O.K., Professor Nick Rubin might not be a slovenly, hard-rocking and somewhat deranged substitute teacher at a private school—and his students probably won’t end up competing in a local battle of the bands—but we still can’t resist a course titled “History of Rock and Roll.”
In Rubin’s class, connoisseurs of this thing we call “rock” get a broad overview of modern music’s wide roots. In fact, the syllabus covers just about every conceivable musical form since the 1920s: Bessie Smith, Bob Dylan, Genesis, Alice Cooper, Rod Stewart, Wu-Tang Clan and even ‘N Sync (oh yeah—those guys totally rock).
“We will devote attention to less-glorified developments—such as ‘girl groups,’ prog, bubblegum and postpunk,” Rubin promises in his course description. So never again will you be caught flat-footed when the conversation turns to the historical and cultural significance of Ohio Express’ “Yummy Yummy Yummy (I’ve Got Love in my Tummy).” The description also says “no previous knowledge required”—but it’s hard to imagine students insightfully analyzing Sonic Youth’s open-guitar tunings without at least a little rock ‘n’ roll background.
Class readings present their own challenges. Though the subject material may seem light, just check out the first sentence of Lester Bangs’ essay “Of Pop and Pies and Fun”: “The first thing to remember about Stooge music is that it is monotonous and simplistic on purpose, and that within the seemingly circumscribed confines of this fuzz-feedback territory the Stooges work deftly with musical ideas that may not be highly sophisticated (God forbid) but are certainly advanced.”
Dude, that’s some heavy stuff. And here we were, thinking that Iggy Pop was just screaming his damn fool head off to impress the chicks.
Categories