This week in class explore the astounding art and artistry of hip hop….

In the 1970s in the United States, depending very much on who you asked, the new genre of urban dance music known as “disco” was either a stunning musical embodiment of recently emergent liberation movements for women, African-Americans, Latino and homosexual men or a kind of music so flagrantly apolitical it required a violent response….

Salsa is a phenomenal fusion of many Latin American genres, a pan-Latin form of music that began to blend in Cuba 1950’s and truly consolidated in the 1970’s in New York….

Let’s enjoy “Pa Mai Ana Ka Makani,” a beloved Hawaiian song about the beauty of Hawaii as an island home.

In the 1950s in Bakersfield, California, a small city a little more than a hundred miles north northwest of Los Angeles, honky tonk musicians like Buck Owens and Lefty Frizzell joined one-time West Coaster Bob Wills in developing “The Bakersfield Sound….”

One of the most simultaneously life-affirming and heart-wrenching stories in the history of the genre we call The Blues is the story of Satan and Adam….

When jazz singers “scat” they use the voice to improvise, making sounds that express the emotion of their music much like jazz instrumentalists create solos on a trumpet or trombone….

“Bajo Sexto y Accordeon” is a rollicking conjunto/tejano song found on the recent Smithsonian recording “Taquachito Nights: Conjunto Music from South Texas….”

A “fais do-do” is an energetic “Cajun hoedown,” a community event full of music, good folks and great food, that takes place on a Saturday evening at a public dancehall and may very well go all night….

A Pow Wow is a Native American/First Nations social and cultural gathering, a time for Native American tribes — sometimes just one tribe, but more often many — to sing, dance, socialize and respect their communal traditions….

When we say hip hop is everywhere, we mean everywhere….

In the middle of the summer far up north in Scandinavia the days grow longer and longer and people get ready for a party….

Mari Boine, who you'll see in this video, is Norway's best known Sami vocalist. Her otherworldly "joik" vocals and her outspoken support of the Sami people have made her a formidable artistic and political presence in Scandinavia.

Schuplattler a style of traditional Bavarian folk dancing in which dancers stomp their feet, clap their hands and slap the soles of their shoes (Schuhe), their thighs and their knees with their hands flat (platt).

Adriano Celentano is a delightfully dynamic Italian singer-songwriter-comedian who has sold over 150 million albums worldwide, and has starred in dozens of films….

Is Carlos Nuñez really a “Spanish Irishman…?”

Let’s meet Django Reinhardt, the Belgian jazz guitarist — who some say was the best guitarist who ever lived — known as “Three-Fingered Lightening.”

Embodied by the band The Who as early as the mid-‘1960s, there could be no question that ROCK in England was real….

In our classes this week we move on to exploring (and enjoying!) the music of Western Europe….