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April 13, 1999
Princeton Visiting Fellow To Speak On Popular Music After Elvis
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Ken Emerson, the first Anschutz Distinguished Fellow in American Studies at Princeton University, will present a public lecture on "Life After Elvis: How the Brill Building Reconstructed Rock 'n' Roll," on Monday, April 26, at 8 p.m. The lecture will be held in Taplin Auditorium, located in Fine Hall on the Princeton campus.
A journalist and critic specializing in American music and culture, Emerson is the author of Doo-Dah!: Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture, which explores the life and times of America's first great songwriter. In his talk, Emerson will discuss the young songwriters who worked in or near New York City's Brill Building from about 1957 to 1966. Many of them were the children or grandchildren of Jewish immigrants, and they created their music in the Foster tradition, by weaving together a variety of music traditions. Drawing on their own backgrounds as well as classical music, they also incorporated black rhythm-and-blues tempos and the music of the developing Puerto Rican community in New York, thus transforming early rock 'n' roll into urbane pop.
Since January, Emerson has been conducting a seminar at the University as the first Anschutz Distinguished Fellow, a position created in 1997 by an endowment from the Anschutz Foundation. His course, titled, "Soundings in American Musical Culture, 1800-1870," explores 19th-century American music through the Civil War and its relationship to other art forms. Princeton's American Studies program, founded in 1942, is the oldest interdisciplinary program at the University and one of the first of its kind in the country. The program supports innovative teaching and scholarship across the broad range of American history, literature and the arts.
A graduate of Harvard College with a master's degree in English from Yale University, Emerson was the articles editor of The New York Times Magazine for eight years and the opinion editor of New York Newsday for five. He is the author of numerous articles on popular music, black history, legal issues and bird watching.
The Anschutz Foundation, which created the fellowship, focuses on helping people to become financially self-reliant and to help themselves live decent and fulfilling lives. The fellowship honors Nancy and Philip Anschutz, who established the foundation, as well as their daughters, Sarah Anschutz Hunt and Elizabeth Anschutz, who are both Princeton graduates.
The gift that created the fellowship is part of The Anniversary Campaign for Princeton, launched in 1995 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the University's charter. The Campaign, which now has raised more than $723 million, is seeking to raise a total of $900 million to strengthen the University's programs of teaching, scholarship and research.