Z201/History of Rock Music I:
Roots of Rock to the British Invasion


Dr. Glenn Gass
Professor of Music
Music in General Studies Department

 

Z201 is a history and appreciation of the musical and cultural melting pot of 1950's rock & roll and early 1960's pop. The course begins with an overview of ancestors and influences: blues, boogie-woogie, jazz, swing, country & western, gospel and popular music, and the crossover success of rhythm & blues acts that marked the true birth of rock & roll. The focus then shifts to the cataclysmic arrival of Elvis Presley and the careers and musical styles of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers and other Founding Fathers, and continues through fifties R&B, doo-wop, the soul pioneers Ray Charles, Sam Cooke & Jackie Wilson and the early sixties pop landscape of Phil Spector, the Brill Building writers, the teen idols, the Twist and American Bandstand. The course is enhanced by an extensive series of multimedia lecture companions created by Glenn Gass, Project Coordinator Kathryn Propst and the staff of the Teaching and Learning Technologies Centers (TLTC).

Instructor: Dr. Glenn Gass, Sycamore 139, 855-9460; Email: gass@indiana.edu

Grading Assistant: Andrew Crowley; Email: ajcrowle@umail.iu.edu

Course Information

Required Text: Gass, "A History of Rock Music: The Rock & Roll Era" (1994 McGraw-Hill, ISBN #0-07-022988-0)

Recommended Text: DeCurtis, ed.,"The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll" (this is also the required text for the Z202 and Z301 courses)

Required Listening: on reserve at the School of Music Library. Instructions are available online for using the reserve listening at the School of Music Library, as is information on the Variations2 system.
The required listening is available in the School of Music Library, via the class reserves link, at any of the computer listening stations.

The listening is also available for downloading via Oncourse and/or the course webpage. (Access is limited to enrolled students only and is password protected.)

Texting and the use of laptops has proven to be too much of a distraction and will not be allowed during class.

No make-ups will be given without a valid, university-approved and documented excuse. However, a comprehensive make-up exam will be offered immediately following the final exam. The make-up exam will include written and listening questions from all segments of the course. The make-up exam is required for anyone who must miss an exam and is optional for everyone else. The make-up exam will take the place of an exam with a lower score and cannot hurt your grade. (If it is the lowest score it will simply not count.)

The course grade is determined entirely by the results of the best three scores from the four exams (including the comprehensive make-up). The grading scale is fixed and must remain so in a class this size in the interest of fairness. All requests to "round up" a score will be regretfully declined. The grading scale is:

Spring 2010 exam dates (REVISED):

(Because Z201 is normally a Fall semester course, the online version of the syllabus is abbreviated this semester. Please download the .pdf file and thank you for your patience.)

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