Entertainment Has Shaped American Culture

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Entertainment changes the world. Newspapers, radio, T.V., comedy, theatre, and other forms of entertainment influence public opinion and the world. Throughout the history of the United States, no form of entertainment has play a part as unique and important as music. From the snare and piccolo cadences of the Revolutionary War to the Grunge movement in the the 1990’s, music has shaped American culture, defined generations, and sparked social and political change.
I am proposing a seminar based around music and its influence in American history. This seminar would allow students to explore the social, political, and historical implications of the music they listen to. Music serves as the songwriter’s vehicle for his or her point of view, telling history in the process. During the nineteenth century, folk music and the spirituals of slaves working the fields spoke of two contrasting views of America. One of joy and love, and the other of pain and sorrow. The Jazz age, aptly named for the music that defined it, signaled a time of rebellion, virtuosity, and wealth. In the mid to late twentieth century, artists, including Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Ozzy Osbourne, John Lennon, and others, spoke of their desire for peace as the Vietnam and Cold Wars raged …show more content…

The historical side would contextualize these genres and provide background information on the history that caused its creation and the history that resulted from it. This seminar could used many different sources as a point of discussion. One possible sources is, America’s Musical Life: A History. Written by Richard Crawford, this book explores the importance of music in American culture from the formation of the nation through the late Twentieth Century. While the book only goes through the late twentieth century, the seminar, ideally, would include aspects of music from the 2000’s

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