----------------------------------------------------- MAY 28, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: The Dana School of Music http://www.fpa.ysu.edu/music/main/r&r2.htm MUS 2618: Rock and Roll to Rock  Introduction: How I Came to See the Light Almost from my first day of teaching at Youngstown State University, my private students began bugging me about rock and roll music? Why didn't we study it? Why didn't I like it? How come the music school pretended it didn't exist? I didn't have any answers. As a classically trained musician, I had spent most of my adult life avoiding most forms of popular music. I assumed it was simply "product." Why then were some of my best students its biggest fans? The day after a seminar devoted to "What makes a piece of music great?" one of my most accomplished students lent me an album and practically begged me to listen to it. He assured me that the music on the album had all the qualities which we, at the seminar, had agreed upon as being characteristic of great music. It was and an album by the British band Yes called Relayer. I had promised. So that night, for the first time, I listened seriously to rock and roll. I listened all night long! My student was right. But, as it turned out, so was I. Ninety percent of rock and roll is, in fact, product. But the remaining ten percent-now that is something else. Listening for countless hours to the music of The Beatles, The Jefferson Airplane, Led Zeppelin (and so many more) with classically trained ears changed my life. Within five years, over some opposition from faculty and administration, I was able to institute a class in rock and roll music at YSU. While it is directed at non-music majors, a number of music majors have taken the course. It has also spawned additional honors seminars on The Beatles and a seminar in the Viet Nam War and its popular counter culture. Scarcely a quarter goes by without at least one student loaning me a CD and begging me to listen to "the greatest band you will ever hear." Sometimes they are right. That's exactly how The Violent Femmes, BareNaked Ladies, and The Meat Puppets found their way on to the course's listening list. It seems that the old adage is true. A teacher can learn plenty from his students. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com