Black Studies 154 - Bob Marley

(Offered as MUSI 115 and BLST 154) The 1972 partnership of British-based Island Records and reggae icon Bob Marley signaled a new and important presence in the international pop music world and a rising voice of Pan-African consciousness. The commercial viability of reggae led to the globalization of a music culture with a complex semiotics and particularity to Jamaican society. At the same time, the influence of ska, reggae, Jamaican DJ culture, and Rastafarianism has had a profound influence on local cultures spread across multiple continents, creating a web of relationships between communities in Jamaica, the United States, Great Britain, Brazil, many countries in Africa, and elsewhere. This course will draw from the music and life of Bob Marley to generate a number of questions about the role of popular music in globalization and the creation, continuation, and challenging of complex racial and social identities that illustrate processes of transnationalism and globalization. We will explore the roots and development of Afro-Jamaican popular music, its leading figures and styles, and its enduring influence throughout the world. Two class meetings per week.

Fall semester. Professor J. Robinson.