A Matter of Course
Category: Noteworthy
ARTS 297: Topics in the Arts: Baltimore Music Industry/HIST 240: Everyday Lives: Social History of Pop Music
WHO: Joshua Clark Davis, assistant professor in the Division of Legal, Ethical and Historical Studies, public and digital historian and author of the forthcoming book Head Shops and Whole Foods: Activist Entrepreneurs of the 1960s and ʼ70s and the Roots of the New Economy
WHEN: Mondays/Wednesdays, 3:30-4:50 p.m., or Tuesdays, 5:30-8 p.m., fall 2015
WHAT: This cross-listed undergraduate course looks at “the history of popular music through the lens of local communities, business and technology,” says Davis, whose focus on 20th-century U.S. history has included research on African-American record-sellers and radio DJs. “For example, while we’ll learn about famous popular music stars like Baltimore natives Eubie Blake and Billie Holiday, we’ll also learn about record store owners, people who bootleg music and how fans actually experience music on a grassroots level.”
Davis’ students will do some digging in the online archives of The Baltimore Sun and The Baltimore Afro American to familiarize themselves with local musicians and music professionals and to “learn how they were integral parts of local communities in Baltimore,” he adds. Students may also have the chance to conduct oral history interviews with Baltimore musicians.
REQUIRED READING:
• How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ’N’ Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music (Wald)
• The Death of Rhythm and Blues (George)
REQUIRED LISTENING (a selection):
• Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”
• Randy Newman’s “Baltimore”
• The Orioles’ “Crying in the Chapel”
