Crossroads celebrates the diversity of American music through coverage of a wide spectrum of musical styles, including folk music, the blues, jazz, Cajun and Zydeco music, and a variety of currently popular musics including rock and roll, rap, salsa, and Tejano.
Providing the tools to better understand and appreciate the multicultural complexity of American music, each music is discussed in three stages: 1) the roots in the ethnic traditions of a specific immigrant group, 2) the development into a uniquely American music, and 3) the evolution into new forms that retain their vitality and relevance in contemporary society. Crossroads provides both detailed musical analysis, and a discussion of the historical and social content in which these music genres developed.
Also available from Prentice Hall, a Crossroads Compact Disc contains many of the recordings discussed in the text.
Elizabeth Barkley holds a BA and MA from the University of California at Riverside and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. She has worked at Foothill College since 1977, including nine years as Dean of Fine Arts and Communications. As a faculty member at Foothill she has taught piano, music history and literature, and music theory and composition. Her books include "Collaborative Learning Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty" (co-authored with K. Patricia Cross and Claire Howell Major, Jossey-Bass, 2004), the earlier edition of "Crossroads: Popular Music in America" (Prentice Hall, 2003), and a three-volume series, "Great Composers and Music Masterpieces of Western Civilization" (co-authored with Robert Hartwell, Pearson Custom Publishing, 2001 and 2002). She has been the recipient of several honors, including the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's California's Higher Education Professor of the Year, the Chair Academy's Outstanding Leadership Award for work with Learning Outcomes Assessment, Innovator of the Year in conjunction with the National League for Innovation, the Gerald Hayward Award for Educational Excellence, the Center for Diversity in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education's Faculty Award, the Foothill College President's Special Achievement Award, and the California Community College League's Out-of-the-Box Thinker Award. She has also served as a Leadership Fellow through the American Council on Education and has been named a Carnegie Scholar in the discipline of music by the Pew Charitable Trusts in conjunction with the Carnegie Foundation. Additionally, the California Virtual Campus selected her course Music of Multicultural America as the Best OnlineCourse.