MU121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: American Folk Music Revival
Mu121 lecture 3
3. Cultural changes and social issues
This course will also be mindful that rock ‘n’ roll has been molded by cultural changes and
social issues. We will pay attention to scholarly work on rock's politics of resistance
(subcultures, race, gender, sexuality, protest music) and compliance (commercialisation,
commodification) in order to trace the diverse social functions of rock throughout its history.
It will seek to answer questions such as:
• • What is the social function of rock?
• • How has society and culture impacted the music?
• • How has rock negotiated questions of power, elitism, gender and sexuality?
• • How has rock been revolutionary and instigated social change?
• • How has rock been both compliant with and challenged authority?
• • How has rock been both compliant with and challenged commercialisation and
rock?
• • How has rock functioned as protest music?
• • How has rock captured the spirit of the times?
Musicians during the American folk revival were important instigators
of social change.
Here Peter, Paul and Mary sing at a civil rights rally (Courtesy of W.W. Norton and Company)
4. The discourse of authenticity
Finally, we will concentrate on the way we give music value and what we mean when
we say that a certain artist is authentic whereas another seems fake. Rock critics,
fans and musicians have developed certain notions of what is authentic in rock and
what is inauthentic. For these critics mainstream pop is generally thought to be
inauthentic because the artists are considered only “in it for the money,” whereas
artists that convince us they live the life they sing about are authentic. MU121 will
Document Summary
Mu121 lecture 3: cultural changes and social issues. This course will also be mindful that rock n" roll has been molded by cultural changes and social issues. We will pay attention to scholarly work on rock"s politics of resistance (subcultures, race, gender, sexuality, protest music) and compliance (commercialisation, commodification) in order to trace the diverse social functions of rock throughout its history. Musicians during the american folk revival were important instigators of social change. Here peter, paul and mary sing at a civil rights rally (courtesy of w. w. norton and company: the discourse of authenticity. Finally, we will concentrate on the way we give music value and what we mean when we say that a certain artist is authentic whereas another seems fake. Rock critics, fans and musicians have developed certain notions of what is authentic in rock and what is inauthentic.
