2024-Sum-MUS-363-ONLIN-6W1-G01-01818-Women in Music

The final syllabus will be available in the Learning Management System.

This is a past syllabus providing a general idea of what the course entails. This does not represent the current course's syllabus, requirements or expectations.

Course Overview

The basic premise of this class is that studying music that was popular during different historical periods, can tell us a lot about what people believed about gender roles, social customs and issues about employment and education. Songs become popular because they resonate with how people feel and what they believe. In her book Respect: Women and Popular Music Dorothy Marcic says that popular songs are kind of a “Rorschach Test for a culture.” At the same time, the songs we listen to, help form our beliefs and expectations about gender identity and relationships. However, because sounds travels to many parts of the brain, but not immediately to the frontal cortex, we can know all the words of a song without examining the underlying meaning of the lyrics. The diagram in this link will show you all the areas of the brain affected by music. 

So as we work though this material, keep in mind that we are making generalizations –for every “truth” there will be lots of exceptions. When I ask you to react to and discuss a song, there are no correct answers. I do want your discussion to be informed by the readings, but don’t worry about being “wrong.” I may offer my interpretation of a song and if I do, I want you to keep in mind that it is my perspective. Granted I’ve done lots of reading and thinking about these issues, but it is still my opinion.

 The selection of songs is idiosyncratic and loads of good songs won’t be covered. There is no attempt to cover every song in every era. Hundreds of important singers will not be covered. The idea is that you will develop the ability to listen to songs and analyze what the lyrics mean.

As we work through the decades of the twentieth century and dip our toes into the twenty-first, we will do background reading about the times, particularly examining opportunities and expectations for women, but always keep in mind, anything that affects women affects men as well. If women aren’t allowed to work, men have to earn enough to support the family. Also remember, we are looking at general trends and again, there will be lots of exceptions. 

 With each unit, we’ll look at a different historical period. We’ll be looking at a slice of the culture. You will learn a bit about United State history especially regarding the ways political and economic events affect opportunities for women (and by inference men.) Always remember that religion, race, class, area of the country all have an effect, so what might be true of an upper class white person in the Northeast might be very different for a working-class black person in the South.

Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

DIVR UCORE Description: 

Diversity courses introduce students to cultural differences and similarities by exploring the multiplicity of individual and group experiences within and across various historical periods, societies, and cultures. This exploration contributes to stronger, more complex cross-cultural understanding and communication, helping students engage various social and cultural contexts and interactions using knowledge, critical thinking, and flexibility in perspective. DIVR courses also encourage students to ask more complicated questions about cultural systems and systems of power, and to pursue answers that reflect multiple cultural and intellectual perspectives.

Diversity:

Women in Music introduces students to stereotypes, cultural differences and socio-economic differences in the United States by examining the messages in the texts of songs from the genres of Top 40 popular music and country music combined with discussion of the barriers and challenges in the lives of women in these genres. By including material from the turn of the twentieth century to the present, students see how historical/economic events affect opportunities for women and how these changes are expressed in the lyrics of popular songs. History, politics, power and privilege, institutionalized discrimination and inequality are laid bare as we look at access to jobs for women – of all classes and all races. The underlying premise is that the music is popular in any given era not only reflects the cultural values of that time, but also creates them. What we listen to repeatedly, forms our concepts of how things should be. This learning to listen critically to the texts of the songs, assists students in developing an awareness of their own cultural/social positioning and often, their lack of awareness of privilege.

The course focuses on women, but our discussions include how women’s roles imply men’s roles. The inclusion of the Blues raises issues of power and privilege, race and racism, and institutionalized discrimination. Country music is described by Mary Bufwack as “a window into the world of working-class women.” “It stands as one of the only documents of working-class women’s thoughts created by working class women for working class women.” In this way, looking at the words of songs in a variety of genres allows students to examine class differences and similarities in immediate rather than intellectual ways. 

As we work our way through the Twentieth Century a number of topics will be covered. In the early weeks we will look at how folk music explores the difficult lives of poor women in rural America contrasted with the strictures of proper behavior for women in the upper class. The Twenties will bring access to more equal rights, education and careers for middle- and upper-class women contrasted with the lives of Post-Emancipation African Americans. The thirties will be filled with songs about the Depression, the difficult lives of miners’ families and the roles played by women in the strikes. The 40s bring all the opportunities for women during the war. The fear of another depression fueled the move to send women back home exacerbated by McCarthyism etc to bring about the 50s. We will look at the changes and increased opportunities brought about in the Anti-War, Civil Rights, Women’s Rights and Environmental movements of the 60s & 70s. Our discussion of the 80s will include the first “naming” of the problem of violence against women since the Blues. Throughout the course there will be observations made about how the ideal female body image is reinforced in words of songs. The course will conclude with discussion of contemporary pop and country to identify what ideas are currently contained in the songs the students listen to.

Writing

Students will write every week. A written summary and brief reaction will be submitted for each reading. Additionally, there will be weekly discussion posts. At the end of the term, a paper will be submitted that is evaluated both for ideas and for quality of the writing.

Critical and Creative Thinking

Students will read several articles that examine U.S. and world events and their effect on women’s rights as well as their roles in work and at home. This material will then be applied to songs discussed in class and written about discussion posts and papers.

Information Literacy

While the primary purpose of this class is to have students listen to songs and/or watch music videos and evaluate the messages of these media on their own rather than to research others’ opinions, access to and familiarity with library resources will assist in their finding information about artists and recordings of their work.

Course Work

Assignments: There is not a textbook for this course. Instead, each unit will have reading assignments in the form of summary/reactions that are provided to you (via links) within the course space. You will write a 1 full-page summary of what you think are the most important ideas from the articles. You will also write a 1 full-page reaction to or reflection on the material that you read. This writing should be more personal, containing your reactions or thoughts as you read about the lives of these women and their time. Avoid surface statements like “this article was really cool.” Please look deeper and dig into the heart of the concepts. Feel free to consider how what affects women, also affects men. You might draw parallels with your own life or reflect on material that is new to you. (12-point Times New Roman/Cambria font, double spaced, 1" margins, upload as Word .doc or PDF). Please upload the summary and the reaction as one file, as it states in the directions for each Unit. You do not need to cite sources in the assignments, but you do need to use quotation marks if you quote something. Papers that cannot be read by Turnitin may receive a zero if the problem is not resolved. 

Discussions: For each unit, you will be asked to listen to several songs and/or complete readings. You will then post your answers to the prompts found in each Discussion Board. Five of the written discussions (including the Combo Discussions) will be randomly chosen for grading; however, you must complete all of the discussion posts. Do not upload documents to the discussion posts. You must type directly into the dialogue box or cut and paste from a document. Discussion posts with uploaded documents will receive a zero. Original posts should be a minimum of 400 words and responses should be approximately 100 words. Discussion posts that do not meet these minimums will be docked points. 

Combos: These are either a discussion that incorporates the readings (Combo Discussion) or the assignment that incorporates the listening (Combo Assignment). These combos are designed to integrate your listening skills and ideas with your ability to process facts and information. Each combo is slightly different, so please read the directions. The combos will be graded according to their format type (Combo Assignments = 20 points, Combo Discussions = 40) and count towards their corresponding format type in the overall grading process.

Video Discussions: The original video posts must be active links (you must go the extra step and insert the hyperlink) posted on the discussion board for the unit. The original post must be a video, but the responses may be written. Do not reply to each other using the reply button from Voice Thread, as those responses do not appear in my grading dropbox and you will not receive credit for them. Please write your response on the discussion thread to ensure you get points for them. (Units 1, 6, 9, & 14)

Paper: In addition to your summaries, reactions, and discussions, you will have one paper. For that, you will choose a singer (female, male or a group) who is not covered in class. You will write a little background that discusses gender, and race and/or class if appropriate. Then you will choose 4-5 songs and by analyzing the lyrics, demonstrate how the songs performed by that person/group, fit with or argue against the gender norms of the time in which they were popular. Of course, this will require that you first determine what those gender norms are.

While the primary goal of this paper is to have you think critically about the lyrics of these songs, applying what you have learned from reading and class discussions, it can be helpful to explore other sources for recordings and articles about various styles, performers, and composers. The WSU library has excellent resources for this purpose. If you use material from any source, be certain to cite that source. Please include a Works Cited page with your paper. Papers that cannot be read by Turnitin may receive a zero if the problem is not resolved. 

Grading

This section will contain grading information and tables and will NOT be public to web visitors for preview of the syllabus.