FYWS 151-06, Revolution at 33 1/3 : The Album as Text, Fall 2014

Abstract

Over the past decade critics have posited the death of the album, with the rise of online consumption emphasizing singles, personal playlists, and Internet radio programmed via algorithm. Has the digital download brought an end to the immersive experience of putting on headphones and getting lost for an hour in a visceral text that has been painstakingly recorded and sequenced? Before we write the obituary and list the MP3 as the cause of death it is worth considering that the album has survived similar threats from the 45 RPM single, cassette tape, and compact disc. Providing a structure that can expand in scope and depth over the isolated song, the album format has been essential to how we have engaged the work of artists ranging from Frank Sinatra and the Beatles to Radiohead and Kanye West. This course will use chapters from the 33 1/3 book series to explore the aesthetic and cultural context of popular music through varying rhetorical strategies. The writing exercises will develop research skills and challenge students to think critically about the ways in which politics, history, and social values are articulated through the album form.