Music of New York
MUSIC-UA 100, Section 001
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, 11:00 AM - 1:05 PM
7/6/23 - 8/16/23 (6 weeks, Summer 2)
Instructor: Annie Garlid
Course Description: Community and Catharsis in NYC Dance Music
New York City has evolved into a symbol of our hyper-accelerated age; once "the city that never sleeps," it has also come to be known as a city that never sits still. It is a metropolis bursting with constellations of sound and movement—many arbitrary, some coordinated—and at any given hour, it hosts a cacophony of millions of parallel beats and grooves. This summer course will navigate our home city as a city full of music—more specifically music crafted to get bodies moving—and it will operate from the premise that the heartbeat of NYC is danceable. The course will place special emphasis on three particular scenes: electronic dance music (including disco, house, and techno, and characterized by sub-scenes like voguing and flexing); salsa, a tradition birthed in NYC that fuses Cuban and American dances; and "country" dancing (accompanied by old-time and bluegrass music and marked by the contra-dancing and line-dancing styles). A number of questions will lift us off the ground: “What does it take to inspire in listeners the impulse to move?” "What are music and dancing without each other?" “How is dancing to music a form of communication and knowledge production?" "How does it act as an archive?"
This course will focus equally on the history of these three scenes and on their manifestations in contemporary life, through the filters of race and class and with special attention to embodiment, emotion, identity, and community-building. We will also place emphasis on the music technologies (instruments, synthesizers, speaker systems, etc.) involved in building these scenes. Invited speakers will include Lauren Goshinski, DJ and music organizer; DeForrest Brown, Jr., music producer, writer, and organizer; Jose Soegaard, Office of Nightlife at NYC Mayor’s Office; Derrick León Washington, cultural anthropologist and dancer; and Jody Kruksal, contra-dance caller. You do not have to be a dancer, or even be comfortable dancing, in order to do well in this course—just bring your curiosity.
NYU PRECOLLEGE STUDENTS MUST REGISTER FOR SECTION 060
Internship
MUSIC-UA 981, Section 001
Permission of the Director of Undergraduate Studies Required
Independent Study
MUSIC-UA 997, Section 001
2 credits (6 weeks, Summer 2)
Permission of the Director of Undergraduate Studies Required