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American Popular Culture Commons

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Articles 1 - 16 of 16

Full-Text Articles in American Popular Culture

Soundscapes Of Disaster And Humanitarianism: Survival Singing, Relief Telethons, And The Haiti Earthquake, Elizabeth Mcalister Oct 2012

Soundscapes Of Disaster And Humanitarianism: Survival Singing, Relief Telethons, And The Haiti Earthquake, Elizabeth Mcalister

Elizabeth McAlister

This essay first listens, on one hand, to music made by Haitians, for Haitians, close to the epicenter, in the direct aftermath of the Haiti 2010 earthquake. On the other hand, it considers music made by (mostly) North Americans for (mostly) other Americans, in telethon performances far away in New York and Los Angeles and London, weeks after the event. I argue that Haitians used music, and particularly religious singing, self-reflexively, in a culturally patterned way, to orient themselves in time and space, and to construct a frame of meaning in which to understand and act in the devastated Haitian …


Social Learning Theory In The Frontline Documentary “The Merchants Of Cool”, Alixe A. Wiley Sep 2012

Social Learning Theory In The Frontline Documentary “The Merchants Of Cool”, Alixe A. Wiley

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

In the Frontline documentary The Merchants of Cool, the relationship between major media conglomerates and their hedonistic teenage customers is examined through exploring the different tactics industries use to discover and market the next “cool” thing. Industries maintain what the documentary refers to as a “feedback loop” with their customers, which is a cyclic, supply-and-demand relationship that blurs the line between fiction and reality. It has become impossible to tell which side is imitating the other: who do the products and trends that define popular youth culture belong to? What's more, are the sexual and aggressive hormone-fueled behaviors on …


Hopkin, Rachel Claire (Fa 586), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Aug 2012

Hopkin, Rachel Claire (Fa 586), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding Aid and full text paper (Click on "Additional File" below) for Folklife Archives Project 586. Independent study project conducted by Rachel Hopkin on George R. Gibson, a banjo player from eastern Kentucky. The project, contained on two DVDs, includes photos, audio interviews and transcripts, a paper, bibliography, and field notes. Participating in the interview are Gibson and musicians John W. Haywood and Kevin C. Howard, who describe Gibson’s influence on them. This project was executed for the folk studies program at Western Kentucky University.


Nelson, James S. (Fa 161), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jul 2012

Nelson, James S. (Fa 161), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 161. This collection contains a master’s thesis entitled “Hillbilly Music and Early Live Radio Programming In Bowling Green and Glasgow, Kentucky: Country Music as a Local Phenomenon,” written by James Nelson in January 1994 for the department of Modern Languages and Intercultural Studies at Western Kentucky University. Also included is a cassette tape of old-time music from south central Kentucky entitled “Railroad Through the Smoky Mountains,” by Jim Bowles, as well as an obituary for Jonell F. Simunick.


Negrocity: An Interview With Greg Tate, Camille Goodison Jul 2012

Negrocity: An Interview With Greg Tate, Camille Goodison

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.


Undergraduate Research Programs And The Academic Library, Nancy Cunningham, Richard Pollenz Ph.D., Drew Smith, Mark I. Greenberg Ph.D. Apr 2012

Undergraduate Research Programs And The Academic Library, Nancy Cunningham, Richard Pollenz Ph.D., Drew Smith, Mark I. Greenberg Ph.D.

Mark I. Greenberg

Undergraduate research (UR) programs attract highly motivated students who often continue on to graduate/professional schools but may lack necessary information literacy skills. Collaboration with UR programs provides librarians new opportunities to help students develop these skills and work with specialized collections in the context of a research experience. In this webinar, librarians and UR administrators share their experiences in forging collaborations based on UR and library training resources, explain how information literacy skills programming has been embedded into UR, and demonstrate how this partnership has led to greater visibility of library services, collections and UR among all undergraduates.


Undergraduate Research Programs And The Academic Library, Nancy Cunningham, Richard Pollenz Ph.D., Drew Smith, Mark I. Greenberg Ph.D. Apr 2012

Undergraduate Research Programs And The Academic Library, Nancy Cunningham, Richard Pollenz Ph.D., Drew Smith, Mark I. Greenberg Ph.D.

Western Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Undergraduate research (UR) programs attract highly motivated students who often continue on to graduate/professional schools but may lack necessary information literacy skills. Collaboration with UR programs provides librarians new opportunities to help students develop these skills and work with specialized collections in the context of a research experience. In this webinar, librarians and UR administrators share their experiences in forging collaborations based on UR and library training resources, explain how information literacy skills programming has been embedded into UR, and demonstrate how this partnership has led to greater visibility of library services, collections and UR among all undergraduates.


Gospel Reaching Out (Fa 61), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Feb 2012

Gospel Reaching Out (Fa 61), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 61. Complete collection of the newsletter "Gospel Reaching Out," published by the Hart County Gospel Music Association. These issues are available online in TopSCHOLAR; see finding aid for link.


Wheet, Glenda Carol (Fa 72), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Feb 2012

Wheet, Glenda Carol (Fa 72), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 72. “Lou Mona Katherine (Shaw) Yokley: Traditional Folk Musician.” Collection contains field notes and cassette concerning the fieldwork of Glenda Carol Wheet and her work with Lou Mona Katherine (Shaw) Yokley. Collection was completed for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.


Cox, Linda Walker (Fa 63), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Feb 2012

Cox, Linda Walker (Fa 63), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 63. “Is This A Playback?” A project documenting bluegrass, country, and gospel music being performed at Ray Walker’s Allen County home. Music was collected during a session with several participating musicians. The items were collected by Linda Cox for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.


Watkins, Dianne (Winkler), B. 1941 (Fa 55), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jan 2012

Watkins, Dianne (Winkler), B. 1941 (Fa 55), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 55. “Those Old Calliopes,” a paper and interview by Dianne Watkins executed for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Includes recording of calliopes and other related materials.


Autobiographical Sketch Of A Group Based Musician (Fa 48), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jan 2012

Autobiographical Sketch Of A Group Based Musician (Fa 48), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 48. “Autobiographical Sketch of a Group Based Musician,” a paper and interview executed for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Author chose to remain anonymous.


Taft, Ann Celine (Fa 49), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jan 2012

Taft, Ann Celine (Fa 49), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 49. Oral history interview with The Straightway Gospel Singers from Gallatin, Tennessee conducted by Ann Celine Taft for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Subsequent paper titled "The Straightway Gospel Singers" also included.


Rich, Cordell (Fa 47), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jan 2012

Rich, Cordell (Fa 47), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives 47. Interview with Cordell Rich at his home near Jamestown, Tennessee. Topics include gospel hymns, death omens and ghost stories.


"Spectacular Opacities": The Hyers Sisters' Performances Of Respectability And Resistance, Jocelyn Buckner Jan 2012

"Spectacular Opacities": The Hyers Sisters' Performances Of Respectability And Resistance, Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

This essay analyzes the Hyers Sisters, a Reconstruction-era African American sister act, and their radical efforts to transcend social limits of gender, class, and race in their early concert careers and three major productions, Out of Bondage and Peculiar Sam, or The Underground Railroad, two slavery-to-freedom epics, and Urlina, the African Princess, the first known African American play set in Africa. At a time when serious, realistic roles and romantic plotlines featuring black actors were nearly nonexistent due to the country’s appetite for stereotypical caricatures, the Hyers Sisters used gender passing to perform opposite one another as heterosexual lovers in …


Soft Rock, Vincent L. Stephens Dec 2011

Soft Rock, Vincent L. Stephens

Vincent L Stephens

Soft rock refers to melodic vocal music with romantic themes and lush production typically associated with middle-aged taste cultures. I define the genre's place in the history of radio broadcasting, controversies over its artistic merit and its eclectic aesthetic.