Question 1: Pat Boone said, “R&B is a distinctive kind of music; it doesn’t appeal to everybody. So, if it hadn’t been for the vanilla versions of the R&B songs in the 1950s, you could certainly imagine that rock-’n’-roll, as we think of it, would never have happened” (Szatmary and Ripley 24). Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why/why not?

 

Question 2: Does Elvis deserve the title “The King of Rock and Roll”? Why/why not?

 

Question 3: What is the music of the Civil Rights Movement? Why/how would it be considered the music of the movement/the music that moved the movement?

 

Question 4: How is soul music a vehicle of social expression?

 

Question 5: Were such British bands as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones so great that they could have taken over North America at any time, or was it mostly a case of good timing that they became so popular so quickly?

 

Question 6: What significance did the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival have at the end of the 1960s?

 

Question 7: What is punk? Consider not only the music, but also its subculture.

 

Question 8: What is the value (or lack thereof) music videos?

 

Question 9: It has been argued that gangsta rap encourages violence, misogyny, and hedonism. To what extent is this true?

 

Question 10:  Does the sound of music or the song lyrics influence/cause listeners to do things (negative or positive) they would not otherwise do?