The Professor of Rock

By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Beatles have sold more albums than any other artist in popular music, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
Knowing that might win you cash as a "Rock and Roll Jeopardy" contestant, but it'll gain you nothing as a student in John Turk's "Rock and Roll to Rock" class at Youngstown State University.
Turk has been teaching classical music -- specifically, tuba and euphonium -- at YSU for more than 30 years, and this course for about half that time.
His goal is to cultivate critical thinkers among the CD and concert crowd.
"I want to make them into musical snobs," he says of students. After a 15-week semester, he hopes they'll be able to separate the musical wheat -- The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Led Zeppelin -- from the chaff, or the 90 percent of rock that he calls "product." He wants them to evaluate music based on song structures and lyrical content, not sales charts and media hype.
It isn't easy
"Rock and Roll to Rock" wasn't created with music majors in mind. Participants are studying nursing, political science, biology, English and even a few music students. They take it to fulfill general education requirements.
General doesn't mean easy, however.
Turk told his students at the beginning of the semester that they would "rip apart the music" to understand it. Thus, there's a historical side to class discussions, as Turk -- an early baby boomer -- recalls social and economic developments that have contributed to the creation and endurance of rock 'n' roll as a musical form.
Fulfilling his promise that students will listen to songs more closely than they ever have, Turk also talks about rhythm, harmony and lyrics. He played a 1961 song, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by The Tokens, during a discussion of syncopation and other musical principles.
Two students were asked to play the song's percussion parts. One used his hands to drum on the seat of a wooden folding chair. The other banged together some sticks. Neither had an easy time of it.
It appears to be simple, but a lot of work and thought went into "this little novelty song" that was inspired by an African tune, Turk told all.
Textbook
Turk wrote one of the students' two textbooks. "Rock and Roll Essentials: A Comprehensive Guide Through the Best of Rock and Roll's First Thirty Years," was printed in 2002 by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co. Turk wrote it because he believed most scholarly rock books contained too much technical jargon for people who don't read music.
Students must listen to a number of songs on CDs, tapes and albums that are on reserve in Maag Library. The list reaches back to the 1930s, when Kansas City singer and rock pioneer Big Joe Turner was combining blues and boogie-woogie style in songs such as "Roll 'Em Pete." Selections also require students to compare Big Momma Thornton's blues version of "Hound Dog" with Elvis Presley's more popular rendition, and Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll" with that recorded by Bill Haley.
The list encompasses the entire rock era. Its more current artists include British metal band Cradle of Filth, heavy metal group Metallica, comical Canadian folk and pop band Barenaked Ladies and rapper Ice Cube.
Yes, some students' eyes bulge when Turk begins to analyze Ice Cube's songs. "What is a white man going to tell you about rap? What I hear and what I read -- same as anyone else," he said.
Requirements
Grades are based on three tests and one formal presentation -- either oral or written -- that analyzes the words and music of a song that was not brought up in class.
Turk had 82 students last semester. Seven of them failed. "How do you tell your parents you failed rock 'n' roll?" Turk wonders.
Still, enrollment has grown. For the first time, there are two "Rock and Roll to Rock" classes this semester: a morning session with about two dozen students, and an afternoon session that was capped at 80.
Chris Migliozzi of Cortland, a junior majoring in geography, said he learned of Turk's class from another geography student. Migliozzi was interested because the topic was "easier to relate to than other humanities classes," he said after a recent afternoon session.
Migliozzi, 29, grew up listening to rock songs from the 1950s to 1970s. That's what his parents liked. He appreciates getting to the roots of the music because "that helps me to relate to them and see why songs affected them so drastically," he said.
Reaching students
Turk knows the course is reaching students when they begin to understand and appreciate Bob Dylan. Turk focuses not on present-day Dylan, who can be incoherent and unpredictable onstage, but on Dylan's socially conscious work of the early 1960s, when he produced "powerful stuff," Turk said.
Asked what makes rock music worthwhile, Turk said it's the same characteristics that he expects from all music -- creativity, the intertwining of words and music, and good performance.
Even Turk has been surprised by songs that some enthusiastic students have encouraged him to hear. "Occasionally, they're right," Turk said.
He didn't like Australian band Silverchair at first; now, "They really have a way with words," he says. There's nothing trivial about his conclusion.
shaulis@vindy.com