Rock and roll history heard loud and clear
Seth Ponzo
Mesa Legend
Are you a student in need of a humanities credit and history credit? Look no further! Rock and Roll History with Professor Fred Forney offers an interesting and creative way to gain both of those credits in one course. Throughout the course, students will “be exposed to the history of Rock Music from 1954 until 1990” says Forney. He claims he “strives for students who take the course to learn and understand how Rock and Roll’s evolution mirrors American History”. He also says his goal for the course is to give students a glimpse of how the different cultures throughout time affected the musicians and Rock and Roll as a whole and vice versa.
Photo: Seth Ponzo/Mesa Legend
Audio engineer/music business major Jonathan Sheldon took the course. “One thing that I loved about the class was that Fred helped the students listen to music in a whole new way,” explained Shelson. “ We listened for details that the average listener doesn’t pay attention to. The class was mixed with music majors and non music majors, and it was cool to see the non music major students ‘rediscover’ music because Professor Forney encouraged them to listen to the music for its details, not just the catchy melody.” Whether you are a music major or not this class accelerates your listening ability to far above average.
Rather than casually listening to lyrics and a melody, the course calls studnets to analyze the structure of a song as well as the cultural context in which it was produced. The sound of rock and roll may change from decade to decade, but the incredible effect this genre of music has on society is a constant. Music is a big part of our culture in 2016 and learning how music has affected our culture throughout time really helps understand how it influences our society today. From Elvis to MTV, music is an integral part of American history.
Forney’s course attempts to bring the importance of rock and roll to the forefront, emphasizing the affects of music on popular culture. The prevelance of rock and roll has also had a part in helpoing to create all new genres of music. Genres like metal, indie and electronic can all be traced back to the proud legacy of rock and roll. Despite it’s undeniable influence, many generations of people don’t understand how important music is for our culture and our history. It is classes like this one that help people undertsand music, specifically rock and roll, profound effect on our world.
