Lecture (LEC)

• IUB GenEd A&H credit
• COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inq

• IUB GenEd A&H credit
• COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inquiry credit

The course will explore all sorts of popular songs, from the nineteenth century to now. We will mostly concentrate on the great American songwriters, including such as figures as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael, George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. We will periodically move abroad to study French, Italian, Argentine, Brazilian and Mexican songs. Our target in all cases is the same: the varied phenomena to be discovered from examining how words and music come together in the hybrid art form we call the popular song. At times we will concentrate on the culture that produced the song, and its means of production and distribution. Most of the time, we will focus close attention on the work of the lyricist or the composer. Sometimes we will find that they are the same person. The great Cole Porter is a case in point, and Irving Berlin is another excellent example. At other times, we will focus on a great performer, such as Piaf or Sinatra. Or we will discover that the performer and creator are sometimes the same person, as in the case of Jacques Brel, the Beatles, or Springsteen. Lyrics will be analyzed in relation to the musical structures and as poetry too. Most important will be to study the popular song as a complete art form, using both words and music. Emphasis will be on the 30s through the 50s, but there will be some discussion of the 60s and after and some very recent song material as well.