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Curriculum Guide: Mob Scene
Sample Discussion/Exam Prompts
- (W) Did you find portions of the chapters in this section to be suspenseful? How does the author create this suspense, for example, through strategic conceals and reveals within the order of events?
- (C) Do you think there is anything unique about the violence of Tom Petty’s audience? How do Volpert’s anecdotes point toward larger trends or traits of rock and roll music, live performance and/or American culture?
- (M) During a performance, what obligations, if any, do musicians have toward their audience? Should the Heartbreakers have intervened in any of the instances of violence presented in this section of the book?
- (P) Is violence necessarily a symptom of or trigger for the experience of a rock music concert as a moment of communal and spiritual transcendence? Do you think it’s possible to get to and through that mystical moment without any violence?
- (C) In what ways can we define rock and roll musicians and their fans as engaging in a kind of religious practice? Consider how Petty was inspired by his observation of people worshipping Elvis. What are the benefits and disadvantages of such worship?
- (P) What distinctions, if any, does Volpert make between mystic, spiritual and religious traditions? Do you think her categorization of Petty as mystic is the most fitting among these three categories?
- (W) Why does Volpert save the anecdote about Petty’s house fire for the chapter on mysticism, rather than include it in the chapter on the band’s violent incidents?
- (M) What do you make of Petty’s interest in the contrasts between Deadheads and his own fans? Are there elements of the Grateful Dead’s or the Heartbreakers’ musicianship that may contribute to differences between their fan communities?