Georgetown College. Georgetown University.

Sheptuck’s work in DelDonna’s courses has given him a new perspective of American history. (Photo: Roland Dimaya)

By Kara Burritt

Georgetown University junior Matthew Sheptuck has completed two music classes with Professor DelDonna as part of the curriculum for his American Studies major. However, in enrolling in Musical on Stage & Screen, and Traditional and Popular Music of America, Sheptuck was interested not only in the many connections drawn between cultural and musical history, but also in the new perspective on music the courses gave him.    

“The desire to develop a cultural and intellectual appreciation for both the musical and popular music apart from their entertainment values was particularly important to me,” the native of Edison, New Jersey, explains.

Sheptuck selected these particular courses to augment his appreciation of music genres that are otherwise familiar to him. The American musical, for example, has yielded numerous ballads with mass appeal, but in Musical on Stage & Screen Sheptuck learned of the social influences that accounted for aspects of several classic musicals. He cites the cultural shifts of the 1960s as directly influencing the musical productions of Hair and Fiddler on the Roof, two shows that have endured perhaps because of their commentary on contemporary society.  

Through Popular Music of America, in addition to learning the cultural context of familiar pop music, Sheptuck came to understand that no genre is free of influence from others. Even in America’s short history of pop music, seemingly distinct genres actually evolved from one another and thus cannot be isolated. For instance, Sheptuck notes that much early rock-and-roll music was inspired by rhythm-and-blues and boogie-woogie styles.

Now when Sheptuck listens to the Doors, one of his favorite rock bands, he can decipher inflections of jazz and blues. “I now look at music that I have been listening to for over ten years in a very different manner.”   

Sheptuck’s work in DelDonna’s courses has given him a new perspective of American history. Understanding the cultural context for popular music affects his view of the society in which it was produced, and this in turn has him listening to American music with a new ear.   

“I have told Professor DelDonna that his classes have fostered within me a greater appreciation for merely listening to music,” he says.

And while Sheptuck would like to take another music course as he finishes at Georgetown with plans for law school, regardless, his cultivated appreciation for the impact of culture on music and vice versa will continue to inform both his American Studies classes and his everyday enjoyment of music.
 

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