From Hip Hop to Reggaeton - Syllabus

I have received a lot of requests for the syllabus of the class I am currently teaching at Columbia University. I am posting it here for easy access.

Any suggestions for further readings or other resources are greatly appreciated.

RZ


Latino Studies W3920 section 001
Topics in the Latino Experience

From Hip Hop to Reggaeton:
New Directions in Latino Youth Cultures

Fall 2006

Professor Raquel Z. Rivera
rzr2102@columbia.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This seminar will examine two of the newest trends in Latino youth cultures: hip-hop and reggaeton. This course will attempt to complicate the largely a-historical treatment of hip hop and reggaeton in mass-mediated portrayals by engaging in a cultural studies critique of youth cultural formations. Given the dearth of scholarly analysis of these topics, students will: research and critically examine the literature that is available, both academic and popular; identify necessary areas of study; and embark on a semester-long research project designed to expand the body of knowledge available on the subject. Students will develop individual research projects, while working closely with one another, sharing ideas and resources, and critically analyzing each others’ work.

TOPICS

Sept. 5
Introduction


Sept. 12
Media Coverage of Reggaeton

Read recent magazine and newspaper articles posted in Assignments.

Deborah Pacini-Hernandez, “The Name Game: Locating Latinos, Latins and Latin Americans in the US Popular Music Landscape, forthcoming in Juan Flores and Renato Rosaldo (eds.), Latino Studies Reader, Blackwell Publishing, pp. 1-26.

Juan Flores, "Pan-Latino/Trans-Latino: Puerto Ricans in the 'New Nueva York'" in From Bomba to Hip Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity, New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, pp. 140-165.


Sept. 19
Proto-Reggaeton: Puerto Rican “Underground” and Panamanian “Reggae en Español”

Mayra Santos, “Puerto Rican Underground,” Centro, vol. 8, no. 1 & 2, 1996, pp. 219-231.

Raquel Z. Rivera, “Policing Morality, Mano Dura Stylee: The Case of Underground Rap and Reggae in Puerto Rico,” forthcoming in Raquel Z. Rivera, Deborah Pacini-Hernandez and Wayne Marshall (eds.), Reading Reggaeton

Joseph Pereira, “Translation or Transformation: Gender in Hispanic Reggae,” Social and Economic Studies, 47: 1, March, 1998, 79-88.

Dancehall Reggaespañol liner notes, 1991.


Sept. 26
Class and Race: Parallels Between Salsa and Reggaeton

Keith Negus, “Introduction” and “Identities” in Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction, Hanover: University Press of New England, 1996, pp. 1-6, 99-135.

Jorge L. Giovannetti, “Popular Music and Culture in Puerto Rico: Jamaican and Rap Music as Cross-Cultural Symbols,” in Frances R. Aparicio and Cándida F. Jáquez, Musical Migrations: Transnationalism and Cultural Hybridity in the Americas, New York: Palgrave, 2003, pp. 81-98.

Frances Aparicio, “Situating Salsa,” Chapter 4 in Listening to Salsa: Gender, Latin Popular Music and Puerto Rican Cultures, Hanover: Press of New England, 1998, pp. 142–153.

Zaire Dinzey-Flores, “From the Disco to the Projects: Urban Spatial Aesthetics and Policy to the Beat of Reggaeton,” forthcoming in Raquel Z. Rivera, Deborah Pacini-Hernandez and Wayne Marshall (eds.), Reading Reggaeton

Raquel Z. Rivera, “Will the Real Blanquitos Please Stand Up?: Class, Race and Reggaeton, www.reggaetonica.blogspot.com


October 3
Reggaeton, Hip Hop and Popular Music Theory

Keith Negus, “Audiences” and “Geographies” in Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction, Hanover: University Press of New England, 1996, pp. 7-35, pp. 164-189.

Ejima Baker, “A Preliminary Step in Exploring Reggaetón,” in Ellie M. Hisama and Evan Rapport, Critical Minded: New Approaches to Hip Hop Studies, Brooklyn: Institute for Studies in American Music, 2005, pp. 107-123.

Ejima Baker, “Remixing and Reshaping Latin@s on Black Entertainment Television,” forthcoming in Raquel Z. Rivera, Deborah Pacini-Hernandez and Wayne Marshall (eds.), Reading Reggaeton


October 10
Race, Nation, Ethnicity

Norman E. Whitten, Jr. and Arlene Torres, “Blackness in the Americas,” NACLA, vol. XXV, number 4, February 1992, pp. 16-22.

John Burdick, “The Myth of Racial Democracy,” NACLA, vol. XXV, number 4, February 1992, pp. 40-44.

Ramón Grosfoguel and Chloé Georas. “The Racialization of Latino Caribbean Migrants,” Centro, 1996, pp. 97-118.

Raquel Z. Rivera, “Between Blackness and Latinidad in the Hip Hop Zone,” forthcoming in Juan Flores and Renato Rosaldo (ed), Latino Studies Reader, Blackwell Publishers, pp. 1-20.

Deborah Pacini-Hernandez, “Are Dominicans in the Mix?: Reflections on Dominicans and Reggaeton,” forthcoming in Raquel Z. Rivera, Deborah Pacini-Hernandez and Wayne Marshall (eds.), Reading Reggaeton


October 17
Rap and Reggaeton in Cuba

Geoffrey Baker, “¡Hip hop, revolución! Nationalizing Rap in Cuba,” Ethnomusicology 49 (3), 2005, pp. 368-402.

Geoffrey Baker, “The Politics of Dancing: Reggaeton and Rap in Havana,” forthcoming in Raquel Z. Rivera, Deborah Pacini-Hernandez and Wayne Marshall (eds.), Reading Reggaeton

Alberto Faya Montano, 2005, “Some Notes on Reggaeton,” www.afrocubaweb.com/rastas.htm

Margaux Joffe, "As Free as the Words of a Poem: Las Krudas and the Cuban Hip-Hop Movement,” 2006, http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/joffe130206.html


October 24
Rap and Reggaeton in Miami

Jose Dávila, “Reggaeton and the Miami Urban Scene,” forthcoming in Raquel Z. Rivera, Deborah Pacini-Hernandez and Wayne Marshall (eds.), Reading Reggaeton

George Yudice, "Miami: Images of a Latinopolis.” NACLA Report on the Americas 39.3 (Nov-Dec 2005): 35(6). Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale.


October 31
U.S. Latinos in Hip Hop

Raquel Z. Rivera, New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, pp. ix-96.

Raegan Kelly, 2004, Hip Hop Chicano: A Separate but Parallel Story, in That’s the Joint!: The Hip Hop Studies Reader, New York: Routledge, pp. 95-103.


November 14
U.S. Latinos in Hip Hop (cont.)

Raquel Z. Rivera, New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, pp. 97-195.


November 21
Gendering Reggaeton

Felix Jiménez, “Wrapped in Foil: Glory at 12 Words a Minute,” forthcoming in Raquel Z. Rivera, Deborah Pacini-Hernandez and Wayne Marshall (eds.), Reading Reggaeton

Alfredo Nieves, “A Man Lives Here: Reggaeton’s Hypermasculine Resident,” forthcoming in Raquel Z. Rivera, Deborah Pacini-Hernandez and Wayne Marshall (eds.), Reading Reggaeton

Jillian Baez, “’En mi imperio’: Competing Discourses of Agency in Ivy Queen’s Reggaeton,” forthcoming in Centro Journal


November 28
Gendering Hip Hop

Imani Perry, Chapter 5 in Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop, Durham: Duke University Press, 2004, pp. 117-154, 155-190.

Mark Anthony Neal, “I’ll be Nina Simone Defecating on Your Microphone,” in That’s the Joint!: The Hip Hop Studies Reader, New York: Routledge, 2004, pp. 247-250.

Cheryl L. Keyes, “Empowering Self, Making Choices, Creating Spaces: Black Female Identity via Rap Music Performance,” in That’s the Joint!: The Hip Hop Studies Reader, New York: Routledge, 2004, pp. 265-276.

Joan Morgan, “Hip Hop Feminist,” in Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal (ed.), That’s the Joint!: The Hip Hop Studies Reader, New York: Routledge, 2004, pp. 277-281.

Gwendolyn D. Pough, “Seeds and Legacies: Tapping the Potential in Hip Hop,” in That’s the Joint!: The Hip Hop Studies Reader, New York: Routledge, 2004, pp. 283-289.


December 5
Gendering Dancehall

Carolyn Cooper, 2004, Chapters 2-3 in Sound Clash : Jamaican Dancehall Culture at Large, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 73-123.