This course, part 2 of a 2-course sequence, examines the history of rock, primarily as it unfolded in the United States, from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. This course covers the music of Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, Carole King, Bob Marley, the Sex Pistols, Donna Summer, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Metallica, Run-DMC, and Nirvana, and many more artists, with an emphasis both on cultural context and on the music itself. We will also explore how developments in the music business and in technology helped shape the ways in which styles developed. Emerging out of the experimental and ambitious years of late-60s psychedelia, rock splintered into a variety of styles in the 1970s as the music business continued to expand. By the end of the decade, punk and disco had challenged the excesses of the hippie aesthetic, as rock became more commercially streamlined and radio friendly. The emergence and rise of MTV transformed pop music and propelled the careers of Michael jackson and Madonna, while heavy metal and hip hop dominated the late 1980s. Nirvana leads alt-rock's return to simplicity in the early 1990s.
Intro
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From the course by University of Rochester
History of Rock, Part Two
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Meet the Instructors
John CovachProfessor of Music and Director
Institute for Popular Music
Welcome to The History of Rock Part Two. To those of you who took part one of the
class, welcome back. To those of you who are just joining us
now with Part Two, welcome to the course. I should say for those of you who had
part one, who, who did part one, this class, this will be a continuation.
So, a lot of what I'm going to say now is really for those who are joining us and
taking the class for the first time. So, for those of you who are, who are
joining us new here with The History of Rock, Part Two, let me tell you a little
bit about what you can expect in the course as it unfolds over the next six
weeks. the first thing I think that that we
should probably address is the issue of the textbook.
Because the Coursera philosophy is basically to make these courses available
to as many people as possible. it's, we, we really can't make an
expensive textbook required reading for the course.
so I've made it optional reading for the course.
The lectures all follow the textbook What's that Sound, my textbook on the
history of rock music. the lectures all follow the chapters of
that. So, if, if you are able to get a copy of,
of the book, you should be able to follow that along.
I think it's a richer experience with the book.
there's more detail than I'm able to present in these lectures.
There are listening guides. So, you, you, you, you, you, if you find
the tunes on a listening guide, you can get into the music in, in some detail.
I think it's a richer experience with a textbook, but it's not required.
No material from the textbook will be on any of the quizzes or anything like that.
It's the textbook is more an enrichment. Anyway there are the, the textbook is
currently in its third edition. My publisher, WW Norton has made an
online version of it available for like half the price, less than half the price
of the paper version. But if you can find a used paper version
of the first or second edition, it will still line up with the course and, and,
and make it a richer experience. So, I'll leave it to you to decide how
you want to do that. I mentioned the listing guides.
And that's one of the I think one of the drawbacks to this online format.
There are a lot of wonderful pros to the online format, making the course
available to so many people in so many different parts of the world.
But one of the drawbacks is that we can't really play music on these Coursera
videos. Because of the nature of the music
business, we would have to license that music.
It would make it prohibitively expensive. And if a textbook is too expensive, I
gotta tell you, licensing music for these lectures would just really be way too
expensive. We couldn't do it for free.
and so what, what's happened is in part one of the class, the students banded
together and found all of the music online, posted it in the discussion
forum. And so, they were able to sort of pull
the music together. it turns out that it's available in
different places and different countries and that kind of thing.
So, I would advise you to go to the discussion forum or to the Facebook for
the group and, and find all the music that goes with them.
I'm sorry we can't talk in more detail about the music, but that, that's just
the, the, the ways of the music business, and I even have to be careful how much I
quote lyrics and that kind of thing because those are all held under
copyright law. one last thing I want to talk to you
about a little bit is what the purpose of a course like this.
Or, how to think about this course. Because on our discussion forum.
during part one, a couple of people were wondering, well, you know?
Why are you depending so much on just the groups that are popular?
How about the groups that were influential, but didn't sell many
records. How are you deciding?
And why aren't you mentioning the group that, that I really like.
I think these guys are really important and all of that, and all those are, are
valid and interesting kinds of questions. I think the way to understand this course
is that I'm mapping out a kind of big picture survey of the history of rock
music. When I talk about particular artists, I
am really only talking about them as representatives of a certain kind of
thing. So, for example, in part one, we talked
about the British invasion. We spent a lot of time talking about the
Beatles and Rolling Stones, but there were a lot of other British groups that
didn't get mentioned. It doesn't mean that they're not worthy,
or that what they did was not valuable, or whatever.
What we're trying to do was just lay out the, the topography of what the history
of rock music looks like. This is kind of the first pass on the
history of rock music. If there's a group or, or an artist that
that you think deserves more attention, and you want to make an argument for it,
that's fantastic. But you know, your argument is much
stronger if you understand the broader context of the history of rock music.
So, that's what we're doing. I'm tying not to just talk about the
groups that I like or the groups that I think are important, but I'm trying to
remain as objective as I possibly can. And so, I think that's the way to view an
introductory course like this, as a kind of gateway into the world of history of
rock. And then, you know, subsequent work and
reading and things like that you might do can be based on a context the context
that's established by the course itself. so I did mention just a minute ago the
discussion forums, the discussion focus are fantastic.
They are a great way to to interact with your other students, the other students
in the course. I post questions every week.
you can respond to those, the participation in the discussion forum is
in no way a part of the grade. But it's very much encouraged, and we've
had a fantastic, we've had a fantastic time in part one on the discussion forum,
a lot of great things. And it's also such that the place for
you, to make the argument for various kinds of groups that you think, that you
think also deserve our attention to sort of augment what's already happening in
the lectures here, or maybe in the textbook.
So, those are just a few points. I really hope you enjoy the class.
Welcome to the History of Rock, Part Two.
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