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Does a Generation Gap exist today? Discuss or write a short essay on how the "Generation Gap" is the same (or different) today from that in previous years.
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Alan Bloom discusses music (especially that of popular music) in his controversial book "The Closing of the American Mind" (Simon & Schuster, 1987). Read this section and discuss the following: 1) What, according to Bloom, is the appeal of rock music to young people? Discuss the broad social point Bloom is making about the role of popular music in young people's lives. Does anything in Bloom's argument make you "indignant"?
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Much of Elvis Presley's career in the 1960s centered around his numerous films. Research the number of films and the songs introduced in them and outline your discoveries in a short paper. Is there any one film that seems to be more remarkable than the others in terms of its staying power? Why and how do you think Presley achieved that particular status?
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On March 28, 1956 the New York Times ran a short notice by "noted" psychiatrist Dr. Francis J. Braceland that bluntly stated "Rock-and-Roll Called Communicable Disease." The last sentence of this brief notice finds Dr. Braceland stating that "It is insecurity and "rebellion" that impels teenagers to affect "ducktail" haircuts, wear zoot-suits and carry on boisterously at rock-and-roll affairs." In the fifty years since this notice appeared has the attitude surrounding rock-and-roll (or hip-hop; or Goth, or any other popular music genre) changed? |
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