Module 1 Orientation and Methodology

Welcome to MUS 302. This is the first module of the course, and it is the only one with a fixed position in the sequence. Once you complete it, you move through modules 2, 3, 4, and 5 in order, one per week. Each module has its own deadline.

This module exists to set you up for everything that follows. Two short readings introduce a method for listening and a framing for thinking about American popular music as a conversation between traditions. A listening guide then puts that method to work on four anchor tracks. A discussion thread and a checkpoint quiz close out the module. By the end, you will have a shared vocabulary with the rest of the class for the work ahead.

What is in this module

The pieces below are arranged in the order I recommend you complete them. The two readings come first because the listening guide assumes the methodology and framing they introduce. The four listening guide tracks can be done in any order once you reach them, but I have ordered them to build vocabulary cumulatively. The discussion and quiz come last.

1. Reading 1.How to Listen

   The methodology reading. Introduces timbre, texture, form, and gesture as four ways of describing what you hear, and walks through the move from description to argument.

2. Reading 2.Cultural Roots and Traditions

   The framing reading. Explains why the course is organized around cultural traditions, defines migration, displacement, and diaspora, and introduces the four traditions plus two threads (Indigenous popular music and queer liberation) that run across the modules.

3. Listening 1.Sam Cooke, "A Change Is Gonna Come" (1964)

   African American foundational traditions. Gospel, soul, civil rights movement, the move from sacred to secular music in mid-century Black popular music.

4. Listening 2.Fania All-Stars with Celia Cruz, "Quimbara" (1974, Live in Africa)

   Latin diasporic traditions. Salsa, Cuban exile, the Pan-Latin musical world built in 1970s New York, and the Zaire 74 festival.

5. Listening 3.Sugar Pie DeSanto, "I Don't Wanna Fuss" (1964)

   Asian American traditions and African American R&B. Filipino American musical contributions, the Chess Records era, San Francisco's Black music scene, women's voices in mid-century R&B.

6. Listening 4.Hank Williams, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" (1949)

   European American immigrant and working-class traditions. Country music's mixed-race origins, Scots-Irish balladry, the role of Hank Williams's mentor Rufus "Tee Tot" Payne.

7. Discussion.Pick a Reflective Question (in Canvas)

   A discussion thread where you pick one of the four reflective questions at the end of the Module 1 listening guides and write about that track. Canvas will assign you two classmates' posts to respond to after the initial-post deadline.

8. Checkpoint Quiz.Module 1 (in Canvas)

   A short quiz covering vocabulary from the methodology reading, framing concepts from the cultural roots reading, and factual recall from the four anchor tracks. Low-stakes; you may retake it.

Deadlines

Module 1 is due Sunday, May 31. That gives you the first six days of the term to complete it. Modules 2 through 5 unlock as soon as you finish Module 1; if you finish early, you can begin one of the traditions modules ahead of the deadline.

Plan to spend roughly 12 to 15 hours per week on this course overall. For Module 1 specifically, expect roughly 8 to 12 hours across the six-day window: the two readings together run about 90 minutes, the four listening guide pages with their tracks and reflective questions take about 6 hours combined, and the discussion and quiz add another hour or two. Module 1 is intentionally shorter than the others; it is the orientation, not a full traditions module.

One thing to know now, even though it is not part of Module 1: your final project proposal and preliminary bibliography are due Sunday, July 5, five weeks after Module 1 closes. The proposal asks you to name a genre and a single artist or group of personal significance to you, frame the argument the project will make, and list three or four preliminary sources. Start thinking about what genre and artist you might want to study while you work through Module 1. The framing reading and the four listening guide tracks will give you a sense of the kinds of questions and arguments the project supports.

A note on this module's content

As discussed in the syllabus, this course engages with American popular music as it actually exists, which means that every track in the listening guides carries historical and political content alongside the music. Four specific items in this module are worth flagging in advance.

The Track 1 listening guide on Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" engages with the experience of anti-Black racism; the song was written in response to a specific incident of racial discrimination Cooke faced in 1963, and the listening guide also recounts the circumstances of his death the following year.

The Track 2 listening guide on Celia Cruz discusses her exile from Cuba under Castro (including being barred from her dying mother's bedside) and the political circumstances of the Zaire 74 festival, which was funded by the authoritarian president Mobutu Sese Seko.

The Track 3 listening guide on Sugar Pie DeSanto discusses how the San Francisco Fillmore District became known as the "Harlem of the West" partly because its Japanese American residents were forcibly removed and incarcerated during World War II under Executive Order 9066, and also covers the racial and gender dynamics that have kept DeSanto less famous than her musical peers.

The Track 4 listening guide on Hank Williams's "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" engages with depression and grief, and the biographical material covers Williams's substance use and his early death at twenty-nine.

If you need to talk through accommodations to engage with this material, please contact me early and consult Accessibility Services.

How to reach me

Email is the best way: ines.thiebaut@csueastbay.edu. I check it regularly and will respond as promptly as I can. Canvas Inbox also works but I check it less often, so for time-sensitive things, email is faster.

Office hours are Mondays and Thursdays 10 am to noon, by Zoom at https://csueb.zoom.us/j/5108853126. If those times do not work for you, email me and we will find another time. I would rather hear from you early than late.