. Dangerous Crossroads: Popular Music, Postmodernism, and the Poetics of Place.
Robin Moore. Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution in Havana, 1920-1940
Mark Anthony Neal. What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture
Timothy Taylor. Global Pop: World Music, World Markets.
Christopher Waterman. Juju: A Social History and Ethnography of an African Popular Music.
Hermano Vianna. The Mystery of Samba: Popular Music and National Identity in Brazil.
Course Schedule
Jan. 12: Introduction: David Byrne, "I Hate World Music"
Jan. 19: Global Pop
Jan. 26: What the Music Said
Feb. 2: Dangerous Crossroads
Feb. 9: Nationalizing Blackness (1-113)
February 12: Buena Vista Social Club, 8PM at Saenger Theatre
Feb. 16: Nationalizing Blackness (114-228)
Feb 23: The Mystery of Samba
March 1: Special Guest: John Patton (Department of Communications)
Carnival Break
March 15: Island Sounds in the Global City
March 22: Listening to Salsa
March 29: Listening to Salsa
April 5: Noises in the Blood
April 12: Zouk (skip part II)
April 19: Juju
April 26: Africa and the Blues
Monday May 1: Final papers due
Wednesday May 3, 6:00-9:00PM: Final Exam
Supplemental Bibliography
Paul Austerlitz. Merengue: Dominican Music and Domincan Identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997.
Gage Averill. A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey: Popular Music and Power in Haiti. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
Houston Baker, Jr. Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Sean Barlow and Banning Eyre. Afropop! An Illustrated Guide to Contemporary African Music.
Gerard Béhague. Music and Black Ethnicity: The Caribbean and South America. Miami: North-South Center, 1994.
Wolfgang Bender. Sweet Mother: Modern African Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Barbara Browning. Samba: Resistance in Motion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
David Coplan. In Township Tonight! South Africa’s Black City Music and Theatre. New York: Longman, 1985.
Cowley, John. Carnival, Canboulay and Calypso: Traditions in the Making. Cambridge UP, 1999
John Miller Chernoff. African Rhythm and African Sensibility. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.
Francis Bebey. African Music: A People's Art. Lawrence Hill Books, 1997.
Yvonne Daniels. Rumba: Dance and Social Change in Contemporary Cuba. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Manu Dibango with Danielle Rovard. Three Kilos of Coffee: An Autobiography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
Velt Erlmann. African Stars: Studies in Black South African Performance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Velt Erlmann. Nightsong. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Graham Ewings. Africa O-Ye! A Celebration of African Music. New York: Da Capo Press, 1992.
Ronnie Graham. The Da Capo Guide to African Music. New York: Da Capo Press, 1988.
Paul Gilroy. Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Dick Hebdige. Cut ‘n’ Mix: Culture, Identity and Caribbean Music. London: Routledge, 1987.
Deborah Pacini Hernandez. Bachata: A Social History of Dominican Popular Music
Donald Hill. Calypso Callaloo Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993.
Peter Manuel. Popular Music of the Non-Western World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Robert Palmer. Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta. New York: Penguin, 1981.
Louis Regis. The Political Calypso: True Opposition in Trinidad and Tobago 1962-1987. The University Of the West Indies Press
Tricia Rose. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1994.
Gary Stewart. Breakout: Profiles in African Rhythm. University of Chicago Press, 1992.
John Storm Roberts. Black Music of Two Worlds. Tivoli, NY: Original Music, 1972.
John Storm Roberts. The Latin Tinge. The Impact of Latin American Music on the United States. Tivoli, NY: Original Music, 1985.
Keith Q. Warner. Kaiso! The Trinidad Calypso: A Study of Calypso As Oral Literature
Most of these titles can be found in the Howard-Tilton Library. Some of them must be procured via inter-library loan.