H85.1113 History & Criticism 2 Credits
Instructor(s): Vivian Goldman
No other island has had as great an impact on contemporary music as Jamaica. This seven week course will introduce the class to the spectrum of Jamaican music, from its origins in Africa, New Orleans and New York, to its intertwined relationship with American hiphop. Students can expect to learn about subjects including: Rasta, Ethiopia and the role of H.I.M. Haile Selassie in the 1930s and beyond; mento, the salacious, swinging folk that predated ska; how and why ska evolved into rock steady in the 1960s; the function of jazz within reggae; the pivotal figure of Robert Nesta Marley, O.M and the Wailers band; the role of producers like Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd; dub and Jamaica’s invention of using the recording studio as an instrument; the joys of the myriad Jamaican harmony trios, and their significance in the 1970s; aspects of Jamaica’s two party political system and their impact on the music; sound systems and their role in the Jamaican diaspora; and how dancehall crossed the bridge between Jamaica and black America that Bob Marley had dreamed of building.
