Reading & Listening:
Hamilton Disc 1, Tracks 1-12 ("Alexander Hamilton" - "The Story of Tonight")
Painting: John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere (1768)
Note: During our Hamilton unit you will want to both listen to the music and follow along, reading the text. If you did not download the album on mp3 or buy the CD, you can still listen to it on Youtube. Regardless, you are responsible for reading the text and listening to the music.
Paper 1 Draft Due in Class.
Study Questions:
1. How does Alexander Hamilton link his own self-invention with the emancipation of the colonies from England? How does this put him at odds with his rival and friend Aaron Burr?
2. In the forty years that hip-hop has existed as a musical genre, it has traditionally sampled on the work of previous musicians and repurposed these samples to make something new and original. As one of the first hip-hop musicals, Hamilton engages in the same practices drawing on antecedents from both hip-hop and the tradition of the Broadway musical. There are too many musical references to document here. Instead, I want you to focus on the opening track "Alexander Hamilton" and one of the songs that inspired it, Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" as well as "Helpless" and Beyoncé's "Countdown." What does Lin-Manuel Miranda take from these songs in constructing his own musical? How do these reference help Miranda present Hamilton and the other characters in a new light?
BONUS: MUSIC VIDEOS!
