Big Blog no. 1: American Roots Music

 

 Time for some serious bloggin'. 

For this blog, rather than exploring the way music intersects with some other aspect of society, you're going to select a unique topic, do some research on it, and create a blog post to teach your classmates about it. Here's the catch: your Big Blog no. 1 needs to be on a genre (or sub-genre) of American Roots Music.

One of the unique aspects of American-born musics is that they inevitably well up from the bottom rungs of society before spreading across the globe. As we'll discuss, the Blues were born from the very poorest of Southern American society and, by birthing such genres as Rock, Country, and R&B, have basically conquered the world. This, in essence, is what American Roots music is--kinds of music that were born on American soil, musics that are almost always syncretic nature and initially connected to underprivileged communities. 

So, first, select your specific type of American Roots to research and blog about. Here is a list of possibilities--you can pick something not on this list, but run it by me first:

• African-American Spirituals
• Gospel
• Bluegrass
• Country (specify early, later, etc.)
• Zydeco
• Appalachian folk
• Shape-note hymnody
• Doo-wop
• Soul
• Funk
• Hip-Hop
• Swing
• Western Swing
• Tejano
• Salsa
• Rock&Roll (the early, 1950s kind)
• Rockabilly
• Sub-genres of Rock (check with me, make sure it's basically American, as opposed to British; some, but not all, of the possibilities here are Heavy Metal, Indie, Disco, Punk, Grunge, Prog, Folk Rock, etc.)
• Sub-genres of Jazz (again, check with me; possibilities include New Orleans, bop, smooth, free, Latin, etc.)

A good place to start wandering through some of these and other possibilities is, believe it or not, the Wikipedia entry on Music History of the United States.

In terms of scope, think of this as a short term paper, but more informal, and with a fair amount of media embedded. As a guidepost, aim for about 1000 words, plus a bare minimum of 4 media selections. You'll need a handful of sources at the end (use full citations in MLA, APA, or Chicago style, rather than just web addresses), but you don't need to include footnotes or parenthetical references (though in-paragraph links are always appreciated!). We need something of the history of your topic--how and where did it get started, what earlier music genres fed into it, what were some of the early musicians in your genre--as well as an over-all description of your genre--what instruments are involved, what vocal styles, what are typical lyrics like, etc. While a bit of fan-girling is just fine, do remember that you're teaching other people about your chosen topic, and they need to learn about that topic from you.

And a slightly different instruction: as you post your blog, would you please leave a comment on this blog letting us know what your topic will be. That way you can see who is doing what topic before you start your comments, so that if you're interested in a particular genre that you didn't do yourself you can aim for it.

Finally, here's a fun graphic, by the ever-awesome Matt Groenig. You might know him as the guy that created The Simpsons.