Course Director: Ray Williams                                                  E-mail: Ray Williams

Course Description and Content : This course explores in depth the range of African-American popular music that came into existence during the 1920’s. Numerous styles and genres will be studied from various points of view (musicological, sociological & theoretical) and a wide variety of structural forms and musical techniques will be analyzed. The historical context as relates to the development of this music will be explored. The experiences of the personalities will also be studied in an effort to gain greater understanding of their artistic development.

Schedule: Classes meets each Wednesday as follows:

	TIME	PLACE	INSTRUCTOR
Section A	8:30AM - 10:30AM	ACW 206	Ray Williams
Section B	7:00PM - 9:00PM	ACW 206	Ray Williams

Required Text: Various readings may be suggested.

Requirements: Notebook, pen and ears. Pencil & Eraser for Tests.

Academic Honesty: Please note the Senate Policy on academic honesty found on the York website at http://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/legislation/senate/acadhone.htm.
Any form of cheating will result in a mark of ZERO.

Assignment Submission: All assignments are to be submitted directly to the instructor by the end of class.  If this is not possible, you may submit your assignments to the Music Office in Accolade East Building 3^rd Floor [371] before 3:00PM during week days.  Make sure your assignment is received and time-stamped by the Music Office staff to establish the date of submission.

Evaluation and Grading

Component	% WEIGHT
Listening Journal	30
Tests (in class "listening", context, terminology, analysis, genre)	40
Attendance, Effort & Participation	30
TOTAL	100

Last Date to Drop without Academic Penalty: April 3, 2009

Topic Schedule and Due Dates:

2008	TOPIC	2009	TOPIC
Sep 3	Introduction	Mar 4	Sixties 4 - Stax
Sep 10	The Blues	Mar 11	Test 2 [15%]
Sep 17	Louis Armstrong	Mar 18	Seventies 1 - Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye
Sep 24	Billie Holiday	Mar 18	Listening Journal Due [30%]
Oct 1	No classes	Mar 25	Seventies 2 - Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes
Oct 8	Nat King Cole [no night class]	Apr 1	Seventies 3 - Stevie Wonder, Gamble & Huff
Oct 15	Ray Charles | 7pm Nat King Cole	Apr 8	Seventies 4 - Ballads
Oct 22	Doo Wop | 7pm Ray Charles	Apr 15	Seventies 5 - Pre Disco
Oct 29	Test 1 [10%] | 7pm Test 1 & Doo Wop	Apr 22	Disco 1 - Van McCoy, Donna Summer
Nov 5	Sixties 1 - Berry Gordy, Motown	Apr 29	Disco 2 - Sylvester, Boney M, Chic
Feb 4, 2009	Sixties 2 - The Supremes, HDH	May 6	Test 3 [15%]
Feb 11	Sixties 3 - James Brown, Aretha Franklin	May 13	Genesis Of RAP
Feb 18	No classes	May 20	Wrap Up | Journal Return

Listening Journal : You are required to listen to African-American popular music performed by African-American artists and record information about this music in a Listening Journal. The Journal should be divided into two sections. The first must cover music up to and including 1969 and the second music between 1970 and 1990.

The Journal may be hand written but it must be well presented. The Journal will consist of separate entries for each song you listen to. In these entries, you should write about your personal feeling about each song. There must be no duplicates entries [i.e. same song by the same artist] as these entries will result in mark deductions. There must be a table of content and the pages must be numbered. The journal should explore a minimum of 150 songs and be at least 30 pages long. Entries should list factual data about each song, which may include, but is not limited to: artist name, song name, composer, release date, record label and chart peak position. Plagiarism, especially cut/paste from the Internet, will result in deductions of up to 100%. The journal should not contain songs played in class. Here is the list of songs that may not appear in your journal.

Journals are due at the end of class on Mar 18, 2009. Any journal submitted late will result in a minimum 10% deduction – no exceptions. If you are unable to submit your journal at the end of class, then it can be submitted to the Music Office at Accolade East Building 3rd Floor [Room 371]. Please ensure that any journal submitted at the Music Office is time stamped to establish the date of submission. Do not hand your journal to anyone but office staff. If you arrive at the Music Office when it is closed, do not slide your journal under doors or leave it in open areas. Make sure it is securely received by the staff in the Music Office.