European Popular Music
MUSICOL 333

Prof: Inna Naroditskaya
innarod@gmail.com

Monday-Wednesday, 12:30-1:50



Course Plan

W 1 Oct. 1 Intro: What is popular music?!
Oct. 3 · Simon Frith, “The Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent: Defending Popular Culture from the Populists;”
· Frith, “Look! Hear! The Uneasy Relationship of Music and Television”
· Irving Wolther, More than Just Music: the Seven Dimensions of the Eurovision Song Contest”
W 2 Oct. 8 France · Harold B. Segel, “Fin de siecle Cabaret”
· Keith Reader, “Flaubert Sparrow or the Bovary of Belleville: Edith Piaf as Cultural Icon”
(· Andy Fry, “'Du jazz hot à "La Créole"': Josephine Baker Sings Offenbach”)

Oct. 10 ----- · Chris Tinker, “A Singer-Songwriter’s View of the French Record Industry: The Case of Leo Ferre”

· Tinker, “Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel”

W 3 Oct. 15 · Tinker, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well
(additional)

· Adeline Cordier, “Brel-Brassens-Ferre and Frenchness”

· David Looseley, In from the Margins: Chanson, Pop and Cultural Legitimacy”
Oct. 17 Italy · Tony Mitchell, “Questions of Style: Notes on Italian Hip Hop”
· Jacopo Tomatis, Portrait of the Author as an Artist in the Canzone d’Autore”

W 4 Oct. 22 · Paolo Prato, “Selling Italy by the Sound”
· Italy, Celentano, Virtuosity and Populism
· Dario Martinelli, Lasciatemi Cantare and Other Diseases: Italian Pop Music Abroad”
Oct. 24 Britain · Charles Gower Price, “Sources of American Styles in the Music of the Beatles”
· John Platoff, “John Lennon,’Revolution,’ and the Politics of Musical Reception”

W 5 Oct. 29 · Robert J. Kruse II, “Imagining Strawberry Fields as a Place of Pilgrimage”
· Marianne Tatom Letts, “Sky of Blue, Sea of Green: A Semiotic Reading of the FilmYellow Submarine"
· Ned Rorem, “The Music of the Beatles”
Oct. 31 Mid-Term
W 6 Nov. 5 Russia · Robert A. Rothstein, “How It Was Sung in Odessa: At the Intersection of Russian and Yiddish Folk”

· Christopher Lazarski, “Vladimir Vysotsky and His Cult”

Nov. 7 Class Discussion/Notes

t.A.T.u
Pussy Riot · Terry Bright, Soviet Crusade against Pop”

Dana Heller, “t.A.T.u. You! Russia, the Global Politics of Eurovision, and Lesbian Pop”

· Yngvar B. Steinholt, Russian, Kitten Heresy- Lost Contexts of Pussy Riot's

W 7 Nov. 12 Eurovision · Toni Langlois, The Rise and Fall of Singing Tiger

· Goffredo Plastino, Sanremo

Nov. 14 Winning and Losing · Ivan Raykoff and Robert Deam Tobin, A Song for Europe, Intro, “Camping on the Borders of Europe”

W 8 Nov. 19 Israel – Dana International · Ted Swedenburg, Saida Sultan from Empire of Song
· Yossi Maurey, “Dana International and the Politics of Nostalgia”

Nov. 21 Not in Europe and beyond · Katherine Meizel, “Idol Thoughts: Nationalism in the pan-Arab Vocal Competition Superstar” (A song for Europe)

W 9 Nov. 26 Turkey – Europe · Thomas Solomon, “The Oriental Body on the European Stage”
· Matthew Gumpert, “’Everyway that I can’: Auto-Orientalism at Eurovision 2003”

Nov. 28 Nordic and Slavic
Victors · Galina Miazhevich, “Ukrainian Nation Branding Off-line and Online: Verka Serduchka at the Eurovision Song Contest”
· Annemette Kirkegaard, The Nordic Brotherhood”
W10 Dec. 3
PRESENTATIONS
Dec. 5 PRESENTATIONS

Requirements

1. Attendance
2. Preparation for each class
3. Participation in class discussions and performance
4. Intellectual and musical curiosity
5. Weekly journals – summary of the reading material assigned for a week/not a class lecture or discussion, submitted by Friday noon via Canvas (approximately 250-300 words)
3. Independent research on mid-term and final projects

Grading
Attendance and class participation 10%
Weekly journals 20%
Mid-term 25%
Final project – oral 20%
– written 25%