HIST 2525

From Blues to Hip Hop: Music and Social Movements

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2015-2016.

The course introduces students to the history of African American and African diaspora social movements during much of the twentieth century through a focus on the social and cultural origins of various genres of popular music. Lectures (including listening to musical examples) will emphasize the social and political contexts for popular music forms including: the blues, folk music, jazz, gospel, calypso, rhythm and blues, soul, fusion, disco, funk, Latin music, reggae, African popular musics, and hip hop.  Throughout, we will highlight various forms of social protest music over time.  Key social movements include the Great migration, the U.S. labor movement, African American struggles for equality culminating in the civil rights and black power movements, labor rebellions in the Caribbean, 1960s youth counterculture, antiwar movements, second wave feminism, and African national liberation movements. We will also attend to connections between popular music and anti-racist movements abroad, and assess the role of the popular music industry, radio, television and other mass media in aiding or abetting movements for social change.  We will also examine the global circulation and influence of American and African American popular music and culture.   Students will gain a basic knowledge of the main social political, and intellectual issues, concepts, social movements, and transformations of twentieth and twenty-first century African American and global history. 

When Offered Spring.

Distribution Category (HA-AS)

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