American Studies Commons^™

Jesus Music: The Story Of The Jesus Movement And Evaluation Of Its Musical Impact, Shimon K. Galiley

Senior Honors Theses

Few recent historical developments have had as much impact on American Evangelical Christianity as the Jesus Movement. Dating back only a few decades, this movement resulted in the conversion of many countercultural youth and the consequent revitalization of many American churches. One of the greatest impacts of the Jesus Movement was its new music which came to be known as “Jesus Music.”

This thesis describes the history of the Jesus Movement and the musical impact it had on American Evangelical Christianity.

Everybody Talkin' 'Bout A Spoonful: The Blues, From America To England And Back, Edward Giza

MALS Final Projects, 1995-2019

Though the blues are typically considered one of the few uniquely American musical styles, a group of British performers in the 1960s championed the blues to mainstream audiences on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This essay explores the journey of the blues from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago and then across the Atlantic to England. It examines the various changes the genre underwent throughout this journey as well as aspects of the blues that remained static. Utilizing the song "Spoonful " as a common thread between these locations, this essay details how changes in popular opinion , advancements in …

Kohn, Margaret (Bulger) (Fa 566), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 566. Interview conducted by Margaret (Bulger) Kohn with Freeman Kitchens at Kitchens Grocery in Drake, Warren County, Kentucky on 22 September 1974. They discuss the store, Kitchens's phonograph collection and his association with the Carter Family (musical group).

Morrison, Ron (Fa 565), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Collection 565. Interview conducted by Ron Morrison with Freeman Kitchens at Kitchens Groceries in Drake, Warren County, Kentucky. They discuss the store, Kitchens's phonograph collection and his association with the Carter Family.

Interview Conducted By Ron Morrison With Freeman Kitchens In March 1978 (Fa 565), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview conducted by Ron Morrison with Freeman Kitchens at Kitchens Groceries in Drake, Warren County, Kentucky in March 1978. They discuss the store, Kitchens's phonograph collection and his association with the Carter Family (musical group).

Interview Conducted By Margaret (Bulger) Kohn With Freeman Kitchens (Fa 566), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview conducted by Margaret (Bulger) Kohn with Freeman Kitchens in Drake, Kentucky on 22 September 1974. They discuss the store, Kitchens's phonograph collection and his association with the Carter Family (musical group).

Jameson, Jennifer Michelle, B. 1987 (Fa 567), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text paper (click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 567. Paper: "A Brief History and Orientation to the Freeman Kitchens Collection" written by Jennifer Michelle Jameson for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Includes photos and an oral interview conducted by Jameson with Kitchens on 24 November 2010 in Drake, Kentucky.

"This Murder Done": Misogyny, Femicide, And Modernity In 19th-Century Appalachian Murder Ballads, Christina Ruth Hastie

Masters Theses

This thesis contextualizes Appalachian murder ballads of the 19^th- and early 20^th-centuries through a close reading of the lyric texts. Using a research frame that draws from the musicological and feminist concepts of Diana Russell, Susan McClary, Norm Cohen, and Christopher Small, I reveal 19^th-century Appalachia as a patriarchal, modern, and highly codified society despite its popularized image as a culturally isolated and “backward” place. I use the ballads to demonstrate how music serves the greater cultural purpose of preserving and perpetuating social ideologies. Specifically, the murder ballads reveal layers of meaning regarding hegemonic …

Download This: Artist Development And Interconnectivity In The Internet Age, Geoffrey Johnson

American Studies Senior Theses

The advent of internet media distribution has profoundly changed the way most people consume music and experience artists. Outlets such as Myspace, YouTube, Twitter, and peer-to-peer downloading networks have made music and artists more accessible than ever before. These changes have come largely at the expense of the traditional music industry model of distribution. My thesis proposes that these new media have radically redefined what it means to be a developing artist. Specifically, these media empower artists with the ability to circumvent music industry oversight while providing them with tools of self-promotion to autonomously construct a fan-base. My thesis will …

Storyville: Discourses In Southern Musicians' Autobiographies, Matthew Daniel Sutton

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This study utilizes many of the tools of the literary critic to identify and analyze the discursive conventions in autobiographies by American vernacular musicians who came of age in the American South during the era of enforced racial segregation. Through this textual analysis, we can appreciate this seemingly amorphous collection of books as a continuing conversation, where descriptions of the South and its music by turns confirm, contradict, and complicate each other. Ultimately, the dozens of southern musician autobiographies published in the last fifty years engage in a valuable and revealing dialogue, creating a virtual "Storyville"; ostensibly disparate works share …

Self-Efficacy In Music Performance: Measuring The Sources Among Secondary School Music Students, Michael S. Zelenak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop a greater understanding of self-efficacy in music performance. I sought to (a) contribute to fundamental knowledge of self-efficacy in music performance, (b) determine whether scores from the Music Performance Self-Efficacy Scale (MPSES) were valid and reliable, and (c) provide insights for developing self-efficacy among secondary school music students. Participants (N = 290) were middle and high school students in band, chorus, and string orchestra ensembles from 10 schools in the southeast and western regions of the United States. Participants completed four online questionnaires: (a) Music Performance Self-Efficacy Scale, (b) Sources of Middle …

The Performance Production Process Of An Outstanding High School Choir, Kathy K. Rolsten

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the interest in and importance of producing high quality choral performance, the question "How is superior performance produced?" has not been addressed in a holistic and naturalistic way. A synthesis of previous research findings suggests that a combination of actions, interactions, relationships, and conditions produce superior choral performance. Yet a holistic examination of this multi-faceted production process has not been conducted. In order to identify all factors contributing to the production of superior performance and how these factors work together, I comprehensively examined an extreme case of superior performance. This extreme case of superior performance was one high school, …

What Child Is This?: Closely Reading Collectivity And Queer Childrearing In Lackawanna Blues And Noah’S Arc, Vincent L. Stephens

Vincent L Stephens

Increasing hostilities toward intimate change are rooted in longstanding affective investments in a sexual normativity that oppresses multiple strands of intimacy, including African American kinship networks and same-sex coupling. Since homosexuality is always racialized sexuality and African American kinship patterns have always been marginal by U. S. heteronormative standards, the present essay unmasks the ways sexual normativity has obscured collectivity as a resistive strategy in the lives of two "alternative" intimate groups with important overlaps, black gay and lesbian communities and African American extended families. The essay interrogates sexual normativity by defining and affirming the relevance of black collectivity to …