It’s always bothered me that I don’t know a whole lot about music history. Sure, I’ve got the last few decades covered, but as far as the 60s and 70s go, I don’t know much beyond obvious acts like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. So in an effort to change that, I enrolled in a free six-week
History of Rock class on Coursera.org. Taught by Professor John Covach of the University of Rochester, this course started around 1970s blues-rock and continued all the way up to the Backstreet Boys. (Obviously I was already an expert on the boy band era, but I’ll take any excuse to rock out to bubble gum pop). It was a fascinating (albeit short) program, and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking to improve their music knowledge.
 |
| This picture of Dave Grohl and NSYNC pretty much sums up the 90s week of the course. |
One of the best parts of the class was being exposed to new music from a different era. Each week, I’d make playlists of all the songs we’d discussed, and spend my afternoons rocking out to everything from Deep Purple to The Temptations. So now that the class is over, I’ve combined a bunch of the songs into
one big playlist of the jams that stuck with me the most. So check out the list, and check out the course description if you’re interested. I myself will be participating in the
History of Rock, Part I course starting in two weeks. Knowledge is power!
