Term: Never ending or self-terminating

Professors:

J. B. Pariah, English

Rusty Omens, Psychology

Office Hours: TBA if and when we ever get offices

Please Allow Us to Introduce Our Premise . . .

If east is east, west is west, and never the twain shall meet, much the same could be said of the ivory tower and the street when it comes to attitudes about song and verse. Many in the ivory tower dismiss rock as merely low-brow entertainment while many rock and rollers dismiss intellectual inquiry into rock as high brow pretense.

We believe that genuine works of art are egalitarian and, with all due respect to Bruce Springsteen, who sings “We learned more from a three-minute record than we ever learned in school,” we believe you can learn more from a three-minute record if you have been schooled.

If what Walt Whitman once said, “To have great poets there must be great audiences too“ applies to rock as well, we hope this site will prompt a deeper appreciation of this unique art form and perhaps even inspire and prod present and future rockers to a high standard. And not that kind of high, either.

Our core mission then?

To provide a forum and clearinghouse for the serious-minded transmission and exchange of ideas about rock music and its progenitors, offspring, and sister arts. Unlike other rock sites, Rockademia U will not concern itself with pop criteria of cult personality, record sales, concert figures, and hipness but instead will focus on the artists’ visions and influences, and on the songs themselves—what they mean, how they mean, and how they relate to the artist, society past and present, sister arts, and the human condition–because in their higher forms, they’re most definitely not, in the words of the Rolling Stones, “only rock and roll.”

Prerequisites?

• “Rock and Roll: The Rockin’ Fifties” “Teen Idols of American Bandstand”*

• “Little Steven’s Underground Garage” (or any Garage Rock course)

• A predisposition to and aptitude for thought

• A serious interest in rock * The bottom two requisites will cancel out the others.

Our methods other than madness?

• Whatever articles, essays, podcasts, blogs, quizzes, and tests (ungraded!) we can muster in our free time because although we may be men of limited taste, we’re not men of unlimited time and means.

• Whatever participation we can squeeze from you including but not limited to – commentary, responses – original think-pieces, essays – links to relevant articles, – copies of published articles if copyright clearance has been obtained, – original podcasts – technical assistance – donations & _______? What did you have in mind?

Requirements?

- Attendance, attention, appreciation, even dress– all optional!

- Cells, I-Pods, snacks, electronic devices of all kinds,pets, kids, perfectly okay

- Homework? Let the dog and/or computer eat as much as they want!

Grading?

Make your own quizzes, tests, answer keys, curves, cheat sheets, special awards, even grading criteria, credit minimums, and graduation standards. Caps and gowns optional, graduation dates flexible.

Tuition & Fees?

None whatsoever but PayPal donations always nice. Check with your financial aid advisor for state and federal grant/loan options.

Your Participation?

Welcomed, preferred, encouraged, highly recommended, but not required.

GUIDELINES for adding your quarter’s worth? (two cents in pre-inflation days)

• Contact us first with a paragraph or two explaining your plans.

• Rock must be central to the work, not tangential!

• No fluff or puff pieces please. To everything there is a time and place but not here and now.

• While fresh, intellectually stimulating ideas trump academese as well as perfect grammar and mechanics, something approaching professional quality is expected. If there’s too much to edit, sorry, but forget it.