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Michael Jackson & The Black Performance Tradition
Department of African & African American Studies
Duke University
AAAS 334-01
Fall 2012
Wednesday 6:15 pm – 8:45 pm
White Lecture Hall, 107
Mark Anthony Neal, Ph.D.
Mark Anthony Neal, Ph.D.
Course Description
The central premise of ‘Michael Jackson and Black Performance Tradition’ is the question, “Where did Michael Jackson come from?” While there are facts—he was born on August 29, 1958 in a Rust Belt city named Gary, Indiana—what the course aims to answer are the broader questions of Jackson’s cultural, social, political and even philosophical origins. The course will specifically examine the Black Performance context(s) that produced Jackson’s singular creative genius within the realms of music, movement and politics, including the influence of Black vernacular practices like signifying and sampling, the network of Black social spaces known as the Chitlin’ Circuit, the impact of Black migration patterns to urban spaces in the Midwest (like Gary, Chicago and Detroit—all critical to Jackson’s artistic development) and Black performance traditions including Blackface minstrelsy. In addition the course will examine the social constructions of Blackness and gender (Black masculinity) through the prism of Michael Jackson’s performance, highlighting his role as a trickster figure with the context of African-American vernacular practices.
Books
The Last 'Darky': Bert Williams, Black-on-Black Minstrelsy & the African Diaspora | Louis Chude-Sokei
The One: The Life and Music of James Brown | RJ Smith
Moonwalk | Michael Jackson
Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson | Joseph Vogel
On Michael Jackson | Margo Jefferson
Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop | Guthrie P. Ramsey
*Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958-2009 | J. Randy Taraborrelli
Week 1— Why Michael Jackson?
August 29, 2011
Week 2—“We Wear the Mask”—Black Face Minstrelsy and the Roots of Black Celebrity
September 5, 2012
Readings:
Chude-Sokei—The Last “Darky” | “Black Minstrel, Black Modernism” (17-45); “Migrations of a Mask” (46-81); “Theorizing Black-on-Black Cross-Culturality” (82-113); “The Global Economy of Minstrelsy” (114-160)
Chin—“Michael Jackson’s Panther Dance: Double Consciousness and the Uncanny Business of Performing While Black” (Journal of Popular Music Studies) PDF
Martin—“The Roots and Routes of Michael Jackson’s Global Identity” (Social Science and Modern Society) PDF
Discussion Question: (Beta)
Week 3—“(What Did I Do to be So) Black and Blue?”—The Rhythms and Melodies of Race
September 12, 2012
Readings:
Ramsey—Race Music | “Daddy’s Second Line: Toward a Cultural Poetics of Race Music” (1-16); “It’s Just the Blues: Race, Entertainment, and the Blues Muse” (44-75); “It Just Stays with Me All of the Time: Collective Memory, Community Theater, and the Ethnographic Truth” (76-95); “We Called Ourselves Modern: Race Music and the Politics and Practice of Afro-Modernism at Midcentury” (96-130); “Goin’ to Chicago: Memories, Histories and a Little Bit of Soul” (131-162)
Roberts—“Michael Jackson’s Kingdom: Music, Race, and the Sound of the Mainstream” (Journal of Popular Music Studies) PDF
Discussion Question (# 1)
Week 5—“All Aboard the Night Train”—Black Masculinity and the Chitlin Circuit
September 26, 2012
Readings:
Smith—The One: The Life and Music of James Brown
Clay—“Working Day and Night: Black Masculinity and the King of Pop” (Journal of Popular Music Studies) PDF
Discussion Question (# 2)
Week 6— “Big Boy”—from Gary, to Chicago, to Motown
October 3, 2012
Readings:
Jackson—Moon Walk | “Just Kids with Dreams” (3-64); “The Promised Land” (65-100); “Dancing Machine” (101-142)
Warwick—“You Can’t Win, Child, but You Can’t Get Out of the Game: Michael Jackson’s Transition from Child Star to Superstar” (Popular Music and Society) PDF
Nyong’o—“Have You Seen His Childhood? Song, Screen, and the Queer Culture of the Child in Michael Jackson’s Music” (Journal of Popular Music Studies) PDF
Discussion Question (# 3)
Week 7—“Ease On Down the Road”—Getting Grown and Taking Control
October 10, 2012
Readings:
Jackson—Moon Walk | “Me and Q” (143-176); “The Moonwalk” (177-232); “All You Need is Love” (233-283)
Izod—“Androgyny and Stardom: Cultural Meanings of Michael Jackson” (The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal) PDF
Hollander—“Michael Jackson, the Celebrity Cult and Popular Culture” (Social Science and Modern Society) PDF
Discussion Question (# 4)
Midterm Examination Distributed
Week 8—“Wanna be Startin’ Something”—Birth of the “King of Pop”
October 17, 2012
Readings:
Vogel—Man in the Music | “Introduction” (1-29); Off the Wall (30-53); Thriller (54-91)
Danielson—“The Sound of Crossover: Micro-rhythm and Sonic Pleasure in Michael Jackson’s ‘Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough’” (Popular Music and Society) PDF
Discussion Question (#5)
Midterm Examination Due
Week 9— “Smooth Criminal”—Breaking Boundaries; Transcending Race?
October 24, 2012
Readings:
Vogel—Man in the Music | “Bad” (91-129); “Dangerous” (130-169)
Neal—“Still the ‘Best Intentions'?: Edmund Perry Case Resonates Years Later”
Campbell—“Saying the Unsayable: The Non-verbal Vocalisations of Michael Jackson” (Context) PDF
Discussion Question (# 6)
Week 10—“Remember the Time”—Movement, Memory and Masculinity
October 31, 2012
Readings:
Khan—“Michael Jackson’s Ressentiment: Billie Jean and Smooth Criminal in Conversation with Fred Astaire (Popular Music and Society) PDF
Brackett—“Black or White? Michael Jackson and the Idea of Crossover” (Popular Music and Society) PDF
Martinec—“Construction of Identity in Michael Jackson’s Jam” (Social Semiotics) PDF
Guest Lecturer:
Thomas Defrantz (Professor of Dance and African & African American Studies)
Discussion Question (# 7)
Week 11—“They Don’t Care About Us”—Michael Jackson and Black Power
November 7, 2012
Readings:
Vogel—Man in the Music | “History: Past, Present, and Future, Book 1” (170-205); “Blood on the Dancefloor” (206-217)
Fischer—“Wannabe Startin’ Somethin’: Michael Jackson’s Critical Race Representation” (Journal of Popular Music Studies) PDF
Rossiter—“They Don’t Care About Us”: Michael Jackson’s Black Nationalism” (Popular Music and Society) PDF
Discussion Question (# 8)
Week 12—“Unbreakable”—The Man in a Cracked Mirror
November 14, 2012
Readings:
Vogel—Man in the Music | “Invincible” (218-249); “The Final Years” (250-263)
Erni—“Queer Figurations in the Media: Critical Reflections on the Michael Jackson Sex Scandal” (Critical Studies in Mass Communication) PDF
Gomez-Barris & Gray—“Michael Jackson, Television, and Post-Op Disasters” (Television & New Media) PDF
Whannel—“News, Celebrity and Vortextuality: A Study of the Media Coverage of the Michael Jackson Verdict” (Cultural Politics) PDF
Discussion Question (# 9)
Week 13—“Ghosts”—On Michael Jackson
November 28, 2012
Jefferson—On Michael Jackson
Discussion Question (# 10)
Week 14—“Man in the Mirror”—Michael Jackson Queered
December 5, 2012
Readings:
James Baldwin—“Here Be Dragons” PDF
Silberman—“Presenting Michael Jackson” (Social Semiotics) PDF
Gates—“Reclaiming the Freak: Michael Jackson and the Spectacle of Identity” (Velvet Light Trap) PDF
Fast—“Michael Jackson’s Queer Musical Belongings” (Popular Music and Society) PDF
Final Examination Distributed
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