REL 121 Religion and Rock & Roll

This course explores the history of rock music in the United States, its cultural roots and current ramifications, including the role of race and gender in its formation and continuing development, and its implicit ideologies of utopia, revolution, and anesthesia. Has rock music become a kind of religion for faithful fans? Are there parallels between intense, even mystical encounters with music and certain varieties of religious experience? In what ways does this music draw on Christian themes of sin and redemption, the social justice impetus of Jewish prophets, and the revolutionary energy of the Arab Spring? Students will be expected to gain a basic understanding of the relationship of religion and culture, to be conversant with the role of popular music as a form of cultural self-identity and communication, and to understand key moments and movements in the evolution of rock music in the context of recent American history.

Credits

4 sh

Course Types

American Studies Elective

Course Outcomes

1. Students will demonstrate their ability to think critically about the socially constructed nature of that which can be categorized as “religious.”
2. Students will recognize and describe breadth and diversity within particular constructions of religion.
3. Students will recognize and explain ways in which “religion” has cultural, political, and economic significance and/or ways in which cultural, political, and economic phenomena have religious significance.