Brown University has long offered a vast array of innovative and riveting courses that challenge and expand students’ modes of thought. This semester students can choose to gain a new perspective on the 90’s-00’s as an era of cowboy nostalgia.
Bush, Blue Jeans, and Brokeback Mountain: Cowboy Culture at the Turn of the Millennium
What are the 90’s? Who is a Cowboy? Is there such thing as a “cowboy state of mind”? Did Nader blow the 2000 Presidential Election for Gore or was it alternative music videos? Why does this era have the character of a denim-clad fever dream from which we will never fully awake? And who are “we”?
This course examines the social, political, and economic repercussions of a generation fed on chicken soup for the soul and its tacit longing for time when life was simpler and there was true bravery and gas didn’t cost four dollars a gallon and working with heifers was sexy.
Students will analyze this phenomenon through a variety of mediums, including an assessment of song lyrics, music videos, fashion, and art, maybe. This course will make students familiar with a highly specific area of knowledge that is for sure going to help them in the real world. 100% attendance is expected and I will do nothing to enforce it.
Readings & Song Lyrics
If Bob Dylan can win the Nobel in Literature and Bono can win Woman of the Year then song lyrics are poetry and there is no God. Students will examine the “greats” of cowboy nostalgia in text with a close attention to form, diction, and without a close attention to metaphor.
Annie Proulx, “Brokeback Mountain”, 1997
Big & Rich, “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy”, 2004
Paula Cole, “Where Have all the Cowboys Gone?”, 1996
Ginuwine, “Pony”, 1996
Fashion
Nowhere is a yearning for the wild west more evident than through the denim second skins the men and women of this era chose to don. Unlike other courses, students in BBJBM 09020 will examine the self through the self we choose to present to the world; our clothes.
Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears, American Music Awards, 2001
Sam Neil, Jurassic Park, 1993
Kardashian/Jenner Family, Family Photo, 1992
Music Videos
Music videos may be the middle child of the film family but they also epitomize the era. Students will witness the tragedies of prostitutes, gunslingers, and a real good time in a modern context and in five minutes or less.
PJ Harvey, “C’mon Billy”, 1995
Brantley Gilbert, “Bottoms Up”, 2013
Depeche Mode, “Personal Jesus”, 2006
Art
Maybe
In addition to the required readings / listenings / lookings, students will also be responsible for a final project at the end of the semester. For this project, students will examine an iconic cowboy that was an integral part of the culture at the turn of the millennium, such as or Woody from Toy Story or George W. Bush from the White House in a 2500-word essay, and hopefully prove that the loose assertion this class is based off of is not a sham.
Schedule and Location:
- MWF 1pm-1:50pm Location Your Mom’s Place
Exam Date TBD
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