Class explores cities through music

Ellen Cunningham Guest Writer

How is the urban experience represented through music? This semester, the urban studies department is offering a senior seminar that approaches urban culture by listening to and examining the music produced by city artists.

Urban Studies 386: Musical Urbanism takes a deeper look at popular 20th-century music around the world and related cultural expressions and media. Co-taught by Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Urban Studies Department Leonard Nevarez and Associate Professor of English Heesok Chang, the course explores musical urbanism through a weekly two-hour listening lab session in addition to regular academic work and research.

“I’m a big music fan,” said Nevarez. “I just want to teach a course in cultural analysis by using music as a course starter to better understand the cultures of cities.”

The seminar examines the production and consumption of urban music through media such as scholarship, journalism, performance, literature, radio, film, television and the recordings’ packaging.

Every Wednesday from 8-10 p.m., the Musical Urbanism seminar holds a lab session open to anyone in the Vassar community who is interested in musical cultural analysis. The lab, held in Taylor Hall 203, has a Vassar faculty member with a special interest in music play and discuss music from a specific era. He or she delves into the importance of the lyrics, rhythm and the music itself.

During the labs, the 13 seminar students and attendees are encouraged to simply sit back, absorb the music and listen to the lecturer teach. “We want to have sessions outside of the classroom to cover music that’s new and unfamiliar to the students—separate meetings to just listen to music,” said Nevarez.

For the first lab of the semester on Sept. 12, Associate Professor of Music Brian Mann presented early cabaret music from the northern edge of Paris. Since then, Associate Professor of English Peter Antelyes has lectured on American vaudeville and Nevarez discussed “Popular Song: Soundtrack of the Century” and Tin Pan Alley, the influential collection of New York-based music publishers and songwriters in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Chang presents “Swinging London” on Oct. 3.

According to Nevarez and Chang, the lab sessions will continue for about two months, hopefully culminating with a performance by the band Ike Yard. Formed in the early ’80s, Ike Yard was influenced by their punk, avante-garde, new wave surroundings in New York City. They created a unique and aggressive sound, using scrap metal they found in the Lower East Side as additional percussion and integrating a mixing board and effects processors. The band dissolved in 1983, but reunited in Fall 2006 with three of the original four members.

Through the diverse lab sessions, the class touches on branches of music that have, in some way, shaped urban culture.