History of Rock and Roll – Day 1
EXPECTATIONS FOR THIS CLASS:
1.
ARRIVE ON TIME SITTING IN YOUR SEAT WHEN TARDY BELL RINGS.
2.
NO CELL PHONE, I-POD ZONE, OR OFF TASK COMPUTER USE – D.R. TO
MR. TUSTIN.
3.
GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER.
4.
DON’T PASS JUDGMENT – THERE ARE NO SILLY QUESTIONS.
5.
EARN EACH OTHER’S RESPECT – THAT INCLUDES THE INSTRUCTOR.
6.
TURN IN WORK ON TIME.
7.
LOOK TO MS. LOONEY’S WEBSITE FREQUENTLY – THIS IS WHERE
ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE POSTED IN CASE OF AN ABSENCE.
8.
ALWAYS BE PREPARED TO COME TO CLASS – THIS INCLUDES BRINGING
A JOURNAL OR A DEVICE TO MAKE JOURNAL ENTRIES.
Grade Weights

Projects
30% (Including Journal Entries)

Essays
30%

In class work
30%

EOC Paper
10%

All work will be typed, MLA format, Times New Roman, 12 pt. font.

Keep current on Ms. Looney’s website at all times for assignments and
due dates.

It’s up to you to bring in missed work in a timely fashion.
Grade Calculations

A - 90% – 100%

B-

C - 70% - 79%

D - 60% - 69%

F-

Grades may be redone to achieve a higher mark within one week
of getting the paper handed back.

Late work will be considered incomplete and no late grade will be
given. You will have three weeks to make up late assignments.
Parents will be contacted for incompletes after three assignments
are deemed to be incomplete. You will be asked to stay after
school at a time that is convenient for the instructor to make up
incomplete work.
80% - 89%
50% - 59%
Ice Breaker

Turn to the person on your left and introduce
yourself. Learn all that you can about that person’s
musical preferences (take notes), find out the
person’s favorite group and song.

After three minutes, switch roles and find out the
same things about your partner for three more
minutes.

Tell the class about each other in a way that is
entertaining and makes your partner memorable.
Ice Breaker 2
Fill
out the getting to know you
questioner. Be complete. Write in
complete sentences and
paragraphs
Turn in the handout to the
instructor.
Seating Chart
 To
aid the instructor in recalling
student name’s as quickly as possible,
you will sit in alphabetical order
during the semester.
 Move to assigned seats when
teacher instructs you
Day 2 begins here
How to Study Rock and Roll
 Targets
1.
Use a Listening Template to understand a
song.
2.
Use a timeline to understand historical
context.
3.
Understand Rock and Roll as a visual culture.
4.
Understand Rock and Roll as performance.

Essential Question: How can we learn to analyze
and understand Rock and Roll?
 Songs
are like windows into the world during the
time in which they were made.
Social,
cultural, and political landscapes
affected the artists and writers.
We
may not hear music through these lenses
– we may be overcome by our own
personal, emotional response to the music.
Therefore, we will try to move out of the
personal, emotional response mode and
hear what the music is saying.
Using a Listening Template to
Understand a Song

Distribute sample listening template.
 Follow
along on listening template while we hear “My
Girl” by the Temptations.
 http://viewpure.com/6IUG-9jZD-g
 Discuss
the specific example
 Fill
in the listening template while we listen to “Johnny
B. Goode.”
 http://viewpure.com/6ROwVrF0Ceg
What else was on the chart in
1958?

No. 1 – “The Purple People Eater” http://viewpure.com/X9H_cI_WCnE

In the Top Ten:
Dean Martin – “Return to Me” http://viewpure.com/EpBjgQlT_jA
Four Preps – “Big Man” http://viewpure.com/zXd8c1BLpRQ
HOW DO THESE SONGS COMPARE TO JOHNNY B.
GOODE?
Historical Context

Next, the aim is to expand the timeline to include significant
events that are not immediately related to Rock and Roll.
Below is a short list of events that might be used to explore the
general time period around the recording of “Johnny B.
Goode.”
 •Paul Robeson performs sold-out one man show at
Carnegie Hall, 1958
 •National Guard called in to Central High School in Little
Rock, Arkansas, 1957
 •American Bandstand, a local television show, joins ABC
network, 1957
 •Disneyland opens to public, 1955
 •Passage of Federal-Aid Highway Act creates Interstate
Highway System, 1956

In the case of Chuck Berry, what issue was the
most obvious?
 In
the pre-Civil Rights era, Berry was in the
interesting position of being an AfricanAmerican entertainer whose audience was
significantly white.
 The
same teenagers who were watching
American Bandstand, which went national on
ABC in 1957, were hearing directly from an
African-American musician who recorded for
a Chicago label, Chess, focused primarily on
Blues and R&B.
 It
was an instance of racial mixing through
music, and this in the same general period
when President Eisenhower was using the
National Guard to oversee the integration
of a public high school. These two
examples of racial mixing can, and should
be, understood as related. To fully
understand how the Civil Rights
movement got traction in the 60s, one
needs to go back and see what was
happening in the 50s that set the stage.
Understanding Rock and Roll as a
Visual Culture: Film, TV, and Fashion

The experience of popular music, however, is never just about
sound. Since Rock and Roll’s beginnings, artists have always
been seen as much as heard. Elvis Presley caused a certain
furor on the basis of image alone. When people discuss the
Beatles breaking into the American market in a big way, they
talk about the band’s Ed Sullivan Show appearance. For artists
of today, such as Lady Gaga, image is only that much more
important. No surprise, then, that our study of Rock and Roll
extends deeply into the visual realm. This level of analysis is
about the look — fashion, the body, and televisual,
photographic, and cinematic presentation.
Rock and Roll as a Visual Culture.

What these contrasting images point to is a shift in African-American
culture that happened in the space of a few short years, as the mid 60s
gave way to the 70s.

Following Martin Luther King’s assassination and with the rise of the
Black Power movement, there was a move toward a more “natural”
look among African Americans — and African-American performers
were often at the forefront of such change. The “afro” replaced
straightened hair.

Artists wore African Kente cloth. The locales in which artists were
photographed often looked less like a studio and more like an urban
street. And these developments were a symptom of deeper
changes in how African-Americans were seeing their places in
American life. The songs told a story; the images supported it.
 In
the case of the image of Chuck Berry,
there is a clear sense of how Berry was
being pitched to a teenage audience. A
classroom conversation about the artist’s
presence within that context, about what
seems to work and what doesn’t, would
illuminate some of the more curious
aspects of his immersion in that milieu. His
self-presentation is often described as
“clownish,” and here he exudes some of
that.
Two Faces of Rock and Roll at their
Roots.
The Last Poets

http://thekey.xpn.org/aatk/files/20
13/08/The+Last+Poets.jpg
The Supremes 1966

http://thekey.xpn.org/aatk/files/20
13/08/The+Last+Poets.jpg
What was the purpose/significance of the
two differing poses?
Understanding Rock and Roll as
Performance.

James Brown – Alive at the Apollo Theater
http://viewpure.com/D5JG27snLzM

James Brown visual performance http://viewpure.com/BawGN9_FR8 (Start at 10:15)

Which performance did you like better? Why?

Why was this kind of performance looked down upon by older
generations?