Spring Break
Too cool for school...almost
The music department gets a kick in the pants as DJ Wayne Marshall dissects digital pop and hip-hop for students.
by Daniel D. Snyder
Associate Editor
Music | 8/28/07
Posted online at 1:24 AM EST on 8/28/07
Brandeis students rejoice! The yearly slog through the course catalogue has just become slightly less painful. This fall, Boston-area DJ Wayne Marshall will be teaching a course titled, "Digital Pop: From hip-hop to mash-up." Those music students who hunger for more than just theory courses or classical composition should be chomping at the bit for a chance to examine the influence of the digital age on modern music and trace its history.
Marshall, a 29-year old Cambridge native,is an ethnomusicologist, currently working on his dissertation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, exploring the historical intersections of modern hip-hop and reggae music. A man in high demand in the Boston area, he was recently featured in the Boston Globe, who named him one of the top DJs in the city. Eager and excited to teach at Brandeis, Marshall (WM) answered a few questions for JustArts (JA):
JA: Not many teachers here moonlight as DJs, nor do many DJs teach college level courses. How did you come to teach at Brandeis?
WM: I've been DJing and making beats for about as long as I've been engaged in graduate level studies, and I've found that these somewhat unusual activities for an academic have deeply informed my studies of hip-hop, reggae and popular music more generally -at least as deeply as my studies have, in turn, inevitably shaped my approach to DJing and beat-making. DJing also gives me a way toshare some of my ideas in a rather different-and perhaps more accessible or engaging-manner than traditional forms of publication. In terms of coming to Brandeis, there was a position here seeking someone "whose teaching and research interests are contemporary cultural and performance studies, with particular emphasis in African, African-American, Caribbean and/or global black diasporic music," and that seemed to describe me eerily well. I'm delighted that the Music and AAAS departments agreed.
JA: What is your musical background? What influenced you to become interested in this kind of music?
Marshall, a 29-year old Cambridge native,is an ethnomusicologist, currently working on his dissertation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, exploring the historical intersections of modern hip-hop and reggae music. A man in high demand in the Boston area, he was recently featured in the Boston Globe, who named him one of the top DJs in the city. Eager and excited to teach at Brandeis, Marshall (WM) answered a few questions for JustArts (JA):
JA: Not many teachers here moonlight as DJs, nor do many DJs teach college level courses. How did you come to teach at Brandeis?
WM: I've been DJing and making beats for about as long as I've been engaged in graduate level studies, and I've found that these somewhat unusual activities for an academic have deeply informed my studies of hip-hop, reggae and popular music more generally -at least as deeply as my studies have, in turn, inevitably shaped my approach to DJing and beat-making. DJing also gives me a way toshare some of my ideas in a rather different-and perhaps more accessible or engaging-manner than traditional forms of publication. In terms of coming to Brandeis, there was a position here seeking someone "whose teaching and research interests are contemporary cultural and performance studies, with particular emphasis in African, African-American, Caribbean and/or global black diasporic music," and that seemed to describe me eerily well. I'm delighted that the Music and AAAS departments agreed.
JA: What is your musical background? What influenced you to become interested in this kind of music?
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