MUSI 010. From Roots to Django: Interpreting the Soundtracks of Black Power, Black Pain, Black Joy, and Retribution.

“Yes, they deserved to die, and I hope they burn in hell!” - Carl Lee Hailey “A Time to Kill”

In this course we will examine the soundtracks of five fictionalized representations of Black life spanning the 17th through the 21st centuries. We’ll examine how music is deployed in ways that move film narratives forward and in some cases how it even becomes an essential character to the story. The soundtracks and screenplays of Roots (1976), Sankofa (1993), Django Unchained (2012), Do the Right Thing (1989), Beloved (1998), and Black Panther (2018) offer us a broad spectrum of witnessing, storytelling, and interpretation. What musical elements enable a soundtrack to contribute to the emotive and socio-cultural value of our cinematic experience? Students will examine each of these films to determine whether or not as well as how and why the soundtrack as a whole or in part is instrumental and effective in compellingly portraying power, pain, joy, and retribution as experienced by generations of Black people - past, present, and future- in Africa, the United States, and throughout the worldwide African diaspora.
Ethnomusicology or Elective
Humanities.
1 credit.
Eligible for PEAC, FMST
Spring 2023. Stewart.
Spring 2024. Stewart.

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