POPULAR MUSIC IN AMERICA POPULAR MUSIC IN AMERICA  MUSIC 3243
Tarleton State University Instructor: Vicky Boucher E-mail: boucher@tarleton.edu Phone: 254/968-9238 | Discussion Info Assignment Submission Exam Info COURSE OUTLINE: Online Summer Session Week # | Week Dates All are Mon. - Sun. | Topic for Study | Discussion | Due @ midnight | Assignments | Due @ midnight | Exams | 1 | July 9 - July 13 | Tin Pan Alley, American Musical Theater | Introductions no grade | Post: Fri Jul 11 | Assignment 1 100 points Music List | Sunday Jul 13 | Exam info | 2 | July 14-July 20 | Jazz | Discussion 1 50 points | Post: Fri Jul 18 Resp.: Sun Jul 20 | Assignment 2 100 points Blues Song | Sunday Jul 20 | Unit 1: Sunday Jul 20 150 points | 3 | July 21 - July 27 | Country Music | Discussion 2 50 points | Post: Fri Jul 25 Resp.: Sun Jul 27 | Assignment 3 no grade Country Music Songkit | Sunday Jul 27 | Unit 2: Sunday Jul 27 150 points | 4 | July 28-August 3 | Rock and Roll | Discussion 3 50 points | Post: Fri Aug 1 Resp.: Sun Aug 3 | Assignment 4 200 points Powerpoint | Sunday Aug 3 | Unit 3: Sunday Aug 3 150 points | 5 | Aug 6 (last class day) | | | | | | |
 Note: This is an organic document! It will change. You are responsible for what is on this page, not a copy you made at the beginning of the semester.
| Week 1 Greetings online students! Welcome to Week 1. On this course outline page, you will find links to the lectures for each week, as well as any general announcements to the class. Please read these instructions about the Discussions Note: Please use the Ask Vicky discussion forum for all questions unless they are only specific to you. For example, if you are having trouble zipping a file, how to submit assignments, problems with accessing digital formats, etc., Ask Vicky. Otherwise, I end up answering the same questions over and over if individual emails are sent. Feel free to use email for personal issues. When I log in, I check the Ask Vicky first anyway!
The animated bullets to the right will designate "action" items, so be sure you accomplish these each week. Now, click in to the first lecture, and let's get started! Lecture: Introduction to Popular Music and Tin Pan Alley Lecture: Musical Theater Disclaimer The assignment for Week 4 of this class is a PowerPoint presentation on a topic of your choice. The technology involved in attaching audio files (which are required) and zipping the project for submission causes significant anxiety for some students. I am therefore giving you fair warning that tech savvy is necessary for that project. Do not wait until the last couple of days to address this issue. Even if you think you are familiar with PowerPoint, Have you ever used mp3 files linked to the slides? Have you ever made audio clips of mp3 files? Have you ever used WinZip for file compression? If any of those answers are "No," then allow extra time. Otherwise . . . 
|  | Blackboard /Computer configuration Follow this link and make sure your computer is set to the specifications listed. Testing and assignment submission will not work otherwise. Also, please take the WebCT Orientation Quiz. The icon is to the right of the Course Outline icon. |
| Week 1 Reading pp. 1-46 Note: We cover the entire book in the class, so the reading assignments each week are long (you only have 4 weeks to read it all!). Please note, however, that the lectures do not include all questions found on the exams, so skip the reading at your own risk! |
| Introductions In the discussion forum, please introduce yourself to your online classmates. Include any personal information that would help us to get to know you; for example, your major, future career plans, home town, family info, etc. Also, tell us what your favorite popular music is and what influences have caused that to be so. Did you grow up with that kind of music, were you more influenced by your friends, or do you just march to a different drummer? Last of all, please give an overview of your experiences as a musician. Did you take piano lessons, play in the band, join a church choir, sing in the shower? Don't be modest. I promise I won't ask you to perform! After writing your answer in the discussion forum, feel free to respond to your classmates' posts in order to get to know them a little better. This discussion question will not be graded, but try to post your introduction by Friday so others can respond if they wish. |
| Assignment 1 Your textbook discusses over 65 types (or styles) of popular music in America. Using the bold headings and summaries in the chapters of your book, see how many popular musical styles you can find. List them on a Word document. Be sure to number them. Save the document as Assignment1_YourName.doc (using your own name :-) Read these instructions on Assignment Submissions paying particular attention to the instructions about the Assignment heading and how to name the file before submission. Upload the Word document in the assignment section as an attachment. You will receive 2 points for every style of popular music that you list (up to the 100 possible points for the assignment). It's always wise to throw in a few more than 50, to be sure that you get full credit for the assignment. Make sure you list styles (Swing), and not times (Swing Era), people (Big Bands), or forms (ballad). Ask yourself on each one: Is this a popular American style? Does it (or did it) make money? |
| Week 2 Lecture: Jazz Roots and the Blues Lecture: New Orleans, Chicago, and Big Band Lecture: After Swing
Don't forget about the Unit 1 Exam on Sunday night. Please notice that I have posted a study guide (below) to help you prepare for the Unit 1 test which will be on Sunday evening. Unit 1 Practice Here is a fun way to review the material Unit 1 Study Guide | | Week 2 Reading pp. 47-117 |
| Discussion: Discrimination and jazz Based upon your reading (and NOT your assumptions or pre-conceived notions), how did race discrimination affect the development of jazz? How might jazz be different today if there had been no discrimination against black composers and performers? Be specific in your conjecture (not just "better" or "worse"). Answer the questions by Friday (midnight) and post responses to two peers by Sunday (midnight). Use the peer review function and rate all of the original posts that you read. In other words, your classmates' answers to the question, but not the responses that are due on Sunday. |
| Assignment 2 Write your own blues song Compose your own blues song. See your text (pp.57-58) and the lecture notes for more info. You do not have to write the music, but the words only. Your song should have at least 3 verses (one verse would be 3 lines long as in the example on p. 58). Choose your own topic - perhaps too much rain, or your summer job, or online college classes can give you inspiration! Put your blues song in the form of a Word document for submission and name the file Assignment2_YourFullName.doc These will be published for your classmates to see after the deadline (which is again Sunday midnight).
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| Practice Test This is posted in the Assessment section and consists of only 6 questions. You may take this at any time. It will give you an idea of the types of questions that will be on the exam and will ensure that all of your technology is working properly. There will not be a Practice Test prior to the other 2 exams. |
| Unit 1 Exam Sunday: You may begin any time between 8:00pm and 10:00pm. You will have one hour to complete the exam after you begin You may begin anytime within this window of time. Before you begin, be sure to print out the Listening List. The answers to the listening questions will be the numbers assigned to the songs on that page. Note that there is a large question set for each exam and the questions are randomly selected for each student and each test. Therefore, the test may not seem to be comprehensive because of this random selection of questions. However, don't be fooled into studying selectively for the next exam based upon the chance selections you got on this one! |
| Week 3 Lecture: Country Roots Lecture: Country and Western Lecture: Ladies of Country Music Lecture: Bluegrass Lecture: Nashville and Beyond Don't forget about the Unit 2 Exam on Sunday night. Unit 2 Practice Unit 2 Study Guide | | Week 3 Reading pp. 121-184 |
| Discussion: Country Culture Your textbook (p. 121-124), paints a picture of the culture of the rural south that was reflected in early country music. How much of that culture do you think still remains in the rural south today? (I’m talking attitude, not occupation). Is it still male-dominated with macho tendencies? Is it still shaped by Fundamentalist Christianity? Is it still “behind the times”? Many of you live or have lived in rural areas. Feel free to give specific examples to illustrate your opinions. Answer the questions by Friday (midnight) and post responses to two peers by Sunday (midnight) Don't forget the peer review tab - rate the original answers. |
| Week 3 Assignment Do-It-Yourself Country Western Songkit This is just a fun exercise - a tongue-in-cheek version of country song-writing Go to the link above and fill in one for yourself. Use suggestions from the list, or make up your own. Don't change the other part, though, or it won't rhyme. Submit in a Word doc as usual. I will check this off as completed, but it won't be graded. If you'd like to see how your song would sound, here is a midi file to Red River Valley This tune will fit your newly created country hit! |
| Week 4 Lecture: Rock 'n' Roll Roots Lecture: 60s Rock Lecture: Gospel, Soul, Motown Lecture: Rock in the 70's Lecture: 80's and 90's Rock There IS no lecture for these decades! The material is covered in the last 2 chapters of the textbook. Refer to the Unit 3 Study Guide below for the audio clips from Chapters 22 and 23 Don't forget about the Unit 3 Exam on Sunday night. Unit 3 Practice Unit 3 Study Guide
| | Week 4 Reading pp. 187-333 |
| Discussion: Your Questions Based upon your reading about rock & roll, form what you would consider to be a thought-provoking discussion question. This should be a question that could theoretically be posed in a discussion forum such as the one in which you have participated. Then choose two of your classmates' questions to answer. Your question is due by Friday (midnight) and your posts to two peers' questions are due by Sunday (midnight). Don't forget the peer review tab - rate the original answers. |
| Week 4 Assignment PowerPoint presentation See the instructions on the link to your left. This is due Sunday at midnight. |
PowerPoint Project Please go to the link below for the course evaluation. I appreciate your feedback. This link will be open until Thurs., Aug. 7. Course evaluation |
| Week 5 No Discussion or Lecture material for Week 5 Assuming that all of your assignments were on time and went through properly, you are done!! Important: Check your "My Grades" tab. If there is not a grade on an assignment that you have done, then something has not been submitted or submitted properly. Let's fix it or the grade book will show a zero when grades are averaged! |  YOU are an awesome class!! |  END OF SEMESTER
| Blackboard/Computer Configuration Blackboard email setup It is your responsibility to check into your course each day. However, if you want to make sure you don't miss any e-mails from me or your fellow classmates, you can have e-mails inside Blackboard forwarded to the e-mail address you check most often. The procedure is below. Log on to Blackboard (if you are not already) Click “My Settings” in the upper right portion of the screen. Select “My profile” tab and edit the profile to include the email address you actually check. Click Save. Now click on “My Tool Option” tab and scroll to the Mail portion of the screen. Select the box “Forward all mail messages to the e-mail address in my profile.” Click Save.
Configure your computer BEFORE you need to submit an assignment or take a testComputer Settings Troubleshooting Guide Make sure you have the latest version of whatever music player (like Windows Media Player, etc.) you will be using Set your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, or whatever) so that it does not block pop-ups from this site. The music files are streamed that way. Also set it to allow cookies from this site. If you are using a slow connection speed, your connection may time-out before downloading the streaming file. You can adjust this setting if you need to. Do not try to take exams using a dial-up connection!!
Make sure the computer you will use has been tested for audio files and for | Discussion Info
| Requirements and deadlines: You will have a discussion question each week. You should post an answer to the question by Friday at midnight. At least two additional posts (responses to other students' posts) are due by Sunday at midnight. Points will be deducted from the week's discussion grade if posted late. Be aware that doing the bare minimum will not earn an "A." NOTE: You should read all posts, not just the ones to which you intend to respond. Blackboard logs all activity and I am aware if you only read 2 posts in a discussion. In addition, please rate all original posts that you read by clicking on the "Review" tab just below it. You don't have to do this for responses, just original posts. |
| Grading will be as follows: The answer to the original question is worth 30 points. Two responses are required, each worth 10 points. No credit will be given for responses that simply agree or that do not add to the discussion. |
| Answer the question entirely, not just one thought. Don't just paraphrase something in the lecture - do some thinking, reading on your own. It doesn't have to be a long answer, but it should not consist of a single point. It should also not be a simple yes or no answer, even if you put the word "definitely" in front of it. |
| In responding to others' answers, feel free to ask them for clarification or for further information to justify their answers. "I agree" is not a discussion. Neither is a paraphrase of their post. Your response should add something to the original post, ask, or answer a question. Ask questions like "I wonder why . . .," "Why is it that . . . ," "Do you think . . . ," to encourage others to delve deeper into the subject. Remember that chit chat responses ("I saw you at the movies last night," etc.) will not be counted toward the response post requirement. As a matter of fact, those belong in the Water cooler! Also, you are welcome to respond to as many posts as you like, but again, with something of substance, not just a "me, too!" answer. I am suspect of any answer that begins with "I agree . . . " |
| Please write in complete sentences and use correct punctuation, capitalization, etc. We do become accustomed to shorthand in e-mails and text messages, but you should be able to do it the other way also, and this is a good forum in which to practice. You will be graded on this as a writing assignment, both on content and form. |
| Please begin your response posts with the person's name to whom you are responding. Some of the threads go back and forth between people and when read in compiled format, become very confusing. |
| These submissions are time and date stamped, so don't miss the deadlines. When I grade your posts in Blackboard, I am looking at only your posts - only your side of the conversation, so keep that in mind when you judge your own participation. |
| Ask VB: Think of this as raising your hand in class. This is for clarification or problems that others might be having, as well. However, please be conscientious to check the course outline and your email, as well as reading the other "Ask VB" posts before asking questions so as not to duplicate, as that wastes others time to read through and my time to answer. Also, please don't send the same question through "Ask VB" and email for the same reason. I do appreciate receiving posts when links are missing, or other errors so I can correct them quickly. |
| Assignment Submission
| Submit assignments as Word documents unless specified otherwise. |
| Save the document as Assignment1_YourName.doc (substituting the correct week and correct assignment number and using your own name :-) |
| Use a heading at the top of the page which includes your name and the assignment number. Use a heading on every assignment you submit. |
| Upload the Word document in the assignment section as an attachment. Do NOT send your assignment to me via e-mail. If you can't submit it, contact me and I will reset the submission. |
| If you have Word 2007, save your file with a .doc extension, and not a .docx extension. Blackboard does not recognize the '.docx' extension properly and I can't open the file to grade it. In Word, when saving, choose 'Save as' - 'Word 97-2003 document' to affix the .doc extension. |
| Occasionally your assignments may be returned to you for a redo. Make your corrections and resubmit through the Assignment section as before. If I send it back to you, II will not count it late even though Blackboard automatically marks it "Late" in the Assignment section. If your original submission is late, you will be penalized 10% of the point value. |
 Note:
| It is very important that you name your file according to the instructions above. Otherwise, I have to rename each file. So please take a moment to rename the file before submission if you do not name it as above originally. |
| Exams
| Each exam will be available within a two-hour window of time, from 8:00pm to 10:00pm on the test days. The exams will only be available during the specified times. Each exam should take about 30-40 minutes. You will have one hour from the time you begin the exam to finish it. |
| Each exam will consist of two parts: 1) multiple choice questions based upon the lectures, reading, and other links, and 2) identification of songs from your listening list. There is a complete list of the audio excerpts on your Study Guide. |
| In order to do the listening portion of the exams, you must print out the Listening List. The answers to the listening questions will be the numbers assigned to the songs on that page. Do NOT try to type in the name of the song. |
| Each time you answer a listening question, a media player will play a song excerpt. Behind the media player will be a white screen. You will have to close that screen as well as the media player screen to get back to your test questions. |
| IMPORTANT! Before you begin your exam, please turn OFF your pop-up blocker(s). |
| Do not try to take the exam using dial-up as it will take too long to load the audio files and you might not have time to finish the test. |
| Click on the "Save" button after every question, not just at the end. This will ensure that your answers are recorded. |
| If your computer freezes during the exam, just log back in, and click on 'Continue Assessment' and it will pick you up right where you left off. |
| Some of the test questions will have more than one correct answer. Here's an example: Mickey Mouse is A. a Disney character B. a cartoon C. a character on Law & Order The correct answer would be to select both "A" and "B". If you select only "A" you would receive half credit on that particular question. Always be aware of the possibility of multiple answers and select all that apply. |
| On every exam, there will be questions that are not covered in the lecture or study guide and that you will only recognize if you have read the material in your textbook. So, keep up with the reading. It will be worth your while. |
| Only in case of "excused absence" will you be able to make up an exam. These instances will require written documentation (something from a healthcare provider, for example). Missing an exam because of work or personal conflicts does not qualify as an excused absence. The exams are scheduled at the beginning of the semester. Please make sure that you make arrangements. Also, if you must take an exam at a different location than normal, you must go through all of the configuration steps on that computer also. If the audio doesn't work because you didn't test it or the connection isn't fast enough, those are not "excused" reasons. |
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Created and maintained by Vicky Boucher |
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