Popular Music, 1850 – 1954 is the first in a groundbreaking series of online textbooks — The Popular Arts in America — written by William J Kelly, head of the Integrative Arts Department at Penn State. From the book’s FAQ:
THE POPULAR ARTS IN AMERICA: POPULAR MUSIC … covers the development of popular music from its origins in the early nineteenth century through the beginnings of rock and roll in the 1950s.
Professor Kelly asked me to develop an elegant, and easy-to-navigate new textbook interface for the book’s publication with Kendall Hunt. We wanted to establish the scholarly tone of the text, which covers serious cultural themes, while still allowing the grass-roots origins of American music to show through. In addition, the book had to be easy-to-update, and the code simple and portable enough to be delivered through a variety of content management platforms.
We tried several options for integrating music directly into the textbook before we arrived at a simple an effective solution by integrating with the Rhapsody® online music service. Every student who buys the book receives a semester-long subscription to Rhapsody. With Rhapsody’s extensive catalog, students can now listen to all the music discussed in the textbook at the click of a link.
Popular Music, 1850 – 1954 is now taught at Penn State and will soon be available at other universities.