This course examines how U.S. cultures are constructed, reinforced, and changed, and how those cultures act simultaneously at a given time. To help students develop skills in cultural analysis, lectures will contrast various methods and perspectives as they apply to the study of a particular year or decade. Topics will vary from semester to semester. This course may include discussion sections depending on available funding. Some versions of this course need four in-class contact hours because of the extensive use of media.

The music of 1971 was uncommonly good and uncommonly inventive, and it was inextricably linked to the ups and downs of a turbulent period in American history. Marvin Gaye tackled drug abuse, environmental destruction, and the Vietnam War on What's Going On, often considered the greatest album of all time, while Sly and the Family Stone incorporated elements of the Black Power movement into their music. Carole King and Joni Mitchell told stories about love, sexuality, and (in)dependence in the modern world on Tapestry and Blue, two pinnacles of the singer-songwriter genre. In February, Aretha Franklin recorded one of the most iconic live albums ever in San Francisco (Aretha Live at Fillmore West); in April, Dolly Parton recorded her favorite original song ("Coat of Many Colors.") Miles Davis continued his quest to expand the boundaries of what jazz could be, while experimentalists Morton Feldman and Pauline Oliveros did the same for classical music. In this course we will become intimately familiar with all of this music and more, as we consider both what the music reveals about the United States in 1971 and why it reverberates so powerfully over a half-century later. Students will have the opportunity to pursue research projects on the music of their choosing, and specialized musical knowledge is not required.

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